Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia had a serious shot at being the greatest picture ever made, but screenwriters Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson unfortunately gave in to the myth of depicting T.E. Lawrence as a simpering pansy early in the story. Arab Moslems have no problem, in practice, with homosexuality, as long as it is done tastefully, by masculine-seeming men raping little boys. However, they will not tolerate the perversion of men dancing around openly like Noel Coward, and acting like bloody fags! They would have drawn and quartered an Englishman who acted the way Peter O’Toole acts early in the picture.
(Truth be told, however, even if O’Toole had played it straight, he still would likely have lost out to Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird that year. Although Peck gave an excellent performance, his Oscar was both a career award, and a political award for starring in the most powerful work of racial propaganda of the past 100 years.)
And that’s why Lawrence of Arabia isn’t the greatest picture ever made. But it still comes in tied with The Bridge on the River Kwai for eleventh in my book, following The Best Years of Our Lives, The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II, and Citizen Kane; It’s a Wonderful Life; Shane; The Philadelphia Story; On the Waterfront; The Third Man; and Casablanca.
Thanks to Frederik Riesberg for the splendid upload.
Published on May 26, 2013
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1962). Composed and Conducted by Maurice Jarre.
Music Awards:
Academy Award - Best Original Score (1962)
Playlist:
-00:00 = "Overture"
-04:13 = "Main Title"
-06:05 = "Arrival At Auda's Camp"
-07:26 = The Voice Of The Guns"
-09:24 = "Continuation Of The Miracle"
-11:31 = "That Is The Desert"
-12:55 = "End Title"
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2 comments:
That accusation of Lawrence being a homosexual may be more nothing than innuendo by rivals and enemies of T.E. T.E. was described as being ne of the seven most important men in the world and did have a lot of those opposed to him and his ideas POST-WAR. That easiest and best way to smear a person is to suggest some sort of sexual deviancy, proven or otherwise.
Speaking of movies with a political theme, TCM just ran "The Young Savages" again. This is a 1961 John Frankenheimer film with Burt Lancaster as a Manhattan Deputy DA.
In 1957, a 15 year old white boy named Michael Farmer was murdered by a gang of black and Puerto Ricans (Google "Michael Farmer murder"). It received a lot of publicity at the time.
Farmer had polio, but could walk.
In the 1961 film, the victim is a teenage Puerto Rican boy who is blind. The killers are from an Italian gang with the main bad guy Irish.
The film does give some ambiguity to the case. The story takes place (and was filmed) in the part of Harlem which tipped from Italian to Puerto Rican.
Reversing the races of perp and victim in crime stories became a standard trope in movie and TV drama.
David In TN
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