The 1962 film Lawrence
of Arabia, is a film that depicts the experiences of British Colonel T.E.
Lawrence in the Arab Uprisings of the first world war. The film itself covers Lawrence’s
time as a British Officer in the Arabian Peninsula; and his involvement as leader
of the Arab revolt against the Turkish army, and the delegator of the Arab
National Council. The film tries to portray Lawrence's heroic/courageous deeds, while also showing the psychological affects that the war would burden on him.
While the film itself is based of the story of T.E. Lawrence,
it is better understood to be a depiction of the book Seven Pillars of
Wisdom, by T.E. Lawrence. The film, as well as the book, can be seen as
more of Lawrence’s personal depiction of the events that happened on the Arabian
Peninsula than a true historical record of what took place. Historians debate whether
or not the accuracy of all elements of Lawrence’s accounts, saying that he may
have embellished aspects of the story to be more favorable towards himself. Besides
Lawrence’s possible reconstruction of events, the film makers would also take
liberty in making slight changes of the events of the story to better fit how
they wanted to represent it.
The film also does
a decent job of representing the historical subtleties of the story. They did a
good job in matching clothing, equipment, etc. to those of the time period. They
did however fail to be historically correct with some of the historical gear of
the time. One of the most glaring inaccuracies was the weaponry within the
film. These include: the Turkish army using an American 1919 browning machine
gun (during a battle in 1918), the rebels only using British SMLE Enfield
rifles (even before being resupplied by the British), and T.E. Lawrence using a
British Webley revolver (when in fact he carried an American Colt 1911 handgun).
While these inaccuracies are minor in the overall scheme of the film, they do take
away from the immersion for those who know/catch these mistakes.
The film does an overall
good job at capturing the essence of the story Lawrence of Arabia. While being
produced in the 1960s, the film has aged very well. While some select scenes in
the film struggle due to the technology of the time, most of the it is very
well filmed. It is a truly amazing how well they were able to achieve the visuals
they were without more modern technology.
Work Cited
Anderson, Scott. “The True Story of Lawrence of Arabia.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 July 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-lawrence-arabia-180951857/.
Dud, Mrs. “Lawrence of Arabia: Hollywood Fact or Fiction?” Dr Dud's Dicta, 30 July 2015, drdudsdicta.com/2014/08/09/lawrence-of-arabia-hollywood-fact-or-fiction/.
Hoffman, George. “T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the M1911 » Sight M1911.” Sight M1911 RSS, sightm1911.com/lib/history/telawrence.htm.
Stejskal, James. “The Arab Revolt and the Guns of Lawrence of Arabia.” American Rifleman, 23 Nov. 2018, www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2018/11/23/the-arab-revolt-and-the-guns-of-lawrence-of-arabia/.
Woolf, Christopher. “Is Peter O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia Fact or Fiction?” Public Radio International, 16 Dec. 2013, www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-16/peter-otooles-lawrence-arabia-fact-or-fiction.
