In my Monthly Recommendation for the month of May, I decided to find a movie that I've never seen in my 37 years and really of all movies that never crossed my mind in wanting to watch was Peter O'Toole's breakout performance Lawrence of Arabia. The movie itself was always on my radar for quite some time. It’s been that one movie I need to see, but just haven't got around to it. A great example of this movie being on my radar was I spot a movie trailer to the movie on YouTube. And it really wasn't a classic trailer that you would usually see, it was one of those trailers where in expert can combine a music of another movie which was the 1917 so, basically combined the trailer of Lawrence of Arabia to the music trailer of 1917 and I watched the trailer so many times to the point where I need to see this epic film, and as luck would with my quest for films to step out of my comfort zone, I decided to sit down and watched that one four hour long movie that's a billion times better than Gone with the Wind.
Due to his knowledge of the native Bedouin tribes, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal (Sir Alec Guinness) and serve as liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. With the aid of native Sheriff Ali (Omar Sharif), Lawrence rebels against the orders of his superior officer and strikes out on a daring camel journey across the harsh desert to attack a well-guarded Turkish port.
After seeing 1917, back in the theaters I always thought that was hands down one of the best World War I movies I've ever seen, and that's because I never sat down and watched Lawrence of Arabia all the way through. And the interesting factor is with both films is after watching Lawrence of Arabia, is that they are equal par to each other moreover each film presents the most violent aspects of World War I, from the trenches of France to even the deserts of Arabia and wow they each present all the violent aspects of the Great War where it wasn't a pleasant thing to see even on opposite sides of the battle grounds. The story of T.E. Lawrence was mentioned as a movie idea through the 1940's unfortunately it wasn't coming into motion the until the early 1960's, almost like James Cameron coming up with the idea for Avatar in the early nineties where even he was doubting the technology until he saw the sequel to the Lord of the Rings, he felt it was time. Really the greatest two men who made this film one of the greatest of all time is the director Sir David Leon and Peter O'Toole who delivered an outstanding performance of a lifetime. David Leon surprisingly has a great rep of movies starting with The Bridge on the River Kwai upon which really I do need to see that movie because Sir Alec Guinness was in that movie with William Holden, the other movie was of course Lawrence of Arabia and surprisingly Doctor Zhivago which to me I was surprised mainly because my Dad throughout my childhood would always say Doctor Chicago and as a kid I never understood until I knew it was a movie then until I looked up Leon's filmography and saw Doctor Zhivago. David Leon before making Lawrence of Arabia watched John Ford's classic The Searchers to gain some ideas of how to the shoot the movie and really that was a wise decision any director would make especially when this entire film was going to be shot in the outside of the dessert, and really shows how great of a filmmaker David Leon is especially when it comes to creating a war movie in an epic scale especially filming so many battle sequences as well as developing great chemistry with actor Peter O'Toole. His performance as T.E. Lawrence was proof alone that this was O'Toole's iconic performance of a lifetime and I'm not going to say so much bad things about the man after watching this film despite the last film I saw of him was Club Paradise which I again I'm just going to leave it at that. The beauty of O'Toole's performance was that through the course of the movie he shows his true emotions through the screen as Lawrence moreover really takes you on a journey of seeing Lawrence at the beginning of the movie being this wide eyed scholar of a lieutenant to a colonel who has accomplished everything furthermore became a symbol for the Americans to help with war, but felt that he didn't accomplished all he could do. The fascinating thing was that Peter O'Toole at the time was an unknown and the way he was able to portray Lawrence was so incredible that you feel for him because he's a man of honor but through the course of the movie just see's things and does things that I would imagine he regretted for the rest of his life, and he really shows so much emotion through a four hour film that it was so powering that I kind of wished he'd won in Oscar for his performance unfortunately he got beat out by Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird which that was fine because if he got beat out by somebody else I would of started a riot. And really Peter O’Toole had a lot of back up in making this film epic, with great actors from Sir Alec Guinness whose great films included the Star Wars Trilogy, River Kwai I mean you don’t need a whole lot of films to describe Sir Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif who plays O’Toole’s aid and loyal and Claude Rains infamous with such great films like The Adventures of Robin Hood, collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock in Notorious and his most infamous supporting role in Casablanca. Now, I will argue for the rest of my life and say that Lawrence of Arabia was a billion times better than Gone with the Wind because one, everything happens in Arabia furthermore it puts you on the edge of your seat and you have a great actor at the time making you feel for him in uniting Arabian tribes and struggling along the way while Gone with the Wind is all about a spoiled brat who does nothing but bicker and complain about not wanting the man she wanted and I can say that because I sat down watched Gone with the Wind just hating every minute of Miss Scarlet and two hours and forty-one minutes I couldn't take it anymore while Lawrence of Arabia you have something going on throughout the movie and keep wanting to watch more of O'Toole's performance till the very end of the movie, in fact if I was Lawrence trying to settle a piece between the Arab tribes by executing someone and it was Miss. Scarlet I wouldn’t hesitated and shot her so many times till I asked for more bullets and letting the head Tribesman pull me back and counsel me that she’s already dead upon replying that she deserved much worse sorry not sorry. Lawrence of Arabia to me, watching it for the first time was without a doubt one of the greatest films of all time furthermore is even par with 1917 as one of the best movies about World War I and so, I would most certainly recommend watching this film from start to finish but, I'm going to give you so advice to those who haven't seen a four hour long movie. And that's drinking a lot of caffeine and taking a lot of five-minute breaks so you can get your blood flowing if you want to stop drinking caffeine and use those two tips to the best to your advantage and you will succeed just like Lawrence of Arabia.
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