Lawrence of Arabia (film)
This article is about the motion picture. For the historical figure known as "Lawrence of Arabia", see T.E. Lawrence.The film was nominated for ten
Academy Awards in
1963, and won seven, including
Best Picture. In
1998, the
American Film Institute ranked it #5 on its "
100 Greatest Movies" list. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry. In
1999 it came 3rd in a
BFI poll of British films, while in
2004 the
magazine Total Film named it the 8th greatest British film of all time. In the recent
Sight and Sound poll, it came in the top ten Best Films of all time as voted by directors.
Academy Awards
The original version of
Lawrence ran for 228 minutes (including intermission). The current "restored version", undertaken by
Robert A. Harris and
James C. Katz, was re-released in 1989 with a 227 minute length (including intermission). The theatrical release ran for about 200 minutes; an even shorter cut of 185 minutes briefly surfaced in the '70s.
Most of the cut scenes were surprisingly not of the travels of Lawrence and the Arabs through the desert, but mostly dialogue sequences, particularly involving General Allenby and his staff. Two whole scenes - Brighton's briefing of Allenby in Jerusalem prior to the Deraa scene and the British staff meeting in the field tent - had been completely excised, and the former still has not been entirely restored. Much of the missing dialogue involves Lawrence's writing of poetry and verse, alluded to by Allenby in particular, saying "the last poetry general we had was
Wellington." Lawrence's first meeting with Allenby in Cairo was significantly shorter, and the scene in Jerusalem where Allenby convinces Lawrence not to resign existed in only fragmented form. These scenes have been restored to the current edition; most of the still-missing footage is of minimal import. The actors still living at the time of the re-release dubbed their own dialogue, though
Jack Hawkins's dialogue had to be dubbed by
Charles Gray (who had already done Hawkins' voice for several films after the latter developed throat cancer in the late '60s).
A full list of cuts can be found at the
Internet Movie Database.
[http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/alternateversions] Reasons for the cuts of various scenes can be found in Lean's notes to
Sam Spiegel,
Robert Bolt, and
Anne V. Coates.
[http://www.davidlean.com/articles/director_notes1.html]* In the 40's,
Alexander Korda was interested in filming
Seven Pillars with
Laurence Olivier as Lawrence, but had to pull out due to financial difficulties.
*
Albert Finney - at the time a virtual unknown - was Lean's first choice to play Lawrence, but Finney wasn't sure the film would be a success and turned it down.
Marlon Brando was also offered the part.
* The role of Jackson Bentley was meant for
Edmund O'Brien, who became ill and had to be replaced at the last possible moment by
Arthur Kennedy.
* Lean reportedly watched
John Ford's film
The Searchers (1956) to help him develop ideas as to how to shoot the film.
*
Anthony Quinn got very into his role as Auda and spent hours applying make-up to himself, using a photograph of the real Auda, so he could look as close to the real thing as possible.
Alec Guinness was also made up to look as close to the real Feisal as he could; Guinness recorded in his diaries that while shooting in Jordan, he met several people who had known the real Feisal, and they actually mistook Guinness for the late Prince.
* When it was first announced that a film was going to be made on Lawrence's life,
Lowell Thomas offered producer Spiegel and screenwriters Bolt and Wilson a large amount of research material he had produced on Lawrence during his time with him during the Arab Revolt, as well as afterward. Spiegel rejected the offer.
* When Lawrence wrote the promissory note for 5,000 golden guineas to Auda ibu Tayi in Aqaba, his writing hand moved from right to left, as it should if he were writing Arabic script.
* The style of filming was an inspiration for
Richard Attenborough's 1982 film
Gandhi. Both films open with the lead character's death and then move into a flashback into their lives. Before filming Lawrence of Arabia, Lean and Spiegel had considered making a movie about Gandhi's life.
*
Noel Coward, speaking to Peter O'Toole about his performance, commented, "If you'd been any prettier, it would have been 'Florence of Arabia'."
*
Kenneth Alford's piece
The Voice of the Guns (1917) is prominently featured on the soundtrack. One of Alford's other pieces, the
Colonel Bogey March, was the theme song for Lean's previous film,
Bridge on the River Kwai. Coincidentally, both "Lawrence" and "Bridge" were mentioned in
Billy Joel's history themed song "
We Didn't Start the Fire".
* The chorus in the main music theme is identical to the one used in the film Troy, released in 2004.
* Alec Guinness had previously played T.E. Lawrence in the play
Ross, and was briefly considered for the part of Lawrence, but David Lean and Sam Spiegel thought him too old. Feisal was originally to be portrayed by
Laurence Olivier, and Guinness got the part when Olivier dropped out.
* The Aqaba set was constructed in a dried river bed in southern Spain; it was made up of over 300 buildings and was meticulously based off of Aqaba's real appearance in 1917.
* The use of the locations in
Almeria, Spain for the train sequences and others made that region of the country popular for international film makers. Most famously, Almeria would become famous as the frequent setting of virtually all of the
Spaghetti Westerns of the '60s and '70s, specifically the films of
Sergio Leone. (The oasis set from
Lawrence briefly appears in Leone's
For A Few Dollars More (1965).)
*
Peter O'Toole was nearly killed during the filming of Aqaba scene; he fell from his camel, but fortunately for him his camel stood still over him, preventing the horses of the extras in the scene from trampling him. A very similar thing happened to the real Lawrence at the
Battle of Abu El Lissal in 1917.
In 1990, a made-for-television film,
A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, was produced as a sequel to the film. It featured
Ralph Fiennes as Lawrence and
Alexander Siddig as Prince Feisal. The movie dealt primarily with the attempts of Lawrence and Feisal to secure independence for Arabia during the 1919
Versailles Conference following the end of World War I. The movie was generally well-received and deals more with the political ramifications of Lawrence's efforts in the Middle East.
*
