David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia' -- Thom Hartmann's Independent Thinker Review

THOM HARTMANN'S INDEPENDENT THINKER REVIEW OF THE MONTH

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Back on Iyyar 2, 5769 (that's April 26th of this year to most Americans) the most left of Israel's major newspapers, Haaretz, published an article by Amer Oren titled, "Why Lawrence of Arabia is still relevant, from Gaza to Kabul." I resolved to watch the movie, and ordered it from a popular online seller. Last week I caught enough time (it runs over 3 hours) to watch it. Oren was right.

The movie was first released in 1963 and stars Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence, Alec Guinness as Prince Faisal, Anthony Quinn as Auda abu Tayi, and Omar Sharif as Serif Ali ibn el Kharish. The movie takes place during World War I, and is largely based on real characters and real events (there's a great analysis of what is and isn't in its Wikipedia entry).

Its critical essence - what provoked Oren to write his piece for Haaretz and led Admiral Eric Olson, the chief of US Special Operations Command in the Middle East to initiate last year "Project Lawrence" - is the story of Lawrence, a British Army officer, who comes to know the culture of the local Arabs so intimately that he is able to lead them in a world-changing uprising and several major battles against the then-massive Turkish Ottoman Empire.

There are a number of subtexts to the movie, and given recent US and British adventures in the region, some that weren't even intended by David Lean and Sam Spiegel, its director and producer. First among these is how the British apparently hadn't learned a thing since the American Revolution about taking on a foreign army that's nationalistic, decentralized, and fights in an unconventional fashion. They also had (have?) never given up their insufferable assumption of absolute cultural superiority relative to virtually everybody but particularly with regard to people who live tribally.

Lawrence got it - so much so that one of his superior officers wonders out loud if he's "gone native" - and it was through this understanding of the Arab culture that he was able to accomplish what he did. The consequences of those accomplishments are still playing out in the region, nearly a century later.

And Lawrence's understanding is what inspired Admiral Olson to tell the House Armed Services Committee this past June that he's now recruiting native Pashtu, Hausa, and Sinhala speakers (among others) for his "Project Lawrence." Olson doesn't intend to repeat the British mistakes, and one hopes that in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq he and his peers have learned something. Two weeks ago in New York I had occasion to talk with one of the Army generals responsible for southern Afghanistan. "We can't kill our way to victory," he said to me, adding that we must both respect their culture and help them build a modern and functional infrastructure. Another military person who watched the movie?

Other subtexts include the madness of the legal mass murder we call war and its effect on those we push into it; Lawrence's homosexuality (and later love of masochism); the importance of hospitality in tribal cultures; and how when cultures clash (particularly violently) those with the poorest technology are most often absorbed or at least dramatically changed by their brush with the more technological.

But for me, the most important was that it's a great way to spend a few hours, stepping back a century, and watching some of the most brilliant acting ever captured on the screen. It was no accident that Lawrence of Arabia won Best Picture and six other Oscars, and is still one of the most-watched of all classic movies more than forty years after its initial release.

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times bestselling Project Censored Award winning author and host of a nationally syndicated progressive radio talk show. You can learn more about Thom Hartmann at his website and find out what stations broadcast his program. You can also listen to Thom over the Internet.

THOM HARTMANN'S INDEPENDENT THINKER REVIEW OF THE MONTH

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