Re-Visiting a Film Classic: Lawrence of Arabia
The film “Lawrence of Arabia” is related to the culture of Arab that reflects the story of heroic individual T.E. Lawrence along with the struggles against natural as well as political odds for winning the freedom of Arabs in the World War I. The director of the film was David Lean who formed a myth about Lawrence that create a dominant impression on the mind of the people. It is considered that Lawrence was extraordinary, as well as a courageous man who struggled to
achieve freedom for Arab people.
The childhood of Lawrence was very confused because he ran away from home at the age of 17 and enlisted in the army (Bradshaw). He lived separately from his family and relatives in a small cottage at the bottom of the garden of the family. After completing his studies, Lawrence
becomes a scholar as well as an archaeologist and visits to the Middle East, where the Arab Bureau employed him as a spy.
In the film, Lawrence was trusted by all Arab tribes due to their belief that victory over the Ottoman and Turks would bring a change in greater Arabia. It represents that Lawrence acts as a key agent to reassure the Arabs, but after the war, his life changed. It is analyzed that the film was
too powerful as well as continuing an invention, and the man himself was praised by good and great.
The soldier seems to be an expert at influencing the publicity and identified a form of happiness outside the army experience (Boyd). The myth of the film ‘unlike the man’ remains in the mind of Arab people even after the death of the soldier T.E. Lawrence. The film highlights that the main purpose of Lawrence was to unite Arab tribes in order to
fight the Ottoman Empire and Turks (Barber 28-45). It is observed that the character falls in love with the culture of Arab and other abstinent heroism. The film critically represents the biography along with an adventurous life of Lawrence in the Arabian Desert and enlisted desert tribes as well as identify the wildness of Arabs against the British society. In the firm, the actor or the soldier effectively united the different desert tribes and made them understand that it is their own interest to join the war against Turks. Moreover, the film is an epic film that reflects the history of Arab, the Arab Revolt, and the First World War and also portrayed a complete fictional description of the Arab army of Lawrence abandoning a man as he shifted to the north. Besides this, the involvement of Lawrence in the revolt of Arab before the attack on Aqaba is exercised. In addition, the film indicates that the soldier could speak as well as read Arabic and had enormous knowledge about the culture and region of Arab (Shosky 114-117).
It is also noticed that the film was culturally, aesthetically and historically significant for preservation as it has inspired several other adventurous stories in the contemporary culture of Arab. It provides a lasting experience to the viewers and knowledge about the culture of Arab with the shift in different perspectives of tribes. Besides this, the film raised the story of a soldier who tried to set all the matters of the revolt in peace and formed a vision to transform the historical
culture of Arabs.
Works Cited
Barber, David. “Lawrence of Arabia (1962): A Dying Empire’s Cri de Coeur.” Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal
47.1 (2017): 28-45.
Boyd, William. “Lawrence Of Arabia: A Man In Flight From Himself.” the Guardian. 2016. Web. 7 Dec. 2019.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/29/lawrence-after-arabia-hampstead-
theatre-london
Bradshaw, Peter. “Lawrence Of Arabia Review – David Lean’s Sandy Epic Still Radiates Greatness.” the Guardian . N. p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/sep/20/lawrence-of-arabia-review-david-lean-peter-o-toole
Shosky, John. “Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East.” (2016): 114-117.