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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 4, 2006 - 01:45pm PT
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Told you it was a giveaway.
I actually prefer Lawrence and the Arabs by Robert Graves to The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but enjoy both. The Graves book, now almost 80 years old, was the first I read of Wahabi terrorists, although the force that overan Khartoum 4 decades earlier was likewise.
Anyway, the character in the film that said it was Dryden, played by Claude Rains, hence the "transparent" comment. Hehe.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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I'll check out the Graves book. Lowell Thomas' book on Lawrence was pretty good, too. It was a surprise to find out the Timex guy got his start covering the Arab rebellion.
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a true classic, written in a highly literate style that will probably never be seen again. Too bad a certain person in this country never bothered to stop partying long enough to read it. Might have saved some lives.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 4, 2006 - 04:43pm PT
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Did you know that the first manuscript of 7 Pillars was lost and that Lawrence rewrote it (500,000+ words) in 3 months?
That when he re-enlisted, this time in the RAF, he attempted to do so under the name Shaw (he was close friends with the playwrite George Bernard Shaw)?
Graves, far better known for his poetry, was a fellow Oxford alum and was the only person authorized by Lawrence to write his bio.
Have you seen the film A Dangerous Man, Lawrence After Arabia starring Ralph Fiennes? A far more realistic depiction of the interaction between Feisal and Lawrence.
I don't mean to fault Lean although there are many falsehoods depicted in his film it still gets right to the essence of Lawrence's disillusionment. This no doubt thanks to a superlative screenplay by Robert Bolt.
His next collaberation with Lean (Dr. Zhivago) strayed considerably less from Boris Pasternak's story.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Lean might have taken some liberties, but I think he stayed true to The Seven Pillars. He might have even improved some places. Anthony Quinn's speech, when Lawrence is trying to convince him to help attack Aqaba, is just great. "...but I am poor, for I am a river to my people!"
That is such a great movie.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 4, 2006 - 05:35pm PT
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That was shot right in Wadi Rum itself (nice sandstone).
Such is the quality of that film that in over three and a half hours the only "line" that any woman had in it was the shrieking as they marched off to Aquaba and yet no woman's group has ever condemned the film!
When they released the restored version I flew to NYC to see a fresh print (astounding!).
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 4, 2006 - 05:53pm PT
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I like in that scene how Auda (Quinn) tries to impress Lawrence by claiming that the Turks give him 100 gold guineas a month and Lawrence (who knows better) corrects him and says its 150, but that its only a "trifle" compared to what they keep in a box in Aquaba....
Sucker!!!!
Then just outside Aquaba (which was actually surrendered to Lawrence when he was more than 20 miles away, not taken by camelry charge as in the film) he discovers that the man he has to execute is Gasim.
Feisal tells Auda that Gasim is the man Lawrence rescued from the Nefud desert and Auda says, "Better to have left him."
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