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![]() | Lawrence of Arabia (film) was a Media and drama good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake. | |||||||||
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![]() | The contents of the Mr. Dryden page were merged into Lawrence of Arabia (film) on 7 March 2021. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected page, please see its history; for the discussion at that location, see its talk page. |
On 10 June 1916, Sharif Husayn's tribal warriors attacked the Turkish garrison in Mecca. With him he had the English officer, Thomas E. Lawrence, whose adventures were immortalised in David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia. Romantic historians have represented the revolt as a general Arab rising after more than 400 years of Turkish despotism. In reality, Husayn's personal ambitions to be king of the Arab world were more decisive, and the tribal warriors he mobilised by no means represented a broad, popular movement. Nonetheless, when these tribal warriors, in cooperation with the British, entered Damascus in 1918, the jubilation was great. Husayn's son, Faysal, rode triumphantly into the city and formed an Arab government.
For possible use in the "Historical accuracy" section. Erik (talk | contribs) 16:21, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
There are certain film directors like David Lean, Andre Tarkovsky or Chen Kaige who have earned a justifiable reputation as filmmakers preoccupied with the power and specularities of landscapes. Films, such as Dr Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Yellow Earth exemplify this fact.
For possible use in regarding to the film and the landscape in it. Erik (talk | contribs) 16:36, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
One can see the influence of Lawrence of Arabia here, the first film [Siddiq] Barmak ever saw. Just as in David Lean's film, Osama opens the viewer's eye to a desolate panorama of (urban) desert. From the very first sequence, which portrays a demonstration of women clad in blue burqas, the camera's depth of field extends far beyond the protesters to include the hills of mud-brick homes behind them and the mountains beyond.
For possible use in the "Legacy" section. Erik (talk | contribs) 16:46, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Today, I used this synopsis published by the British Film Institute to cite the plot summary with a secondary source since Wikipedia is supposed to be based on such sources whenever possible. We only use primary sources with great care, and in articles about film, we often run the risk of including interpretations. The goal of the plot summary is to provide an overview of the film in a concise manner. I was reverted, and I am concerned that we have a lot of interpretations in the primary-sourced revision. We have creative descriptions and a few assumptions about characters' behavior. A few recent Featured Articles about Star Trek films source their plot summaries to similar secondary sources, and there is no risk of interpretation in that approach. Can we not do the same here? The article may not be able to reach Featured status with the interpretations of the primary source, especially when we have a synopsis readily verifiable. Erik (talk | contribs) 00:12, 26 February 2011 (UTC)
Although the Article refers to Faisal as a practical joker, according to TEL in Seven Pillars it was Faisal's older brother, the less serious Abdullah, who was an unrepentent practical joker. — Preceding unsigned comment added by J52Jarhead (talk • contribs) 13:00, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
Hello, the film Lawrence of Arabia (film) is one of the candidates for WikiProject Film's anniversary collaboration. Please see the discussion about the collaboration here. Feel free to support this candidate, the other candidates, or even nominate other films as candidates for the anniversary collaboration. Erik (talk | contribs) 17:37, 4 October 2011 (UTC)
"As he is being driven, a motorbike rides by as a fascinated Lawrence watches on, marking the beginning of an obsession with motorcycles which would eventually cause his death."
Having viewed that scene just now, I didn't view it as fascinating Lawrence at all. Yes I'm sure it whizzed past as the writer was foreshaddowing what happens to Lawrence later, but it didn't strike me that Lawrence paid that much attention to it at all, or that the film was suggesting that was the beginning of an obsession. Maybe Lawrence wrote somewhere that this happened but it was certainly not in evidence in the scene 92.40.62.169 (talk) 17:18, 8 April 2012 (UTC)
One of the authors who has questioned the film's historical accuracy is Jeremy Wilson, Lawrence's official biographer. He has a paper/presentation entitled "Lawrence of Arabia or Smith in the Desert" in which he analyzes the historical content of the film. Unfortunately, EU privacy regulations have led him to temporarily take down his website (he promises to rebuild it as time allows), and I don't have access to a print version to be able to cite it. The current section on historical accuracy is largely original research, attempting to compare the film's content to the account in the Osprey books volume on the Arab Revolt. This is doubly bad, since it's original research, and the Osprey books, while passable for some purposes, are not the most reliable scholarly accounts. I don't have the Osprey volume on the Revolt, but one claim cited from it is that there was a unit of 1,100 French officers with the Arab Army. There might have been 1,100 men, but surely not 1,100 officers.MayerG (talk) 04:06, 29 May 2012 (UTC) I've noticed that some of the later sections do cite Wilson's "Smith in the Desert", although the links is now dead.MayerG (talk) 04:24, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
Too much is being made of the historical inaccuracies. Anyone who reads "Seven Pillars" knows that barely a frame is accurate and major events such as the bridge demolition are totally absent. Micheal Korda is right. This is a popular movie about "Lawrence of Arabia", not a documentary, not a docudrama, not an historical reenactment or any other thing. Case in point - the Bey scene. In the Bey interview sequence, both the Bey and Lawrence speak with Oxford accents. But in reality the Bey was speaking Arabic with a plummy official Turkisk accent and Lawrence had to reply in Arabic in a hillbilly accent. It was Lawrence's ability to speak in this Circassian dialect that convinced the Bey that this man could not possibly be Lawrence, much as he would like him to be. This detail is lost in the movie, yet it saved Lawrence's life. Another example is the petty squabbling between Faisal and Allenby about the waterworks. In fact Faisal is being totally practical as both of them must have known that no Arab would drink water made by infidels. The whole movie is so saturated in difficulties of these kinds that only a pedant would engage in argument about historical accuracy. 150.107.175.243 (talk) 05:12, 17 November 2021 (UTC)
How long was the 1966 TV version? I'm asking because the 1989 re-release made a big deal about having to re-dub at least 29 minutes of restored footage that was found to be silent, and the documentary on my 2-disk edition even makes it out of as if they had to re-dub the entire movie. Couldn't they have gone back to the 1966 telecine for the audio? After all, wasn't the original 1962 release monaural anyway, so a mono soundtrack from the telecine wouldn't have mattered much? --87.151.17.65 (talk) 17:33, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
The suggestion that this movie popularized the location for Spaghetti westerns (which is un-cited) is surely fairly bogus: the location was used for “The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw” in 1957/58, and the standing Western town set attracted other film makers - in addition to which, where else in Europe *could* you have gone to make them? Jock123 (talk) 20:22, 27 November 2012 (UTC)
José Ferrer as the Turkish Bey. Ferrer was initially unsatisfied with the small size of his part, and accepted the role only on the condition of being paid $25,000 (more than O'Toole and Sharif combined) plus a factory-made Porsche.[5]
Is there any other kind? I have owned two Porsches. I was able to ascertain that they were both "factory-made" and I have never heard of any other make. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.156.22.220 (talk) 01:33, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
The poster for Lawrence of Arabia has been removed and should be restored for such an iconic film. This is outrageous and I believe someone removed it because they wanted to vandalise the page and make it seem like "official" copyright infringement, which it is not. This issues needs to be fixed asap. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Internet Informant (talk • contribs) 23:52, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
Lean went to great pains to depict within the limits of the film code of the day the rape that Lawrence alleged happened in Deraa. Beyond the fact that both dialogue and visuals all but shout the point, the scene remains controversial. Should a source be necessary, this 2006 article from The Telegraph should do just fine. Note its reference to the "graphic depiction" of the rape. [1] Sensei48 (talk) 13:26, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
I have had to re-add deleted reliable source citations pertaining to the fact that LoA is a British film, the cited sources are: BAFTA, BBC and a reference to the AADA in it's definition of LoA as a British film, warm regards. Twobells (talk) 10:35, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
You took a reliable, best version of many years and stamped 'made in the USA!' stamp on it? Look at this version from January 3 this year. It already said British-American. If you want to stick to the guidelines, then stick to WP:FILMLEAD. Alex|The|Whovian? 11:00, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
Greetings, I am Gizem and as part of my university project I will be editing the Lawrence of Arabia (film) wikipedia page. To edit the page I will be working along side other members of my group of which are Lyndsey, Rado, Daniel and Freddie. Our aim is to try and improve the article from a (Rated C-class) article. (Undergraduate level students)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_program/Students
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It is a material fact that the guide was shot when he was attempt to draw his weapon not for drinking the water without permission. Yes they were at the well without permission but the death did not happen until the attempt to draw the weapon. Yes, Sharif said that he should not be drinking the well water without permission but again that was not the reason why he was shot otherwise Sharif could have shot before the guide reached for the weapon.2605:E000:9152:8F00:7060:320D:932D:E7A6 (talk) 15:03, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
(Later)
Like I said they were at the well without permission but if the guide had not gone for his weapon he would not have been shot at. If Sharif did not want the guide to drink from the well then he should have shot before the guide went for his weapon.2605:E000:9152:8F00:7060:320D:932D:E7A6 (talk) 19:25, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
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My impression of a British-American co-production is a film that involves studios from both countries. Lawrence has Spiegel's British company Horizon as the sole production company. Columbia was just distributing the film.PlutoniumBackToTheFuture (talk) 08:55, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
I removed this uncited claim:
Seemed mighty dubious considering, as our article makes clear, Sherif Ali is a fictional character. -Elmer Clark (talk) 02:04, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
Historically, Ali bin Hussein was the eldest son of Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashimi. Lawrence favoured the third son, Faisal, as a leader of the Arab revolt. The spelling ‘Sherif’ used in the film (rather than the more common ‘Sharif’) creates more confusion. The scene at the well is fictional but a good story. Humphrey Tribble (talk) 16:17, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
The clause saying that one of the themes of this film was "Lawrence's relationship with his boyfriend Ali" was removed on the grounds that Lean's 1989 Washington Post interview - which can be found at the end of the pre-production section - does not mention Lawrence having a boyfriend. However, Lean says that Lawrence and Ali were written as dating. He was asked whether the film was "pervasively homoerotic" by the interviewer and replied "Yes. Of course it is. Throughout... So it does pervade it, the whole story, and certainly Lawrence was very if not entirely homosexual. We thought we were being very daring at the time: Lawrence and Omar, Lawrence and the Arab boys." This shows that Sheriff Ali and Lawrence were written as being in a relationship - therefore since this is sourced at the end of the pre-production section - I propose that the clause (as well as the categories describing the film as LGBT (among other things)) be reinstated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.0.35.8 (talk) 22:05, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
Since it has been established (above) that this film was a purely UK production, why are the budget and box office figures in the infobox expressed in (presumably US) dollars? --Ekaterina Colclough (talk) 08:10, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
The Legacy section of the article proclaims LoA as inspiration for many later works of fiction, such as Star Wars, Dune or... Frozen? Frozen's mention in this article seems to be made entirely relying on a single line of an interview with Frozen's Directors, who in context were not referring to a direct influence of LoA in the film, but rather saying that due to the nature of their work, they tend to see a lot of movies and draw inspiration from a lot of sources: "We watch a lot of live action movies too – that’s one of the many great things about what we do! We watched Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zhivago". It seems to me that to say that Disney's Frozen was influenced by Lawrence of Arabia is a false clame, being based on a single line taken out of context and should be removed. MelZahard (talk) 23:56, 21 February 2024 (UTC)