The sandy front of World War I, set amongst the dunes and political turmoil of Syria, Egypt and Jordan, as seen by a cocksure British army officer with maybe a little bit of a messiah complex. A true epic, from the breath-stealing long shots of an unimaginably vast desert to the explosive, well-outfitted battle scenes, it lives up to the billing and then some. I was mesmerized by the photography in particular, which constantly discovers new ways to portray what could have been a rather redundant, flat, boring landscape. Truly beautiful, almost ruminative at times, with an appreciation for the artisanship of film.

As for the plot, well... it's a bit slow. Particularly so in the nearly four-hour director's cut, which feels completely unnecessary. I've never seen the theatrical release, which is noted for being incomprehensible in places due to the awkward cuts, but it seems suspicious that half an hour or more couldn't have been lopped off somewhere to improve the pace. It's an exhausting watch, and not just because of the draining personal transformation we see in Lawrence himself. There's good material, of course, plenty of it. The hopeless inner squabble of an Arab population that's desperately close to the unified independence they seek. The protagonist's progression from philosophical humanist to enraged berzerker to shattered shell. We get plenty to think about, long after the credits have finally, mercifully rolled, but it's a marathon to reach that point.

A Best Picture winner that's technically marvelous, thematically challenging and open-minded, but the ending left me feeling cold and there's really no excuse for it to run for as long as it does.

This is obviously an epic film, lasting nearly four hours with the wide, sweeping desert vistas and huge cast. It describes a fairly brief period of time out of a remarkable man’s life. I wonder how modern viewers handle the length of the movie, accustomed as they are to movies this lengthy featuring superheroes with humor and almost constant action.

I don’t even remember how long ago I originally watched Lawrence of Arabia —quite possibly forty or more years ago. It has aged pretty well overall. The only negative thing that struck me when I recently re-watched it may well be due to my age. But it can be a talkative film at times, which is fine, but they sometimes talk fairly softly, and if such a scene transitions to music, I found the music to be so loud in comparison that it lifted me half of my chair. I had to have remote in hand to be ready to adjust the volume. A minor thing.

Lawrence was born in 1888. Died in 1935 from a motorcycle accident in Dorset, UK.

He is an important figure for middle east and world war 1.

He killed the person from rival tribe because he drank from their tribe's wells. This is middle east :) murders, bloods, rapes.

And i am not sure about if ottomans had working planes in world war. They were so poor. Only germany could support this. And ottomans killed and died in arabia, for nothing. Miles away from the homeland, anatolia, turkey. Such imperialism...

faisal speaks about how modern and great islamic empire was. The city cordoba in spain, when it belonged to arabs, "in the Arab city of Cordoba were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village.”. Yes, it was great until they refused to go more moderns and they always killed each other. THey still do.

In that years, some other countries united as nations but here, they only defend their tribes. auda abu tayi Anthony Quinn was saying truth because they could not get that mind, that counciesneess yet. They have horses instead of camels. it was interesting.

Women from top rocks were taunting for the warriors. It was a interesting scene.

"I did not come here to watch tribal blood war." says lawrence. "it is an ancient wound." says other person. Middle east culture. It still continues. Lawrence managed nice in such culture.

Lawrence saved kasim and then killed him. We cant blame kasim. He lived and grew up in that culture. It is hard to resist.

WHen they start attacking aqabe, turks were talking turkish like "defend my soldiers, dont fear". It was sad to hear. Miles away from turkey, the homeland, they died for nothing. They tried to defend for nothing. SO sad.

And according to some documents, lawrence was merciless in fact.

I dont know if it is truth but really nice, lawrence defended the kid against british soldiers.

-God helped them who under that
- They are turks
- God help them

Ali is really nice person. He refused also money for damascus. I could not understand lawrence's crysis after dera. Then he bought mercenaries. Most of them were killers. Lawrence really want to help arabians to give them freedom? He was famous, he did not have to do more.

The journalist took lots of photos. I would like to see them.

Ottomans were greedy. They wanted to conquer what they have lost and leaders needed reputation so they joined world war 1. If they did not join, maybe none of those would happen such as sykes-picot agreement. Lots of people from anatolia, maybe even from balkans died in those lands.

And i could not get the damascus part. Why did lawrence want tribes to be in charge of administration? Syria is already a state in ottomans, it has own burocracy, own governor. After 1830s, as i remember it was autonomous. And faisal was king. It was real what we saw?