Lawrence of Arabia (1963)
30 Jan 1963 ● English ● 3 hrs 46 mins
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name.
Lawrence's extraordinary tale of adventure begins as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I.
In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and--for two years--leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire. Despite meteoric success in the Army, Lawrence becomes cynical and disillusioned about his violent life, why? What are the events that mould his life and how will the future pan out for him?
Cast: Alec Guinness, Peter O Toole
Crew: David Lean (Director), Freddie Young (Director of Photography), Maurice Jarre (Music Director)
Rating: U (India)
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Biography
Release Dates: 30 Jan 1963 (India)
Tagline: A mighty spectacle of action and adventure!
Did you know? Having been made up to resemble the real Faisal as closely as possible, Sir Alec Guinness was mistaken by several people to be the real thing. Read More
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as Prince Feisal
as T.E. Lawrence
as Colonel Brighton
as Auda Abu Tayi
as Jackson Bentley
as General Murray
as Majid
as Club Secretary
as General Allenby
as Daud
as Turkish Bey
as Sherif Ali
as Mr. Dryden
as Tafas
Direction
Director
Distribution
Distributor
Writers
Screenplay Writer
Camera and Electrical
Director of Photography
Music
Music Director
Art
Art Director
Costume and Wardrobe
Costume Designer
Editorial
Editor
Makeup and Hair
Makeup Artist
Special Effects
Special Effects Coordinator
Film Type:
Feature
Language:
English
Colour Info:
Color
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo, Mono
Frame Rate:
24 fps
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
Stereoscopy:
No
Taglines:
A mighty spectacle of action and adventure!
An Epic Masterpiece As You've Never Seen It Before!
A Mighty Motion Picture Of Action And Adventure!
An Epic Masterpiece As You've Never Seen It Before!
A Mighty Motion Picture Of Action And Adventure!
Movie Connection(s):
Featured in: Prometheus -3-D (English)
Featured in: White House Down (English)
Referenced in: Prometheus -3-D (English)
Featured in: White House Down (English)
Referenced in: Prometheus -3-D (English)
Goofs:
Factual Mistake
In the movie, Farraj is mortally wounded by a detonator going off in his clothes, but in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence writes that Farraj was wounded by a Turk shooting him while riding on his camel.
Revealing Mistakes
In the opening scene he is riding a motorcycle at high speeds, but his hair does not get swept back as it would at high speeds.
Revealing Mistakes
Further to the change of the shadow position during the "drifting" scene, this shot is of an apparent evening/dusk period where the shadow is almost directly under the camel, revealing it to be a "day-for-night" shot which must therefore have taken place near noon.
Factual Mistake
On one of this film's many releases on DVD, during the intermission, the title on the screen reads "ENTER'E ACTE"- a French phrase which should actually be spelled either "entre acte" or "entr'acte."
Factual Mistake
Details of some historical characters and events have been changed to fit the dramatic narrative.
Factual Mistake
Throughout the movie T.E. Lawrence is seen carrying a revolver. The Real T.E. Lawrence had sent for two Colt M1911 pistols in 1914 when a friend was traveling in the US and British pistols were scarce due to WW1. In his letters to this brother he wrote: "The Colt is a lovely pistol. The more I examine it the more I like it. There is a vast gulf between it and the ordinary revolver."
Factual Mistake
At several points in the movie, Turkish soldiers are shown using Browning Model 1919A6 .30 caliber air-cooled machine guns. The Browning 1919 first entered service in 1919, too late to have been used in WWI. The Turks would have been using German Maxim machine guns. At other times, they are shown using Short-Magazine Lee-Enfield rifles which were standard issue to the British Empire forces. The Turks would, in all likelihood, have been carrying German Mausers.
Errors in Geography
When traveling north to Damacus, T.E. Lawrence and Ali look to their right to see the artillery at night. The British forces were to their west, which would have been their left.
Errors in Geography
On their way to Wadi Rhum and Aqabah Lawrence and his party of 50 have to travel north and cross the Devil's Anvil. Yet, when Gasim is seen walking at sunrise he has the sun to his left and a stretched shadow to his right, meaning he is travelling south.
Errors in Geography
As the Arab Army advances upon the Turkish rear, T.E. Lawrence and Ali look to their right at the thunder of the British artillery shelling the Turkish lines. Since in real life they were on the British right flank, they should have been looking to their left.
Errors in Geography
It is implied in the early scenes with Colonel Brighton and Prince Feisal that Yenbo is "fifty miles south" of Wadi Safra, when it reality it is only about five miles west of it.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Gasim is walking through the sun's anvil after falling off his camel, he begins to shed various items. During a reverse tracking shot, the dolly tracks are clearly visible in the sand.
Continuity
As Lawrence approaches the Suez canal from the east, he hears then sees over a dune the ship traveling left to right, obviously north. When he goes atop the dune, the ship is trailing away to the south.
Continuity
After Lawrence is wounded in the shoulder, the bloodstain appears and disappears between shots as he marches along the top of the train.
Continuity
In two consecutive shots of Bentley passing by the fountain in Jerusalem, the shadows are completely different.
Continuity
When Col. Brighton and T.E. Lawrence are having a discussion after just having destroyed the train carrying some horses, the shadow on Col. Brighton's face changes from covering his entire face when both speakers are shown and the sun is behind him, to appearing only beneath the collar of his shirt when he is the only person in the frame.
Continuity
When Lawrence is crossing the desert with the prince's 50 men he starts to drift off. He is seen looking at his own shadow on the right side of the camel, but in the next shot the shadow is right under the camel.
Continuity
When T.E. Lawrence is showing off in his new Arab dress, the shadows are initially long, but in the next shot have suddenly shortened.
Character Error
When Jackson Bentley shows his business-card to Selim the Reciter the initial letter of his first name is printed as a G instead of a J.
Character Error
"When T.E. Lawrence is being escorted across the desert on his way to Faisal's camp, his Bedu guide offers to share his food with him..." etc. Lawrence had traveled the region before the war, and knew custom. He would have taken the food in his stride, and would probably not been as clumsy on a camel as he was initially shown.
Character Error
When T.E. Lawrence is being escorted across the desert on his way to Faisal's camp, his Bedu guide offers to share his food with him. Lawrence is somewhat reluctant but is anxious to show that, unlike other Brits, he is at one with the desert people. He reaches into the guide's proffered dish and takes a morsel - but with his left hand, and he does it twice. The Bedu shows no reaction, but he should: among the desert Bedouin tribes, who eat by hand, the left is kept away from the food as it is the hand with which they clean themselves after defecating. It could be that the guide is observing another Bedouin custom, that of warm hospitality and unstinting generosity to strangers, and is too polite to mention the gaffe (he would probably be aware that many outsiders do not know of the taboo), but it is more likely that it is a genuine error. Peter O'Toole is left-handed, and though he goes to great lengths throughout the rest of the movie to do things right-handedly (Lawrence was right-handed), this was probably a momentary lapse that no one noticed, or thought to mention.
Audio/Video Mismatch
In the well scene when Lawrence and Ali first meet, Ali uses the water bag of the man he has just killed to hoist up some water, fill Lawrence's cup and drink from it. He then drops the water bag, which clearly falls behind the well and can be heard splashing on the ground, but that sound is immediately followed by a much louder dubbed sound of the water bag hitting the bottom of the well.
In the movie, Farraj is mortally wounded by a detonator going off in his clothes, but in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence writes that Farraj was wounded by a Turk shooting him while riding on his camel.
Revealing Mistakes
In the opening scene he is riding a motorcycle at high speeds, but his hair does not get swept back as it would at high speeds.
Revealing Mistakes
Further to the change of the shadow position during the "drifting" scene, this shot is of an apparent evening/dusk period where the shadow is almost directly under the camel, revealing it to be a "day-for-night" shot which must therefore have taken place near noon.
Factual Mistake
On one of this film's many releases on DVD, during the intermission, the title on the screen reads "ENTER'E ACTE"- a French phrase which should actually be spelled either "entre acte" or "entr'acte."
Factual Mistake
Details of some historical characters and events have been changed to fit the dramatic narrative.
Factual Mistake
Throughout the movie T.E. Lawrence is seen carrying a revolver. The Real T.E. Lawrence had sent for two Colt M1911 pistols in 1914 when a friend was traveling in the US and British pistols were scarce due to WW1. In his letters to this brother he wrote: "The Colt is a lovely pistol. The more I examine it the more I like it. There is a vast gulf between it and the ordinary revolver."
Factual Mistake
At several points in the movie, Turkish soldiers are shown using Browning Model 1919A6 .30 caliber air-cooled machine guns. The Browning 1919 first entered service in 1919, too late to have been used in WWI. The Turks would have been using German Maxim machine guns. At other times, they are shown using Short-Magazine Lee-Enfield rifles which were standard issue to the British Empire forces. The Turks would, in all likelihood, have been carrying German Mausers.
Errors in Geography
When traveling north to Damacus, T.E. Lawrence and Ali look to their right to see the artillery at night. The British forces were to their west, which would have been their left.
Errors in Geography
On their way to Wadi Rhum and Aqabah Lawrence and his party of 50 have to travel north and cross the Devil's Anvil. Yet, when Gasim is seen walking at sunrise he has the sun to his left and a stretched shadow to his right, meaning he is travelling south.
Errors in Geography
As the Arab Army advances upon the Turkish rear, T.E. Lawrence and Ali look to their right at the thunder of the British artillery shelling the Turkish lines. Since in real life they were on the British right flank, they should have been looking to their left.
Errors in Geography
It is implied in the early scenes with Colonel Brighton and Prince Feisal that Yenbo is "fifty miles south" of Wadi Safra, when it reality it is only about five miles west of it.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Gasim is walking through the sun's anvil after falling off his camel, he begins to shed various items. During a reverse tracking shot, the dolly tracks are clearly visible in the sand.
Continuity
As Lawrence approaches the Suez canal from the east, he hears then sees over a dune the ship traveling left to right, obviously north. When he goes atop the dune, the ship is trailing away to the south.
Continuity
After Lawrence is wounded in the shoulder, the bloodstain appears and disappears between shots as he marches along the top of the train.
Continuity
In two consecutive shots of Bentley passing by the fountain in Jerusalem, the shadows are completely different.
Continuity
When Col. Brighton and T.E. Lawrence are having a discussion after just having destroyed the train carrying some horses, the shadow on Col. Brighton's face changes from covering his entire face when both speakers are shown and the sun is behind him, to appearing only beneath the collar of his shirt when he is the only person in the frame.
Continuity
When Lawrence is crossing the desert with the prince's 50 men he starts to drift off. He is seen looking at his own shadow on the right side of the camel, but in the next shot the shadow is right under the camel.
Continuity
When T.E. Lawrence is showing off in his new Arab dress, the shadows are initially long, but in the next shot have suddenly shortened.
Character Error
When Jackson Bentley shows his business-card to Selim the Reciter the initial letter of his first name is printed as a G instead of a J.
Character Error
"When T.E. Lawrence is being escorted across the desert on his way to Faisal's camp, his Bedu guide offers to share his food with him..." etc. Lawrence had traveled the region before the war, and knew custom. He would have taken the food in his stride, and would probably not been as clumsy on a camel as he was initially shown.
Character Error
When T.E. Lawrence is being escorted across the desert on his way to Faisal's camp, his Bedu guide offers to share his food with him. Lawrence is somewhat reluctant but is anxious to show that, unlike other Brits, he is at one with the desert people. He reaches into the guide's proffered dish and takes a morsel - but with his left hand, and he does it twice. The Bedu shows no reaction, but he should: among the desert Bedouin tribes, who eat by hand, the left is kept away from the food as it is the hand with which they clean themselves after defecating. It could be that the guide is observing another Bedouin custom, that of warm hospitality and unstinting generosity to strangers, and is too polite to mention the gaffe (he would probably be aware that many outsiders do not know of the taboo), but it is more likely that it is a genuine error. Peter O'Toole is left-handed, and though he goes to great lengths throughout the rest of the movie to do things right-handedly (Lawrence was right-handed), this was probably a momentary lapse that no one noticed, or thought to mention.
Audio/Video Mismatch
In the well scene when Lawrence and Ali first meet, Ali uses the water bag of the man he has just killed to hoist up some water, fill Lawrence's cup and drink from it. He then drops the water bag, which clearly falls behind the well and can be heard splashing on the ground, but that sound is immediately followed by a much louder dubbed sound of the water bag hitting the bottom of the well.
Trivia:
Having been made up to resemble the real Faisal as closely as possible, Sir Alec Guinness was mistaken by several people to be the real thing.
During his first location scouting trip in Jordan, Director Sir David Lean discovered the remains of the Turkish locomotives and railroad tracks Lawrence had destroyed during the Arab Revolution. After forty years in the sun, they hadn't even rusted.
This film was banned in many Arab countries as they felt they were misrepresented. Omar Sharif arranged with President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt to view the movie to show him there was nothing wrong with the way they were portrayed. Nasser loved the movie and allowed it to be released in Egypt, where it went on to become a monster hit.
This film was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963; it won seven, including Best Picture and Best Director.
This film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
This film won the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film.
During his first location scouting trip in Jordan, Director Sir David Lean discovered the remains of the Turkish locomotives and railroad tracks Lawrence had destroyed during the Arab Revolution. After forty years in the sun, they hadn't even rusted.
This film was banned in many Arab countries as they felt they were misrepresented. Omar Sharif arranged with President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt to view the movie to show him there was nothing wrong with the way they were portrayed. Nasser loved the movie and allowed it to be released in Egypt, where it went on to become a monster hit.
This film was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963; it won seven, including Best Picture and Best Director.
This film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
This film won the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film.
