Lawrence of Arabia (film)

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Lawrence of Arabia is an Academy Award-winning film based loosely on the life of T.E.Lawrence, starring Peter O'Toole as the title character, directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel. (Lean and Spiegel had recently completed the acclaimed film The Bridge on the River Kwai). The score by Maurice Jarre and the on-location cinematography are especially acclaimed. Apart from the film's depiction of Lawrence's life while in World War I Arabia, major cinematic themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with violence in war (especially between Arabic tribes and while battling the Turkish army), personal identity ("Who are you?" is a recurring line throughout the film), and devotion to either his native Britain and its army or his newfound comrades within the migrant Arabian tribes, to which he is romantically drawn.

Contents

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Characters

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Lawrence

[of his trick of extinguishing a lit match with his fingertips]

  • "Certainly it hurts... The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.

[addressing Sharif Ali, who has just shot Tafas, his guide]

  • "My name is for my friends. None of my friends is a murderer."
  • "Sharif Ali! So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people; a silly people; greedy, barbarous and cruel! As you are!"
  • "My fear is my concern."
  • "Nothing is written."
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Sharif Ali

[of the Nefud desert]

  • From here until the other side, no water but what we carry. For the camels, no water at all. If the camels die, we die. And in twenty days they will start to die.
  • This is the sun's anvil.
  • "The Nefud cannot be crossed."
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Prince Feisal

  • "And I, I long for the vanished gardens of Cordoba... but first must come the fighting."
  • "With Colonel Lawrence, mercy is a passion; with me it is merely good manners. You may judge which is the more reliable."
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Auda

  • I carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle. Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemies' tents. I take away their flocks and herds. The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor! Because *I* am a river to my people!
  • Thy mother mated with a scorpion.
  • "You trouble me like women."
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Others


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Dialogue

Lawrence: Michael George Hartley; this is a nasty, dark little room.
Hartley: That's right.
Lawrence: We are not happy in it.
Hartley: I am. It's better than a nasty dark little trench.
Lawrence: Then you're an ignoble fellow.
Hartley: That's right.
General Murray: If you're insubordinate with me, Lawrence, I shall have you put under arrest.
Lawrence: It's my manner, sir.
General Murray: Your what?
Lawrence: My manner, sir; it looks insubordinate but it isn't, really.
General Murray: You know, I can't make out whether you're bloody bad-mannered or just half-witted.
Lawrence: I have the same problem, sir.
General Murray: Shut up.
Lawrence: Yes, sir.

[of Lawrence's mission]

Lawrence: Oh, thanks, Dryden, this is going to be fun.
Dryden: Lawrence, only two kinds of creature get fun in the desert: Bedouins and gods, and you're neither. Take it from me. For ordinary men it's a burning, fiery furnace.
Lawrence: No, Dryden, it's going to be fun.
Dryden: It is recognised that you have a funny sense of fun.
Tafas: Truly, you are a British officer?
Lawrence: Yes.
Tafas: From Cairo?
Lawrence: Yes.
Tafas: You did not ride from Cairo.
Lawrence: No. Thank heaven. It's 900 miles. I came by boat.
Tafas: And before? From Britain?
Lawrence: Yes.
Tafas: Truly?
Lawrence: From Oxfordshire.
Tafas: Is that a desert country?
Lawrence: No. Fat country. Fat people.
Tafas: You are not fat.
Lawrence: No. I'm different.

[in Prince Feisal's tent]

Feisal: And now Selim, the brightness.
Selim: "By the noonday brightness, by the night when it darkeneth, thy Lord hath not forsaken thee; neither hath He been displeased -"
Feisal: "..and surely the future shall be better for thee than the past -"
Lawrence: "...and in the end shall your Lord be bounteous to thee, and thou be satisfied."
Feisal: [surprised and impressed] So..
Feisal: The English have a great hunger for desolate places. I fear they hunger for Arabia.
Lawrence: Then you must deny it to them.
Feisal: You are an Englishman. Are you not loyal to England?
Lawrence: To England... and to other things.
Feisal: To England and Arabia both? And is that possible? I think you are another of these desert-loving English. Doughty, Stanhope, Gordon of Khartoum. No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert; and no man needs nothing. Or is it that you think that we are something you can play with? Because we are "a little people; a silly people; greedy, barbarous and cruel?" But you know, Lieutenant, in the Arab city of Cordoba were two miles of public street lighting when London was a village.
Lawrence: Yes. You were great.
Feisal: Nine centuries ago.
Lawrence: Time to be great again, my lord.

[upon hearing of the Sykes-Picout-Treaty]

Lawrence:There may be honour among thieves, but there is none in politicians.
Dryden:And let's have no displays of indignation. When we told lies you told half-lies. And a man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.
Brighton: Well, he hasn't one-tenth so many men, sir.
Allenby: He's lied, in fact.
Brighton:Yes and no. He doesn't claim to have done anything he hasn't done.
Allenby: So there is an Arab North Army.
Brighton: Well, no, sir, he has lied about that.
Allenby: Any idea why?
Brighton: It's his army, I suppose.
Allenby: It's Prince Feisal's army. Do you think he's gone native, Harry?
Brighton: No. [pause] He would if he could, I think. [standing up] Not my line of country, this, sir.
Allenby: Oh, it doesn't matter, I was just curious. What matters is I believed it. The Turks believe it. They're offering twenty thousand pounds for him.
Brighton: Good heavens.
Allenby: I shouldn't say he's long to live, would you?
Brighton: Well, whatever else, sir, he's a brave man--
Allenby: Oh, surely, surely. If he's going north with twenty men, he doesn't lack guts. [pause] I wonder if they'd offer that much for me. What about next year? Will they still come back?
Brighton: I wouldn't be surprised. They think he's a kind of prophet.
Allenby: They do or he does?
Allenby: Very well, gentlemen. The calvary's gone through Masseriel and Deraa. Very good, by the way, very good indeed. Now, your turn.
1st General: Well, sir, if the enemy's retreating in any kind of order, which we'd better assume--
Allenby: Certainly.
1st General: --he can't be any further than this Malad place. Which means I can have him in range by 0900 hours tomorrow.
Allenby: Splendid. Phillip?
2nd General: These are the last of the infantry supports going up now, sir. But Malad, we could have the fusilliers in place by--Wednesday, sir?
Allenby: That'll do for now. The guns are what matter. Any questions?
3rd General: This Arab army on the right, sir; what's it consist of?
Brighton: Irregular calvary, sir. About two thousand.
3rd General: Where are they now?
Brighton: Can only know that by being with them, sir.
Allenby: Then get with them, Harry. I want to know. [thumps the blackboard] Pound them, Charlie. Pound them.
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Major Cast

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