Information
- BFI identifier35493
- Date1962 (Copyright)
1962-12-13 (Release) - Production countryUnited Kingdom
- Production company
- SynopsisWar drama about the exploits of Colonel T.E. Lawrence, the British First World War soldier and scholar. Lawrence is killed in a motorcycle accident in England, and his memorial service is held at St Paul's Cathedral. Lawrence's war service is then charted in flashback. The Arab Bureau sends Lawrence from Cairo on a mission to assess the Arab revolt. Lawrence treks across the desert, meets Prince Feisal and sheikh Auda Abu Tayi, and leads a small army across a stretch of supposedly impassable desert known as 'the sun's anvil', to take the Turkish port town Aqaba. General Allenby sends a reluctant Lawrence back into the desert to wage guerrilla war against the Turks and Germans. American newspaper reporter Jackson Bentley makes Lawrence a glamorous, world-famous figure. Lawrence is captured and tortured by the Turks, and, becoming an altogether darker figure than his legend would suggest, he leads a massacre on some retreating enemy soldiers. In Damascus, the newly established Arab Council proves a chaotic shambles, unable to control the political situation, and Lawrence heads home to England no longer feeling he fully belongs there or in Arabia. (Synopsis)
- Work historyDirector's cut containing restored footage released 1989. Original prints listed Robert Bolt alone for the film's screenplay, and this remained the case until 1995, when the Writers' Guild of America ruled that Michael Wilson had contributed enough in his own drafts to merit a writing credit as well. Since then, the film's writing credits read: 'Screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson'. For further details, see Cineaste article.
- Genre
- Subject
- CreditsDirected by: David Lean
©/Production Company: Horizon Pictures (G.B.)
Produced by: Sam Spiegel
view all - CastAlec Guinness (Prince Feisal)
Anthony Quinn (Auda Abu Tayi)
Jack Hawkins (General Allenby)
view full cast
Title
Lawrence of Arabia (Original)
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Working)
Lawrence of Arabia [Director's Cut] (Alternative)
EIDR identifier
10.5240/3768-CC96-51EC-64D0-A6F7-NCategory
FictionThis work is included in the BFI Filmography.
- Collections
- Film / Video
35mm Colour Positive - Acetate - Combined - Viewing
35mm Colour Positive - Safety - Combined - Viewing
35mm Colour Positive - Safety - Combined - Viewing
70mm Colour Positive - CTA - Combined - Viewing
35mm Colour Positive - Combined - Viewing
35mm Colour Positive - CTA - Combined - Viewing
view all - Scripts / DocumentsScript - Script type: Dialogue continuity script - SCR-921
Script - Script type: Action continuity script - SCR-923
Script - Script type: Shooting script - SCR-924
Script - Script type: Screenplay - SCR-925
Script - Script type: Screenplay - second revised draft - SCR-926
Medium and small pressbooks held. Information folder held. See FILM AND TELEVISION EPHEMERA and FILM PROGRAMMES Lists. For example of handbill see CINEMA EPHEMERA: REGIONS (Odeon, Ramsgate)
view all - Posters / DesignsDesign: production - sketch of layout of Aquaba with photo of finished set - PD-19659
Poster: film - Single sheet portrait - PD-13874
Poster: film - Single sheet landscape - PD-13875
Poster: film - Single sheet portrait - PD-13876
Poster: film - Single sheet landscape - PD-13877
view all - StillsPhotograph: print - Portrait - Black and White - bfi-00o-d2o
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00o-d2n
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00o-d2m
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00o-d2l
Photograph: publicity - Portrait - Colour - bfi-00o-d3o
view all - Articles
- Books
- Digital documentsBFI Southbank Programme Notes November 2012
BFI Southbank Programme Notes August 2014
BFI Southbank Programme Notes June 2015
BFI Southbank Programme Notes September 2017
BFI Southbank Programme Notes September 2017
BFI Southbank Programme Notes April 2016
available to view in BFI Reuben Library
- +Lawrence of Arabia
Work - 35493 - 1962 (Copyright)
United Kingdom - Film - Fiction
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