#7 - Lawrence of Arabia

There's something about epics that I just can't wrap my mind around. In my point of view, a simple two-hour movie is plenty long enough -- you don't need four hours to tell a single story. With the exception of "Gone with the Wind," which I like only because it's about the South, I just can't get into epics like 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia."

The film lasts 3 hours and 46 minutes. My favorite feature about my DVD player is that you can fast-forward a movie and still hear all of the dialogue and see all of the action, just in a sped-up fashion (with subtitles, understanding what everyone says is a breeze). Watching movies this way cuts down on a quarter of the time it would normally take to watch the movie. So I watched this movie completely in fast-forward and it still took almost three hours out of my Sunday afternoon.

But enough complaining, long movies are the standard on AFI's list, and I'd better get used to them. In "Lawrence of Arabia" we are told the story of T.E. Lawrence, a man who starts out as a wisecracking military grunt and rises through the ranks quite rapidly with a series of impressive strategic moves. The scope and quality of the movie is legendary -- Steven Spielberg once said that he realized he wanted to be a filmmaker after watching "Lawrence of Arabia."

Peter O'Toole's breakout role as Lawrence could have been a bore, three-and-a-half hours of staunch military conduct: blah. But O'Toole gives Lawrence a flair and a wit that was surprising and funny (I wasn't expecting so much humor when I started the movie). O'Toole handles the movie deftly, giving each scene the same quality as if it were the only one.

My favorite idea the movie puts forth is that of the extraordinary man longing to be ordinary. Lawrence has a talent that Great Britain takes advantage of: charismatic leadership and a knowledge of the land like no other Brit. Through his techniques and dealings with the local royalty, Lawrence successfully enacts several missions that further the British cause in the Middle East in World War I.

The war scenes are of course epic and the acting top-notch. But the movie taken as a whole was just not my cup of tea. I think the movie is deserving of all the accolades it has received, but being in the Top 10 seems a bit of an odd choice to me.