I would say quite many a film could be called "one of the best"; but if narrowed down to about five (or even three), this one is still unquestionably included. In addition, in regard of true friendship, these two characters gave a perfect example, and next to this would be that of Rick and Capt. Renault from Casablanca..
behind the cinematography the direction the great actors we often forget how bloody brilliant the dialogue was / is. This scene is magnificently written and my favorite quote 👍
Omar Sharif actually needed to strap the rifle to his back for the scene where he pulls the water from the well, because the rifle kept sliding down his arm.
@@12classics39 Although relatively short for a bolt-action rifle of the time (it was designed to be used by cavalry as well as infantry - cavalry would normally have used a carbine), the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield was quite heavy. His character might have normally left his gun attached to the camel, but perhaps he doesn't 100% trust Lawrence not to attack him.
The dialogue in this scene is incredible. You get the sense that Lawrence has met his match in Ali. They each try in vain to intimidate the other, and neither will yield, so it becomes a verbal battle of wits. O’Toole and Sharif’s expert acting and electric chemistry immediately show the audience that these two characters are simultaneously disgusted and intrigued by each other. They’re so different in beliefs and culture, yet almost exactly alike in courage, eloquence, confidence, and pride. A stellar introduction to the most important and fascinating relationship in the film.
I don't think they were trying to intimidate each other. I think Lawrence was the "liberal" in the sense he wanted to "save" the Arabs and show Sherif the error in his thinking. Sherif seemed to respect Lawrence's honor and bravery which are traits that the Bedouin can recognize in any man. I venture to wonder what the outcome would have been if Lawrence's guide had not went for his gun and instead, begged for forgiveness for drinking from the well. I see no mutual disgust at all between the characters. I see Lawrence as a humanitarian and Sherif as a bureaucrat who's simply adhering to a code.
And, as I have written elsewhere, in this thread, I swear there's a line of dialogue missing, from when I saw it in the theater. "This pistol, yours?" "No, his!" The missing line: (Suavely) "Then I will keep it." And this missing line is meant to contrast with a few seconds later: (5:10 Picks up the metal cup, turns toward Lawrence) "His ...?" "Mine." "Then I will use it."
David Lean is the real genius behind this film, he framed every single shot to the point that any “still” could be hung on a wall and admired, even today, just phenomenal.
I am in suspense as I strain my eyes, interrogating the black column of a rider reflected in a mirage. I wonder at the miracle that someone is happening by on this vast barely living desert. The simple horizontal line of a rifle becomes apparent as the rider approaches and I can tell he is approaching with haste. Patience is a rare virtue in film making now.
Lawrence did his thesis on Crusader castles. He became fluent in Arabic living with the 'natives'. He carried £6,000 in gold in a money belt and never spent a penny. He understood all the nuances of their culture. From Syria to Arabia. It is why he was picked for the intelligence services. He was well connected socially and after the war obviously suffered from PTSD. This interaction was pure psychology.
Lawrence was taught Farsi & Arabic by Lady Gertrude Bell. She opened the door to the middle east. She lived amongst them for years before the war. Lady Bell was the key to all this history & was never mentioned in the movie.
My Dad took me to see it in a theater when it came out. All I remember is the very, very, very long opening scene of the sun rising in the wide flat desert, yes mesmerizing.
I was about that age and my parents took me to see it in a proper theatre. At intermission so many of the adults were rushing the refreshment area to buy a cold drink. The scenes of so much sand and sun really go to them. I've never forgotten that.
The relief of finding water in this landscape breaks at 1:43 with the brilliant offscreen sound of the goatskin waterbag hitting the water in the well. How the sequence builds shot by shot, and importantly, sound by sound, from there is the art and craft of moviemaking at its peak.
All things considered, I see this as the best film ever made. The performances, screenplay, directing, soundtrack, cinematography, etc., all fantastic.
Many years ago, when I and my friends (all fans of the book) heard that David Lynch was chosen to direct "Dune", we freaked out. That's when I said that "Dune" had the wrong "David". Lean was expert in incise character study and long-form big-picture epics... something that would have benefitted "Dune" back in 1984. I still wonder how "Dune" under Lean would have turned out.
This scene is brilliant because it pulls the rug from under the viewers instantly killing his new friend and at the same time introduces Lawrence extent of the problem of uniting Saudi tribes, as opposing tribes are literally killing each other for anything.
Slight mistake you made. None of these are called “Saudi tribes” at the time. They were Arabs…that is it. They became Saudi after Ibn Saud annexed the west coast Arabia from the Hashemites. And that was after WW1. Right then, they were Hijazi Arabs to simplify it.
Of all my all-time favorite movies...this one continues to be my # 1 choice. I saw this movie in the Spring of 1963. I was 12 and-a-half. Saw it at one of downtown Indianapolis's good movie theaters - the Lyric. It was a very cool Sunday afternoon. This movie had a great script...fantastic memorable music...super great natural settings and...a great cast of stars, with Peter O'Toole as the main character. O'Toole has been one of my all-time favorite male actors. The man really could do justice of high quality in many of his pictures. "Lawrence of Arabia" I've seen many times and seems to never get tired of it. Thanks for sharing a clip of the movie!
Every minute of this film is a masterpiece. The acting, directing, cinematography and script. It is epic in every way. Especially this scene and emerging from the desert. Its shot brilliantly. No one films movies like this now.
I think being 12 is a great age for seeing movies like this, because you had probably never seen anything as epic before. Also, the movie was made for grown-ups, but kids are probably the most moved and impressed. I saw “Papillon” when I was 12, and it had a huge influence on me. That was the first “grown-up” movie I saw on my own. I think they made magnificent movies back then because they were “events”, not just movies. I think the British economy was doing pretty well in the early sixties, so filmmakers could take big risks like “Lawrence of Arabia”. The British could also assume a movie like this would be popular in America, but it was still a risk.
I'm from Belgium, back in 2009 i worked at a museum inside an ancient monastery, during the summer a live orchestra came to play the greatest orchestral theme from movies in the court yard and the main theme from that movie was part of it, hearing that made me want to watch the whole movie and i don't regret it!
Now I know why Cinematographers, Directors and Film Students absolutely ladore this movie. I am a novice with a cinema camera. Oh how I wish I could have been part of this movie. Peter O'Toole just shines in this role. The rest of the cast are stellar in their performances.
Cinematographers, film editors and directors can make a movie bad, good, great ... few can make them remarkable. F. A. Young, Anne V. Coates and David Lean, together, Oscar winning team. Lawrence of Arabia is without a doubt, one of my all time films. ... all 3½ hours !
Hollywood wouldn't do this anymore: just someone approaching for endless minutes to illustrate the vastness of the desert. "The audience would get bored, their attention span is seconds, they'd get-up & leave!".
Brilliant scene this. The entry of Omar Shrif is fantastic. I believe Lean placed sand in such a manner that the viewer naturally followed the 'line in the sand' into the distance to focus on Sharif's entrance. This adds to the tension. Brilliant.
Heard so much about this film but when i watched it 2 years ago honestly saying it is True classic this film made Omar sharif an Peter O Toole great actors Rest in peace my Dear friends
@@lauracorriss9538 Throw Seven Samurai and the Third Man on that pile. My greatest friend was in Vienna last week, did a tour of the Third Man Scenes and the Sewer.
I was living at Flint Kaserne, in Bad Tolz Germany in 1962. I went to see this movie with my father. It was amazing then and just as amazing today. The larger the screen, the more you will enjoy the movie.
@@williamturner1517 I lived there from 1953-1955 and again in 1958-1964 and again in 1966-67. My dad was a a SGM from the early 60's until he retired as CSM of US Army Special Forces in 1974. It was a beautiful place to grow up.
And incomparable masterpiece. Could not be produced in this time. An incredible story in an age of global war. Superlative! One of my favorites. If you can't tell.
'Lawrence of Arabia', his biography by Jeremy Wilson is well worth reading, as is 'The Mint", by Lawrence. One should probably read 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' first, though, it's Lawrence's account of the war in the desert.
It may not be the most accurate in terms of history by its a hell of a cinematic masterpiece....Omar Sharif's entrance from the distance is inspired...
Tribal then. And tribal now. The movie may have taken liberties with some details, but the core message, the duplicity and misguided machinations of men, still ring true today.
It wasn't murder in any case. The guide was aiming a Webley .455 D/A Revolver at him. So yeah, Ali shot him with his SMLE. Case closed, no charges filed.
@@Sig509 It's not their rules savage but the desert. The desert force people make brutal rules. The well water in a desert is everything. It's true. Lawrance believed a congress would unite those Arab tribes. A congress for what? Nothing at all. So people go back to their land to protect their wells. It is everything to them until they find oil there.
@@downunderrob He says that line after hearing his name, and saying he's heard of him. Maybe this line is referring to some of the things he's heard about, and not his just now dead friend. Hard to tell. Gun vs gun wasn't murder, I agree.
The epic scenes and the stunning score make this one of the best movies of all time! Superb acting by some huge talents brought this in for a landing, what a great movie. At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy duddy, they dont make em like this anymore. One thing ive never understood in this scene is Lawrence's anger for Ali shooting his friend. I saw it as self defense , the guy was literally aiming a pistol at him.
It definitely was self-defense. I think Lawrence’s reaction proves how sheltered he is; he’s never seen anyone get killed before. Tragically, the war will force him to become engulfed in such terrible violence. If only everyone reacted to violence in the same way Lawrence does here, then nobody would ever want to start a war.
Well, liberals don't understand "rules". In a desert, resources have to be judiciously managed, asking for permission is courteous, respectful , and is payment for previous considerations.
Lawrence's friend was aiming the pistol in his own self defence, because he knew he was about to be murdered for drinking the other tribe's water. The pistol was likely to be ineffective against a Lee Enfield over that distance. Ali's tribal justification doesn't change the fact, and his tribally racist comments later confirm it.
O'Tooles bad boy image was the only reason he didn't win an Oscar for his brilliant analysis of T.E. Lawrence. Kudos also to director David Leans cinematography.
@@mikeyriart816 Tell me about it. More than one annual competition held in the U.S. gets its rules changed if a Canadian wins two years in a row. It's 1/4 scale model airplanes people! Jeebus. U.S. Army using M1s vs Cdn Armoured with Leopard 1's in a tank competition. It wasn't even close so the weighting of scores from different events got "re-evaluated" in a closed session of officers and ta-dah!!!
I know this is really obvious, but I love how Ali allows himself to take from his "dirty" enemy, while only borrowing from anyone else. I assume if he were to learn that the cup was Lawrence's friends cup, he would hand it to Lawrence, or just throw it into the sand. But he would never put something like that to his lips.
British playwright Noel Coward famously quipped, after seeing O'Toole traversing the desert in flowing robes: "If you'd been any prettier, it would have been Florence of Arabia."
There are long movies, and then there are movies that take their time. This is one of the latter. This scene is allowed to breathe. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's a story in itself. We know what we need to know about Lawrence and Ali when it's done. Lawrence answered every question correctly, in the way that Ali could understand and respect him. Two men, strangers, alone in the desert, communicating with words but letting us know the subtext all along. Masterful.
The film is sublime. The film is not a patch on the book. The book is extraordinary. And the book is (in part) fiction or poorly-recorded half-fact. But... Both book and film are wonderful. Simply wonderful. Time spent watching/reading them is time well spent.
I was perhaps ten years old when I saw it in early 1960s. I remember this scene very well and that the man with Lawrence was killed for just drinking water from the well! Another scene I remember is when the gangs raided Damascus and entered the treasury instead of finding gold they found paper money and fling it in the air saying “paper paper”.
technically, the man was shot for pointing a pistol at him; that is self defense... had he not pointed the pistol he may have survived to explain his presence there.
@@AbsurdityViewer Perhaps, though Ali might have summarily executed him anyway. He doesn't comment afterwards on the guide pulling a gun, he just takes it as a trophy and remarks that the guide knew his tribe was not allowed to drink from that well.
The white line of sand going off into the distance was put there by production so Omar knew where to ride to get to the well in the shot because he couldn't see it in the distance when he first started riding.
When absolute stillness & silence in a scene can do so, so much for the story at heart. This is a concept not yet understood by most directors today. They would just screw it up with ear bursting loudness & annoying Hans Zimmer banging drums music & spoil everything. How did cinema go so terribly WRONG in 2023. Now it’s just ‘Noise’.
Und die Kunst der guten und tiefsinnigen Dialoge gibt es in den heutigen Filmen auch nicht mehr. Da wird nur herumgebrüllt und mit schlimmen Worten der andere beleidigt! Und dazu diese laute aggressive Musik, aber das hattest du schon erwähnt. Deshalb liebe ich alte Filme, da ist alles stimmig. 👍
In the movie Lawrence shows weakness and arrogance. The guide got out a pistol, aimed it at Ali, and Ali shot him dead. Clearly self-defense on Ali's part, yet Lawrence calls him a murderer. There was tribal tension in there, of course, and Lawrence had a point, but murder it was not. Ali was a gentleman. And a damn fine cameleer. His camel was good, too. It was a most-impressive scene. No ominous music, just the padding of camel feet.
I don't think he shows weakness - Ali comments on his apparent lack of fear and seems impressed. And Lawrence's remarks on the lack of unity among the Arabs (rather graphically shown by the incident) is a defensible point of view. He also takes a big risk by telling Ali what he thinks of him.
@@stevekaczynski3793agreed, and I think Ali likes this about Lawrence. He’s impressed by Lawrence’s bravery and outspokenness. Sharif does a great job at subtly conveying this.
The initial shot in this clip, where they seem to have got a camera and presumably a cameraman down into the well to film upwards, was perhaps the most technically difficult part of the scene.
Lawrence was right they are still fighting each other, They are still a little people regardless of the wealth they have. They are like the ancient Greeks who fought each for centuries and the Romans just walked in and took over. So it is with the Middle East today
David Lean's framing is a masterclass. But I couldn't help but think of Stanley Kubrick while watching this. Another master of framing a shot and of camera stillness. Of course, Kubrick may have had half the edits of this scene, LOL !
Exactly. The fact they are pretty much the same height adds to the effect, I think. You get the sense that you’re watching two people who are from such different worlds but are complete equals. And they match wits, neither able to win. It’s so compelling.
@@christopherscallio2539 Interesting, I never thought of it as a grave (Certainly not of his guide, since he is still alive at this point.), but it would be yet another unintended sign of disrespect to Ali. A Well would be a place to rest, and having done a fair bit of field work in the desert, I have piled dirt/sand and thrown a blanket/tarp over it to relax against just like Lawrence. Sand frequently collects next to bushes so it makes a good starting point. I just figured it was left over from the last traveler.
I thought I caught someone making a grammatical error in the title of his video. But I now see why you chose to take the risk. It is indeed a 'well' scene.
I saw this on the big screen when it first came out. Its one of those movies you watch in the middle of winter, never in summer. Sadly it is a poor story about Lawrence. Lawrence knew Arabic and was not stupid. He had in the country for years working as an archeologist. He was working with Gertrude Bell there. One of the greatest Archaeologists
Peter O'toole is excellent in this role of T.E. Lawrence .... the movie a masterpiece in cinema & emotional agony, desperation, struggles in living up to the harsh responsibilities of leadership in this dessert world .... a place Lawrence calls many things and endures much heartache and indifference. Remarkable film.
