Lawrence of Arabia (film) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lawrence of Arabia |
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Theatrical release poster by Howard Terpning
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| Directed by | David Lean |
| Produced by | Sam Spiegel |
| Screenplay by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Maurice Jarre |
| Cinematography | Freddie A. Young |
| Editing by | Anne V. Coates |
| Studio | Horizon Pictures |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 10 December 1962 |
| Running time | 210 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Money made | $70 million |
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British epic historical drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence and his 1926 book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel, through his British company Horizon Pictures and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film stars Peter O'Toole as Lawrence with Alec Guinness playing Prince Faisal. The film also stars Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy. The screenplay was written by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson.
The film depicts Lawrence's experiences in the Ottoman provinces of Hejaz and Greater Syria during the First World War, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Its themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with the violence inherent in war, his identity and his divided allegiance between his native Britain with its army, and his new-found comrades within the Arabian desert tribes.
The film was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963, winning seven including Best Picture and Best Director. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film. The dramatic score by Maurice Jarre and the Super Panavision 70 cinematography by Freddie Young also won praise from critics.
Lawrence of Arabia is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998, the American Film Institute placed it fifth on their 100 Years...100 Movies list of the greatest American films and it ranked seventh on their 2007 updated list. In 1999, the British Film Institute named the film the third-greatest British film. In 2004, it was voted the best British film in The Sunday Telegraph poll of Britain's leading filmmakers.
Contents
Cast
- Peter O'Toole as T. E. Lawrence.
- Alec Guinness as Prince Faisal.
- Jack Hawkins as General Edmund Allenby.
- Omar Sharif as Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish.
- José Ferrer as the Turkish Bey.
- Anthony Quayle as Colonel Harry Brighton.
- Claude Rains as Mr. Dryden.
- Arthur Kennedy as Jackson Bentley.
- Donald Wolfit as General Archibald Murray. He releases Lawrence to Mr. Dryden. Calls the British occupying Arabia "a sideshow of a sideshow."
- I. S. Johar as Gasim. Johar was a well-known Indian actor who occasionally appeared in international productions.
- Gamil Ratib as Majid. Ratib was a veteran Egyptian actor. His English was not considered good enough, so he was dubbed by Robert Rietti (uncredited) in the final edit.
- Michel Ray as Farraj. At the time, Ray was a rising Anglo-Brazilian actor who had appeared in several films, including Irving Rapper's The Brave One (1956) and Anthony Mann's The Tin Star (1957).
- John Dimech as Daud
- Zia Mohyeddin as Tafas. Mohyeddin, one of Pakistan's best-known actors, played a character based on his actual guide Sheikh Obeid el-Rashid of the Hazimi branch of the Beni Salem, whom Lawrence referred to as Tafas several times in Seven Pillars.
- Howard Marion-Crawford as the medical officer. He was cast at the last minute during the filming of the Damascus scenes in Seville. The character was based on an officer mentioned in an incident in Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Lawrence's meeting the officer again while in British uniform was an invention of the script.
- Jack Gwillim as the club secretary. Gwillim was recommended to Lean for the film by close friend Quayle.
- Hugh Miller as the RAMC colonel. He worked on several of Lean's films as a dialogue coach and was one of several members of the film crew to be given bit parts (see below).
- Peter Burton as a Damascus sheik (uncredited)
- Kenneth Fortescue as Allenby's aide (uncredited)
- Harry Fowler as Corporal William Potter (uncredited)
- Jack Hedley as a reporter (uncredited)
- Ian MacNaughton as Corporal Michael George Hartley, Lawrence's companion in O'Toole's first scene (uncredited)
- Henry Oscar as Silliam, Faisal's servant (uncredited)
- Norman Rossington as Corporal Jenkins (uncredited)
- John Ruddock as Elder Harith (uncredited)
- Fernando Sancho as the Turkish sergeant (uncredited)
- Stuart Saunders as the regimental sergeant major (uncredited)
- Bryan Pringle as the driver of the car which takes Lawrence away at the end of the film (uncredited)
The crew consisted of over 200 people. Including cast and extras, over 1,000 people worked on the film. Members of the crew portrayed minor characters. First assistant director Roy Stevens played the truck driver who transports Lawrence and Farraj to the Cairo HQ at the end of Act I; the Sergeant who stops Lawrence and Farraj ("Where do you think you're going to, Mustapha?") is construction assistant Fred Bennett and screenwriter Robert Bolt has a wordless cameo as one of the officers watching Allenby and Lawrence confer in the courtyard (he is smoking a pipe). Steve Birtles, the film's gaffer, plays the motorcyclist at the Suez Canal; Lean is rumoured to be the voice shouting "Who are you?" Continuity supervisor Barbara Cole appears as one of the nurses in the Damascus hospital scene.
Historical accuracy
Most of the film's characters are based on people to varying degrees. Some scenes were heavily fictionalised, such as the Battle of Aqaba, and those dealing with the Arab Council were inaccurate since the council remained more or less in power in Syria until France deposed Faisal in 1920. Little background is provided on the history of the region, the First World War and the Arab Revolt, probably because of Bolt's increased focus on Lawrence (Wilson's draft script had a broader, more politicised version of events). The second half of the film presents a fictional desertion of Lawrence's Arab army, almost to a man, as he moved farther north. The film's timeline is frequently questionable on the Arab Revolt and First World War, as well as the geography of the Hejaz region. Bentley's meeting with Faisal in which he mentions that the United States has not yet entered the war is in late 1917 after the fall of Aqaba. Lawrence's involvement in the Arab Revolt prior to the attack on Aqaba is absent, as are his involvement in the seizures of Yenbo and Wejh. The rescue and the execution of Gasim are based on two incidents that were conflated for dramatic reasons.
The film shows Lawrence representing the Allied cause in the Hejaz almost alone, with Colonel Brighton (Anthony Quayle) the only British officer there to assist him. In fact, there were numerous British officers such as colonels Cyril Wilson, Stewart Newcombe, and Pierce C. Joyce, all of whom arrived before Lawrence began serving in Arabia. There was a French military mission led by Colonel Édouard Brémond serving in the Hejaz but it is not mentioned in the film. The film shows Lawrence as the originator of the attacks on the Hejaz railway. The first attacks began in early January 1917 led by officers such as Newcombe. The first successful attack on the Hejaz railway with a locomotive-destroying "Garland mine" was led by Major Herbert Garland in February 1917, a month before Lawrence's first attack.
The film shows the Hashemite forces consisting of Bedouin guerrillas, but the core of the Hashemite force was the regular Arab Army recruited from Ottoman Arab prisoners of war. They wore British-style uniforms with keffiyehs and fought in conventional battles. The film makes no mention of the Sharifian Army and leaves the viewer with the impression that the Hashemite forces were composed exclusively of Bedouin irregulars.
Music
The film score was composed by Maurice Jarre, little known at the time and selected only after both William Walton and Malcolm Arnold had proved unavailable. Jarre was given just six weeks to compose two hours of orchestral music for Lawrence. The score was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Adrian Boult is listed as the conductor of the score in the film's credits, but he could not conduct most of the score, due in part to his failure to adapt to the intricate timings of each cue, and Jarre replaced him as the conductor. The score went on to garner Jarre his first Academy Award for Music Score—Substantially Original and is now considered one of the greatest scores of all time, ranking number three on the American Film Institute's top twenty-five film scores.
Producer Sam Spiegel wanted to create a score with two themes to show the 'Eastern' and British side for the film. It was intended for Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian to create one half and British composer Benjamin Britten to write the other.
The original soundtrack recording was originally released on Colpix Records, the records division of Columbia Pictures, in 1962. A remastered edition appeared on Castle Music, a division of the Sanctuary Records Group, on 28 August 2006.
Kenneth Alford's march The Voice of the Guns (1917) is prominently featured on the soundtrack. One of Alford's other pieces, the Colonel Bogey March, was the musical theme for Lean's previous film The Bridge on the River Kwai.
A complete recording of the score was not heard until 2010 when Tadlow Music produced a CD of the music, with Nic Raine conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra from scores reconstructed by Leigh Phillips.
Legacy
Its visual style has influenced many directors, including George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma, Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg, who called the film a "miracle". Spielberg further considered it his favourite film of all time and the one that inspired him to become a filmmaker, crediting the film, which he saw four times in four successive weeks upon its release, with understanding "It was the first time seeing a movie, I realized there are themes that aren't narrative story themes, there are themes that are character themes, that are personal themes. [...] and I realized there was no going back. It was what I was going to do."
Film director Kathryn Bigelow also considers it one of her favourite films, saying it inspired her to film The Hurt Locker in Jordan. Lawrence of Arabia also inspired numerous other adventure, science fiction and fantasy stories in modern popular culture, including Frank Herbert's Dune franchise, George Lucas's Star Wars franchise, James Cameron's Avatar franchise, Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012), George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and Disney's Frozen franchise.
Later film
In 1990, the made-for-television film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia was aired. It depicts events in the lives of Lawrence and Faisal subsequent to Lawrence of Arabia and featured Ralph Fiennes as Lawrence and Alexander Siddig as Prince Faisal.
See also
In Spanish: Lawrence de Arabia (película) para niños
- BFI Top 100 British films
- Clash of Loyalties
- Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T. E. Lawrence
- List of films considered the best
