Well, I'd, of course, heard of the film. But never seen it. In researching for the festival, this title came up again and again as one of the best films of all time. When I learned that Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness) was featured in the movie, I couldn't resist. (The boys found him entirely recognizable by his voice, if not so much by his look, as this was 15 years prior to Star Wars.)
Specs:
Nearly 4 hours! Shot gorgeously in color.
Our family's average rating on a scale from 1 - 10:
8.13
More about the film and our reaction to it:
What an incredible, remarkable, film. Wow. Just wow. We can't say we loved it. We loved LOVED the first half. Its hard to imagine better cinema ever than the first half of the movie. For us, the second half felt long and less compelling. More of the psychological and political depth and drama emerges in ernest in the second half making it less suitable for children -- unless they are the more mature type, readily engaged with that type of material. There are several unsettling scenes of violence - mostly implied or not graphically shown. Other disturbing ideas will go over younger kids heads.
Our main character, Lawrence, as well as many (most) of the others -- and, come to think of it, the civilizations they represent -- is ambiguous: siting neither on the moral right or hated wrong, but somewhere in between. Although Lawrence's character flaws were foreshadowed in the beginning of the film, it was easy to forget them as we joined him on his amazing journey into the Arab world. The film allows you to just plunge viscerally into that world. The cinematography is so gorgeous that "visceral" is the only word for it. You truly experience this land on an unimaginable level. My husband and I agreed that we have never seen such a beautifully shot film, ever. It was stunning.
We watched over two, well, really three nights. The first we were spellbound and in love with this film. We stopped just before intermission. The second night just didn't click for us in the same way. We put the film on and watched for another hour or so then found we were all just drifting and losing interest. So we put off the last half hour until the following night. Did I mention this film runs well over 3 1/2 hours long? Still, I wouldn't let that discourage anyone from seeing it who is interested. The film is glorious.
My hesitancy to recommend it for families lies in the fact that I don't think most modern kids would get into it the way mine did. If your kids are good with more serious themes in film and with disturbing and ambiguous truths, then go for it. But its probably best to ease into classic film first before taking on this one.
Iconic image:
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