Birthday of the Lawrence of Arabia
On December 10, 1962, David Lean's film "Lawrence of Arabia" was presented to the British royal family in London. A day later, the demonstration of this picture began in UK cinemas.
The screenplay of the film was based on the autobiographical novel "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by Thomas Edward Lawrence. T.E. Lawrence, born in 1888, was the illegitimate son of the Anglo-Irish aristocrat Sir Thomas Chapman and governess Sarah Jenner. After graduating from Oxford in 1910, Lawrence began archaeological research in the Middle East. At the same time, he had the idea to write a book about the seven great ancient cities of this region and call it "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom". However, fate made adjustments to the plans of the young archaeologist. In 1914, the First World War broke out, and Lawrence volunteered for the British Army. Since Lawrence, despite his rather young age, was already known as an expert on the customs and traditions of the peoples of the Middle East, he received an appointment from the military command to the intelligence directorate. In the end, he wrote a book with the specified title, but it was devoted to a completely different topic - the Arab uprising against Ottoman rule in 1916-1918, a direct participant and, in part, the organizer of which he was. The book was published in 1926.
After the nonsensical (or, according to a number of conspiracy theorists, extremely suspicious) death of Lawrence in 1935, British cinematographers tried several times to launch the adaptation of his memoir novel, but no project was completed for one reason or another. Finally, in the late 50s, producer Sam Spiegel and director David Lean thought about making a film based on T.E. Lawrence's memoirs. The fact is that the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" created by them in 1957 was a huge success all over the world, and they decided to make a film based on real historical events again. Lawrence's book provided them with a favorable opportunity to realize this idea. Sam Spiegel bought the rights to the film adaptation of the book "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" from T.E. Lawrence's brother, Professor A. W. Lawrence, who was his heir, for 22.5 thousand pounds (about 470 thousand pounds today).
Several well-known actors at that time were considered as candidates for the main role, in particular, Alec Guinness and Marlon Brando. But Guinness did not pass by age, and Brando refused the role, saying that he did not want to spend two years of his life riding a camel. After learning about the problems with the selection of an actor for the main role, Katharine Hepburn, who starred in the title role in David Lean's film "Summertime" (1955), recommended the little-known Peter O'Toole. After watching the film "The Day They Robbed the Bank of England" (1960), in which 28-year-old O'Toole played one of the main roles, Lean realized that this actor was like no other suitable for the role of Lawrence. Moreover, O'Toole, like Lawrence, has Irish roots. (And Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole subsequently played the royal couple in the film "The Lion in Winter").
The preparatory period lasted for two years, and then the shooting lasted for another 14 months. The film was shot in Jordan, Spain and Morocco. The $15 million budget was quite modest for a picture of this scale, and it's hard to say if the filmmakers would have been able to meet it...if love hadn't helped. The fact is that King Hussein of Jordan visited the shooting. And he fell in love with a young assistant, Antoinette Gardiner. Wanting to earn the favor of his beloved, he ordered to allocate an entire brigade of his Arab legion as extras for the film, so that most of the "soldiers" of the film are played by real soldiers. Moreover, it was free for the filmmakers. And Antoinette Gardiner married Hussein in 1962 and... became his second wife.
An amazing thing is religion! The king of a Muslim country contributed to the creation of the film. But in most Muslim countries, the spiritual and political leadership banned the film for religious reasons. In Egypt, at first, the film was also banned. But the Egyptians were lucky: one of the main roles in the film was played by Omar Sharif, the star of the then Egyptian cinema and, moreover, a close acquaintance of the country's president Gamal Abdel Nasser. He persuaded the president to watch the movie, and he liked the movie. And the film was allowed. And among ordinary Egyptians, Muslims and non-Muslims, the film has become wildly popular. By the way, the film was not shown in the USSR either. At least until the beginning of perestroika.
Film critics, as well as prominent figures of cinematography, enthusiastically accepted the picture. Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars out of 4 possible and included it in his list of "Great Movies". Steven Spielberg called this film his favorite... But T.E. Lawrence's brother, after watching the film before it was released, was horrified. He called Lean's picture "an unholy marriage of a western and a psychological horror film" and forbade the use of the title "Seven Pillars of Wisdom". He donated the money he received for the sale of the film rights to charity. And the film eventually got the name "Lawrence of Arabia".
But not only Professor A.W. Lawrence was dissatisfied with David Lean's film. The New York Times film reviewer Bosley Crowther, true to his habit of finding fault with any film, filled his review with caustic and sarcastic remarks, such as: "Lawrence got lost against the backdrop of a vivid demonstration of the endless desert and camels, Arabs, sheikhs and skirmishes with Turks, explosions and disputes with the British military," or "The legendary figure of Lawrence, a mystic and poet, in the picture is reduced to the usual size of a cliched action hero among magnificent and exotic landscapes." And finally, the final feature of the film - "a thundering camel opera, generating only sullen disappointment." (The New York Times, DEC. 17, 1962)
However, the film community disagreed with the opinions of archaeology professor A. W. Lawrence and film critic Bosley Crowther. In early 1963, David Lean's film "Lawrence of Arabia" received 9 nominations for the American Golden Globe Award and won 6 of them, including the most important ones: Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Director. And this is despite the fact that among the competitors were such movie masterpieces as Arthur Penn's "The Miracle Worker", Robert Mulligan's "To Kill a Mockingbird", Blake Edwards' "Days of Wine and Roses" and others. A little later, the American Film Academy nominated the film in 11 categories and awarded its Oscar in 7 of them, Including the most important ones: Best Picture and the Best Director.
The "native" British Film Academy turned out to be a little more stingy than the American one. She nominated David Lean's picture in only 5 categories and awarded her BAFTA Prize in 4 of them. Moreover, as usual, recognizing the film as the Best British film and the Best film from any source. Among the prestigious film awards won by "Lawrence of Arabia", two David di Donatello awards from the Italian Film Academy can also be attributed: one to Sam Spiegel as the Best Foreign Producer, the other to Peter O'Toole as the Best foreign Actor.
In general, Peter O'Toole received 3 prestigious film awards and 3 nominations for his role in David Lean's film. This made him immediately an actor of the first magnitude and, perhaps, compensated for the numerous injuries sustained during filming. After all, while starring as Lawrence, Peter O'Toole suffered third-degree burns, sprained both ankles, tore ligaments in his hip, broke his thumb, dislocated his spine, fractured his skull, was bitten by a camel, sprained his neck, tore his inguinal muscle and suffered a concussion twice.
Ordinary moviegoers, as well as members of the film academies, disagreed with archaeology professor A. W. Lawrence and a columnist for the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party of the USA. In the 60s of the last century, this manifested itself in the significant box office collection of the picture "Lawrence of Arabia", which exceeded $ 45 million. And in the 21st century - in the high audience ratings given to the picture. 73% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film a score of 8 or higher. Thanks to this indicator and the above, the rating of David Lean's film "Lawrence of Arabia" according to FilmGourmand version was 10,865, which allowed him to take the high 12th Rank in the Golden Thousand. These figures were the highest among films produced by British cinematographers, which serves as a reason to consider this film the best picture of British cinema. In addition, "Lawrence of Arabia" became the best film of world cinema in 1962.
