35th Academy Awards · 1963
Lawrence of Arabia
Directed byCooked up by David Lean
“Nothing is written.”
“Bro said "nothing is written" and crossed the desert 🐪”
The storyThe lore 📖
During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.
During World War I, a quirky British officer named T.E. Lawrence heads into the desert and somehow unites rival Arab tribes to fight the Ottoman Turks 🐪. He crosses deserts that should be impossible and becomes a legend, but all the fame starts messing with his head. Nearly four hours of sand, sun, and serious main character energy, no cap ☀️.
What critics & audiences sayThe receipts 🧾
Tomatometer
93%
Fresh
#38 of 98 winnersFamous linesLines living rent free
Potter: Well, what's the trick, then?
Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.
…The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor! Because I am a river to my people!
Bentley: What is it, Major Lawrence, that attracts you personally to the desert?
Lawrence: It's clean.
Big things have small beginnings.
Auda: In ten days. You will cross Sinai?
Lawrence: Why not? Moses did.
Auda: And you will take the children?
Lawrence: Moses did.
Auda: Moses was a prophet and beloved of God.
Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men – courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men – mistrust and caution.
Allenby: What then?
Lawrence: I enjoyed it.
With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me, it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.
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.
Thy mother mated with a scorpion.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Filming locationsWhere they shot it 📍
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Jordan
The film was originally to be shot entirely here, and King Hussein's government supplied transport, extras and scouting for desert scenes.
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Playa del Algarrobico
Almería, Spain
A 300-building replica of 1917 Aqaba was built in a dry river bed here for the attack on the Ottoman port.
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Almería
Andalusia, Spain
The execution of Gasim, the train attacks and the Deraa exteriors were filmed in the region, despite a flash flood delay.
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Plaza de España
Seville, Spain
The grand plaza played British headquarters in Cairo, including the officers' club.
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Alcázar of Seville
Seville, Spain
The royal palace doubled as the courtyard of the Damascus town hall.
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Casa de Pilatos
Seville, Spain
The Andalusian palace stood in for British headquarters in Jerusalem.
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Ouarzazate
Morocco
The Tafas massacre was filmed here, with Moroccan soldiers standing in for the Turkish army.
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Sierra Nevada
Andalusia, Spain
The Spanish mountains filled in for Azraq, Lawrence's winter quarters.
Fun factsFacts that go hard 🤓
- Albert Finney was David Lean's first choice for Lawrence but turned it down to avoid a long-term contract with Sam Spiegel; after seeing Peter O'Toole's screen test, Lean proclaimed, 'This is Lawrence!'Wikipedia · Cast
- After the premiere, Noël Coward quipped to Peter O'Toole, 'If you had been any prettier, the film would have been called Florence of Arabia.'Wikipedia · Cast
- Peter O'Toole padded his camel saddle with foam rubber from a local market; the extras copied him, and the Bedouin nicknamed him Abu-'Isfanj, 'Father of the Sponge.'Wikipedia · Filming
- Anthony Quinn did his own makeup from a photo of the real Auda Abu Tayi so convincingly that, as one anecdote has it, David Lean mistook him for a local and planned to replace Quinn with 'the new arrival.'Wikipedia · Cast
- Steven Spielberg saw the film four times in four successive weeks on its release, called it a 'miracle,' and credits it as the film that inspired him to become a filmmaker.Wikipedia · Legacy
- Lawrence of Arabia may be the longest theatrical film with no female speaking roles, and it is slightly more than a minute longer than Gone with the Wind, making it the longest Best Picture winner.Wikipedia · Cast
- José Ferrer took his small role only for $25,000, more than O'Toole and Sharif combined, plus a Porsche, yet later called his 'five minutes in Lawrence' his best screen performance.Wikipedia · Cast
- T. E. Lawrence's brother A. W. Lawrence, who sold the film rights, denounced it, saying 'I should not have recognised my own brother' and calling it 'pretentious and false.'Wikipedia · Historical accuracy
- Maurice Jarre, little known at the time, got the job only after William Walton and Malcolm Arnold proved unavailable, and was given just six weeks to compose two hours of music; it won him his first Oscar.Wikipedia · Music
- Sony's 2012 8K scan revealed fingerprint-like concentric lines in the frame, caused by the film emulsion melting and cracking in the desert heat during production.Wikipedia · New restoration, Blu-ray, and theatrical re-release