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Before Glambert, there was Lawrence: Lawrence of Arabia screens Monday June 8
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Lawrence of Arabia OG: Original Guyliner
Never has a film about a sexually ambiguous guy trying to unite at-odds desert tribes felt so relevant. Lawrence of Arabia, the story of actual British Officer TE Lawrence's efforts to lead an Arab revolt against the Turks in WW1, calls to mind two odd, but timely bedfellows: the Iraq War and guyliner.
Epics are intimidating; the basic elements of this one are exhausting: everything at stake for man and country, a glorious score that makes changing the toilet paper roll seem grand and sweeping, desert landscapes so real, that viewers actually became parched before intermission. Oh, and there's intermission.
But Lawrence of Arabia is one-stop shopping for hard to find items. Lawrence is a white guy, a fixer with an ego really, who becomes so obsessed with the Arabian desert, he tries to help the fellas there form a sovereign Nation. In lush 70mm, Lawrence of Arabia provides some background on why the right likes to say, "White guy in the desert: yaaayyyy!" and the left likes to say, "White guy in the desert: booooo!". And through one man's version of events in 1918, you get the chance to check in with your take on the matter, here in 2009. And then there's the film's role in the recent past.
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In 2003 Paul Wolfowitz, Bush's Dep Sec of Defense, was called "Wolfowitz of Arabia" and Bush appeared in a magazine wearing a photoshopped Lawrence-like headdress. Last month Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador to Iraq who Bush called, "America's Lawrence of Arabia" returned to the US after 37 years of Foreign Service in the Middle East. Crocker's reported struggles about what he saw as poor planning before the war and the risks of occupation, read like some of Lawrence's writings. All of the comparisons are meaty debate topics, but regarding Wolfowitz, the similarities have limits-limits that involve eyeliner.
Wolfowitz left his job as World Bank President in 2007 after he was caught arranging a girlfriend's pay raise. Lawrence of Arabia is a guy, who um, probably didn't like girlfriends. And it wasn't just Peter O' Toole's sometimes flamboyant portrayal and eye makeup that spoke to that rumor. (O'Toole's friend Noel Coward remarked that if O'Toole looked any prettier on film, he'd be "Florence of Arabia.") Some see homoeroticism in Lawrence's original writings, but his sexuality remains a mystery.
The ambiguity does prove this: The Village People were so right when they wrote, "Macho Man". It's a fact that Lawrence crossed the Sinai desert alone on one trip during the 1916-18 campaign against the Turks. And like the Greeks, Lawrence might've been so gay he was straight. Women love him, men want to be him, while other men may want to, well, anyway. One moviegoer who saw the film in 1962 told me that even with the fem-glam elements, she and her girlfriends were still in love with him. Adam Lambert, anyone?
If that's not enough, ask the movie's high profile worshipers how much Lawrence of Arabia shaped filmmaking. Spielberg said .jpg)
that hearing Director David Lean's take on the film influenced him more than any other aspect of his training. But again, that's a lot of pressure for a potential viewer to take on, especially when, by all accounts, the experience of watching Lawrence of Arabia is intensely personal.
The film details one man's struggle against his own ego, his Britishness and uniting a region with a long history of internal strife, and yet every fan I spoke to has held onto an aspect of the story that is all their own. If that's still not enough, then go for the guyliner.
For more info: Lawrence of Arabia screens Monday June 8 at the Sherman Oaks Arclight Theater at 7:30PM. For additional screening information, go here.
Directed by: David Lean
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn
Based on writings by: T.E. Lawrence
Screenplay: Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson
Producers: Robert A. Harris, Sam Spiegel
Original Music: Maurice Jarre
Cinematography: Freddie Young
Film Editing: Anne V. Coates
Genre: Drama, Adaptation, Adventure
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