By Rodney Mansour

Lawrence of Arabia is a monumental film. It is one of the most important works of cinema ever created. As far as epics go, this one really sets the bar high. Consider this reality: when you shoot something on film you play it back at 24 frames a second so you can properly perceive the moving image. This is called the persistence of vision. A frame is like a photograph. You play those 24 photographs in succession and suddenly there is movement in your image. You have a motion picture or a movie, if you like. For example, capturing you picking up your phone on film might take 3 seconds. Your movements in each of those seconds could be broken down into 3 sets of 24 frames. With this we can study the most basic or most intimate moments in life even more so than a photograph. The tool of cinema provides an extraordinary artistic ability to document the strange reality of life with layered detail. Remember, it began in the late 19^th century.

Now enter Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. This film goes for over 3 hours & 30 minutes and decides to turn its focus on the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence and the Middle Eastern campaign of WWI. Now imagine how many frames we are dealing with in a movie like this. It is indeed a motion picture of considerable duration that never falters in telling a stunning tale, speaking of so many realities that any individual should be able to appreciate.

As this masterpiece begins you quickly become aware that you’re in the hands of experts dedicated to entertaining you in the best, most stirring and life affirming way. For a film set in the Arabian desert, the beginning credits are visually distinct. There is a motorcycle parked on hard cement, in the top left of the frame, with nothing else until a lone figure approaches it and prepares it for travel. The negative space in this shot may initially convey emptiness but it is soon filled with text displaying the film title etc. This shot is taken from a high angle looking down and lit in such a way that the hardness and texture of the cement is emphasized. It is as if the film makers are saying, “We know you came for an adventure of a man in the desert but first consider this.” Great contrast is created, setting the film to take off from this moment.

The film begins with Lawrence’s death and ushers in several important characters to give a reference to who this man was. When he is described as having started out in an insignificant role we cut to Lawrence, alive and well, carefully detailing a map. This is one of the many instances of astonishing acting, writing, editing and directing that this film serves up and continues to do so over the next three hours. We get great insight into the military man who has a creative and sensitive side to him. The British nation is engaged in a worldwide generation changing war and this odd man is somehow involved. That is why this film is so brilliant. An epic in every sense of the word, and yet, it begins so lowly and unassumingly. It almost deceptively tells you to look the other way, at seemingly smaller moments, before launching you into the sphere of its grand scope. Nothing is left to chance. Every moment is there for a thematic reason. That this film has been constructed with such depth, insight, control and precise measure, is undeniable; so it rises, a phoenix of glorious cinematic storytelling, from the ashes of mediocrity.

A film that tries to cover such ambitious ground that this 1962 Best Picture Academy Award winner so effortlessly does, can’t afford to weigh itself down. When Lawrence is commissioned to go to Arabia he is excited like a schoolboy. Having seen him extinguish a match with his fingers previously, he comes across as rather showy and strange among his fellow soldiers. His determined and unhindered concentration is on display but is interpreted as gimmicky. Now he has the mission and we know he is about to begin his adventure. He is also holding another match and here we reveal another aspect to this interesting character. With that same charged determination he holds the match and in such an organic manner extinguishes it with a breath. The same control is displayed here to almost announce that he ready for this adventure. No more showiness. The man is focusing his whole being on his odyssey into the Arabian desert.

The shot of the match being blown out then masterfully transitions to the sun rising in the desert. The artificial light of the match is contrasted with the sun as the great light of nature, and the spotlight that will expose this Lawrence character for all his frailty as a human, is a new character being thrown in the mix. This is an epic adventure unlike any the world has ever seen. Forget how he got to the desert with all the logistics and difficulties. He is there and it’s beautiful and as an audience it is our turn to fall under its strange spell. In keeping with the hypnotic nature of the desert is the introduction of Sharif Ali, played by Omar Sharif. Under this same hot sun he emerges from the blistering horizon to begin his unique relationship as a guide to Lawrence. The image first appears a black spot only to transform into a full human figure, riding a camel. The mysteriousness of it all runs throughout the film ensuring that the audience has truly been transported to the desert. Three hours later, and our last shot of Sharif sees him in another context completely, retreating into the artificial darkness of British parliamentary architecture. Again, contrast is strikingly used to round off the character arc of this fascinating character in the narrative.

As the journey and seemingly impossible task of taking Aqaba begins, Lawrence, against Sharif’s pleas, travels back to the middle of nowhere to rescue one of their own who is lost. When Lawrence returns days later with the man, he tells Sharif that nothing is written. It serves as a challenge, in no certain terms, to Sharif’s Islamic-inspired culturally Arab world view. Why this is amazing is because the man rescued is later executed by Lawrence for the sake of the campaign and tribe related peace. Had they left him behind would the will of God have been fulfilled? Did God want to end that man’s journey to prevent future problems? Was Lawrence motivated by an unholy stubbornness to rescue this man? These are the type of thoughts that fill the mind when viewing this movie. In the apparently barren aura of the desert, we find humanity is at its most basic and elemental, stripped of so many societal hindrances and at the mercy of God. It is the realm of discovery.

All the effort of their trek across this barren landscape is depicted with mesmerizing cinematography that just smashes it out of the park. The images composed are reflective of the emotional journey, despite the air of hopelessness that manifests itself in the desert where one must push on, even though ultimately all are at the mercy of things bigger than them.

There is so much to cover with a film like this, but, I do hope a raised awareness of how significant cinema is and our engagement with it, is visible from this. It is very hard to make a good movie but it is almost impossible to make a masterwork like this film at any time. Watch it again and lament how high the standard was set over 50 years ago with this magnificent motion picture.