The Lawrence of the title refers to T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), a rambunctious rascally fellow serving in World War I whose hopes of accomplishing something greater in this great-in-scale conflict comes true when he is tasked with meeting with Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness). the King of Syria. Just on his long voyage to meet the Prince alone, T.E. Lawrence becomes quite accustomed to the large amount of conflict that exists between the various tribes and nations that are native to the Middle Eastern region. Amidst experiencing all this conflict, he realizes that there could be strength in numbers here and the various denizens of this region do add up in numbers very fast.
Before you know it, Lawrence is making his way across treacherous desserts that no man has ever crossed before in order to unite the various nations of this area and amass an army to take down Turkish forces that have occupied the area and made even the most noble Middle Eastern leaders in this area their servants. It's a bold move that pays off and, with the help of an American journalist, Jackson Bentley (Arthur Kennedy), T.E. Lawrence goes from being just another soldier to being a man of highly regarded stature and one might even go as far as to say that he's achieved a mythic quality. But he is not anything like that, he's just a man after all and like any man, he's got flaws that will soon create problems for him in his new position of power.
Lawrence of Arabia is very much a concise mixture of the intimate and the sweeping, with each seemingly contrasting element managing to compliment the other. In terms of its more intimate nature, this is very much an extensive character study of T.E. Lawrence and what it's like for him to come into a land he's unfamiliar with and eventually rise to the status of legend in such a terrain. When we first meet Lawrence, he certainly doesn't seem like the stuff myths are made out of in the slightest, he just seems like a normal rambunctious youthful fella, one who thinks he's got the world all figured out and is eager to prove himself.
"Be careful what you wish for", as they say, as Lawrence gets that chance and so much more. Eventually, the normal inexperienced youth character grows into a leader figure and then a more bloodthirsty character and whatever part of Lawrence's character he's tasked with portraying, Peter O'Toole turns out to be the perfect guy for this role. When it comes to playing the more mischievous part of Lawrence's character in the introductory sequences, he works like wonders in giving a realistic sense of overconfidence that, even if we, the viewer, know its misplaced, can't help but believing, that's how good O'Toole is at conveying conviction in every one of Lawrence's actions in these early scenes. Even seeing his guide get murdered doesn't make this young fella crack, he just replaces his mischievous determination with a more fierce brand of resolve.
It's that resolve that ends up guiding him through the various acts that earn him the status of leader and it's in depicting the various large-in-scale actions Lawrence is involved in that director David Lean really lets loose on having spectacle carry Lawrence Of Arabia. Shot with 70 millimeter film, the feature looks absolutely gorgeous (I can only imagine what seeing this thing on the big screen projected in 70mm would be like, my eyeballs would probably melt at the sight of such beauty!), all these wide shots of Lawrence's army charging into battle or traipsing across the seemingly endless desert have a real impact thanks to how Lean and cinematographer F.A. Young film these scenes in a manner that's practically soaked in grandeur, which feels mighty appropriate considering such sequences are supposed to reinforce how T.E. Lawrence could be propped up to mythic status.
Like I said, the intimate and the grand-in-scale manage to co-exist beautifully in Lawrence In Arabia, especially since the second half of the movie (there was apparently an intermission separating the story into two halves in its initial theatrical release) primarily focuses on Lawrence's growing bloodlust. Lawrence himself is the first to note how he got an unwanted thrill from committing a kill earlier in the film but it isn't long before his thirst for violence leads him to becoming a more grisly ruler than he could have ever imagined. Just as Peter O'Toole flourished in handling the exuberant side of Lawrence as a younger naive character (one who could sing about being The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo in a canyon with reckless abandon), he's similarly excellent in depicting the more complex and morally compromised character Lawrence has become.
It's a fascinating capper to what's been a thoroughly engrossing motion picture, one whose 222 minute running time goes by quite quickly thanks to how well-paced and constantly interesting the plot is. It doesn't hurt that the film is filled with strong supporting turns, including Anthony Quinn, who brings memorable moments of vulnerability to a vengeful leader, Omar Sharif, whose relationship with Lawrence becomes palpably tragic as well as Alec Guinness, who brownface makeup as Prince Faisal is incredibly uncomfortable but he does bring gravitas for days in the role as only Guinness can. They're all bringing a heck of a lot to the incredibly thoughtful Lawrence Of Arabia, a movie far from short on either contemplation's on the humanity nestled within figures of mythic quality or camels.
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