Essay Questions

This film is about an epic and seemingly impossible journey across the desert. In what ways does David Lean emphasize the scale of the challenges facing Lawrence and his troops?

From a cinematic perspective, Lean uses several techniques to emphasize the sheer scope of what Lawrence was facing. Visually, he had Panavision make a 70mm camera that gave a wider field of vision than any camera that pre-dated it. This enabled the film to effectively be viewed in widescreen and the vastness of the desert made even more impactful; coupled with that Lean directed the actors to undertake the traversing the desert shots in single file, thereby making the men appear even smaller and more insignificant against the backdrop of the sand. The other technique he employed was to shoot all of the action from left to right. This gave the appearance of a journey, a trek, and made the endeavor seem even longer and more arduous.

T.E. Lawrence was said to be enigmatic. Do we know hI'm any better at the end of the film than we do at the beginning?

The film opens with a journalist wanting to speak with Lawrence's military colleagues because he felt this might help him get to know him better. Lawrence was an enigma until his dying day and this never changes as his fellow officers and the men serving under him never got to know him any more personally. We know about different facets of his character; we learn of bravery and courage that seems almost more than human; we learn that he felt almost godlike himself and was disturbed by his enjoyment of killing. We deduce from this that he is a man who knows right from wrong and holds himself to a higher standard of behavior than most men but we do not get to really understand him or learn what motivates him other than the pride in being outside the lines of normal behavior.

What is David Lean's perspective on the war in the desert?

David Lean's film positions itself firmly in the camp that believes the politicians and military leaders strategizing the war and its plan exploited Lawrence somewhat, giving him to believe that they were intending to liberate the Arabs and enable them to overcome the Turkish threat and self-govern when in actuality they knew that the native lawmakers and the desert people would not be capable of forming a government and planned for Lawrence to be successful so that the British could step in and take back control of the area. The perspective of the movie appears to be that the British used Lawrence to enable them to continue the spread of their colonial rule in area typically out of their control and the final scene without Lawrence being repatriated against his will definitely validated this perspective.