Best ten minutes - 1
The first ten minutes of David Lean's movie Lawrence of Arabia (1962) begin with an approximately four-minute musical overture composed by Maurice Jarre over a black screen, followed by the iconic, fatal motorcycle crash of T.E. Lawrence. One can read the names of all the famous actors that feature in the movie, plus everyone else that played a role in creating it. Jose Ferrer, Omar Shariff as Ali, Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson, Sam Siegel, David Lean, et al. The accident itself occured on 13th May 1935, thirteen years after Lawrence left Arabia for the last time, and was indeed caused by swerving to avoid two boys on bicycles, causing Lawrence to lose control and flip over the handlebars of his Brough Superior SS100.
After the accident the movie then transitions to his funeral, or rather a memorial service, and intense, skeptical conversations amongst various people regarding Lawrence's character. Personally, I remember very well Anthony Quayle's voice, playing Colonel Brighton, a fictional character who represented the traditional British military thinking, advocating for conventional warfare and acting as a skeptical foil to Lawrence's unconventional guerilla tactics. "He was the most extraordinary man that I ever knew" he tells a vicar underneath Lawrence's bronze bust in the crypt at St Paul's Cathedral, London. Almost a James Bond avant la lettre, one could imagine his thinking to be now.
The crypt is the ultimate hall of fame with about 30,000 square feet of subterranean chapels, tombs and memorials dedicated to the legendary figures who helped shape Britain. "Did you knew him well", asks the vicar next. "I knew him", responds Brighton. "Well, nil nisi bonum", concludes the vicar, "but did he really deserve a place in here?", with Brighton looking rather more thoughtful as any war veteran would. This short conversation following the memorial service for T.E. Lawrence sets the tone for the whole movie, highlighting the complicated, controversial legacy of Lawrence through the mixed, somewhat dismissive, and skeptical viewpoints of the British establishment.
I'm sure that I'm going out of a limb here again, but for me this is the ultimate spy movie. About what great events really do to little people, or rather the people who are at ground zero. One should never try to judge, and anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn't do that. T.E. Lawrence was indeed extraordinary, and so is this movie
[media=https://youtu.be/zcI1UrgqO_0]
After the accident the movie then transitions to his funeral, or rather a memorial service, and intense, skeptical conversations amongst various people regarding Lawrence's character. Personally, I remember very well Anthony Quayle's voice, playing Colonel Brighton, a fictional character who represented the traditional British military thinking, advocating for conventional warfare and acting as a skeptical foil to Lawrence's unconventional guerilla tactics. "He was the most extraordinary man that I ever knew" he tells a vicar underneath Lawrence's bronze bust in the crypt at St Paul's Cathedral, London. Almost a James Bond avant la lettre, one could imagine his thinking to be now.
The crypt is the ultimate hall of fame with about 30,000 square feet of subterranean chapels, tombs and memorials dedicated to the legendary figures who helped shape Britain. "Did you knew him well", asks the vicar next. "I knew him", responds Brighton. "Well, nil nisi bonum", concludes the vicar, "but did he really deserve a place in here?", with Brighton looking rather more thoughtful as any war veteran would. This short conversation following the memorial service for T.E. Lawrence sets the tone for the whole movie, highlighting the complicated, controversial legacy of Lawrence through the mixed, somewhat dismissive, and skeptical viewpoints of the British establishment.
I'm sure that I'm going out of a limb here again, but for me this is the ultimate spy movie. About what great events really do to little people, or rather the people who are at ground zero. One should never try to judge, and anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn't do that. T.E. Lawrence was indeed extraordinary, and so is this movie
[media=https://youtu.be/zcI1UrgqO_0]
