INSTANT TRIVIA
Lawrence Of Arabia
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DAVID LEAN HAD a very simple attraction to the complex hero of Lawrence Of Arabia. “This Oxford don on camelback,” he once said. “I mean, it was absolutely nutty.” Receiving every honour under the baking sun — from seven Oscars at the time to a place on the Library Of Congress National Film Registry List in 1991 — Lean’s masterpiece charts the exploits of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) in assisting Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) in the Arab revolt against the Turks during World War I. Playing up to Lawrence’s swelling ego, unscrupulous General Allenby (Jack Hawkins) convinces the soldier-scholar to take Damascus for the Arabs. Lawrence agrees but, now seeing himself as a kind of demi-god saviour, assembles a ragtag band of rough sorts (who care little for the cause) to join the assault. Lawrence leading the charge shouting, “Damascus!” sums up Lean’s film: political, personal, epic, intimate, iconic.