Based on the writings of T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence Of Arabia is widely considered one of the greatest films of the twentieth century. All-star director David Lean works with an extremely talented cast including Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, and Anthony Quinn. Nominated for ten Academy Awards and winner of seven including Best Picture, Lawrence Of Arabia is a true film for the ages no movie buff can afford to miss.
British Lt. T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is a military malcontent stationed in North Africa during World War I. Unexcited in his current assignment of coloring maps, he's thrilled when he learns he's being reassigned as a British observer to King Feisal (Alec Guinness). Leader of a ragtag band of Arab rebels, King Feisal intends to overthrow the government of the Ottoman Empire (aligned against the British), oppressive rulers who dominate his land. And with the aid of T.E. Lawrence, he might well manage to pull it off.
As Lawrence spends more time with his nomad friends from the Arabian peninsula, their cause of self-determination becomes his own. Working together, Lawrence and King Feisal's armies win victories against great odds, successfully sabotage enemy railroad supply lines, and successfully cross a barren desert where the odds of survival were thought to be nil. Along the way, journalist Jackson Bentley (Arthur Kennedy) catalogues Lawrence's exploits for an eager and admiring British public who read anything news related that concerns the exotic 'Lawrence of Arabia.' It's as if the British soldier were King Arthur himself. As King Feisal comes closer to giving birth to a new nation, T.E. Lawrence becomes as famous as any member of the British royal family.
Employing a colorful cast of characters, breathtaking cinematography, and exotic Middle-Eastern locations, Lawrence Of Arabia is an epic of monumental proportions. Illustrating one man's fight for freedom alongside noble tribesmen fighting for self-determination against an empire that's ruled their families for hundreds of years, the film is rivaled by few of its peers. Modern in its subject matter, Lawrence Of Arabia pays an amazing resemblance to its contemporaries in its tackling of exotic locales and larger than life enterprises. Films such as Ben-Hur, Cleopatra, Spartacus, and The Ten Commandments set the tone for their era of film making, and Lawrence Of Arabia answered the call.
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