Oh, look, another camel...

[alobear]

We watched Lawrence of Arabia on Friday night.

It was veeeeeeeeery loooooooong.  And most of the first half was shot after shot of people riding camels through the desert.

Now, I'm all for slow build in a film, but I think this took it a bit too far.

It was interesting, though - Lawrence was obviously an amazing guy, though not always presented in the best light here.  Apparently, some sources who knew him confirmed the egomaniac presentation, while others refuted it, so who knows?  Peter O'Toole was certainly excellent in the part, with stirling support from Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn and Claude Rains.  It's very hard to believe this was O'Toole's first film - was he really ever that young?

There's only so many times you can watch a camel approaching from the distance for several minutes and find it suspenseful, though...

Comments

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

Did Lawrence die in a motorbike accident? I have images of watching the start of a film that may have been Lawrence of Arabia that started off with Peter O'Toole on a motorbike and then dissolve into some sort of desert scene. I think I may have seen how long it was and decided I had better things to do because I don't remember watching the rest.
It doesn't sound like I missed all that much ...

[alobear.livejournal.com]

Yep, it is the one with the motorbike accident at the start.

And no, you didn't miss all that much.

I think it would have made an excellent two hour film, if they'd cut out 90+ minutes of camels.