Lawrance of Arabia Review

In Lawrence of Arabia there are several themes that are accomplished using cinematographic effects.

One theme would be a death. This can be seen when Lawrence is forced to execute one of his own men and as the execution is finished you can see the lighting go dark as Lawrence's eyes bulge from the stimulation of the event and other people try to console him. Another instance would be when they attack a small village in which they could have gone around but Lawrence had a thirst for blood and he leaves the village ravaged and the look of death comes over the picture as you see carts smoking and black is everywhere and the sun hides behind thick dark clouds as gloom sets in for Lawrence. Throughout the many journeys between the cities and towns as the men travel the deserts many men find themselves lost in sandstorms, it is as if the sandstorms represent death or the grim reaper themselves. Once you are swallowed by the storm rarely do you make it out alive if you become separated from the group. The sandstorm played and important role when Lawrence decided to go back to save on of the soldiers he traveled back to essentially save this man from death. He finds the man and on there way back they encounter a sandstorm eventually they get out of that sandstorm and the man is "freed" from death. Lastly, at the beginning of the film we see Lawrence ride a motorcycle to his death and it shows that his true passion was for the people of Arabia.

During that same storm Lawrence looses he compass. The significance in that represents change. Lawrence's change began when he was given the white robe and it represented honor, he had become an honorable member of their group, he had become an accepted figure. Then as mentioned above when he loses his compass it represents that he has lost his loyalty to the crown, but rather he now his loyalty is held with the people of Arabia. Lastly, they began to call him "La Arance" and he is viewed as a well respected leader of the tribe, they begin to call him this after he saved the man from the desert.

The Music that is played for the beginning as well as the intermission portions of the movie is something that now producer today has tried to replicate, but plays a special role in Lawrence of Arabia. In the beginning the music is quite a tease and plays on your emotions of wanting to "hurry up and watch the movie already", it plays to excite you and get you to immediately want to dive in as soon as the first frame is displayed. Sort of like smelling cookies baking in the oven or a pizza cooking at lunch time, all you can think about is why can't i eat that right now. Then, the intermission music is there to wake you up and redraw you interests as well as give you a few minutes to analyze what has happened so far in the film. Both the intermission and the introduction music play both to both a creative as well as a practical purpose.

Lawrence of Arabia has several different themes that play strong roles in developing a the plot of the story and are useful in pointing out key situations and points of great intrest.