Ep 16 // Lawrence of Arabia w/ Matt

It’s Alicia's 3rd pick: ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ the 1962 film directed by David Lean. The film is adapted from the autobiographical account of T. E. Lawrence, ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom,’ which was first published in 1926 and told the story of his involvement with the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks, from 1916-1918. Over the decades, many filmmakers – chief among them legendary silent and early sound era producer/director Alexander Korda – courted Lawrence, his estate, and biographers who owned rights to their own versions of the story. But it was ultimately producer Sam Spiegel who secured the rights, looking to follow up on his successful production of ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ with director David Lean. By most accounts the extremely long shoot – which took place in Jordan, Morocco, and Spain – was hellish, but the resulting Super Panavision 70mm CinemaScope film, which premiered in December of 1962, went on to great success largely with both audiences and critics. In addition to its 7 Oscar wins for Best Picture, Director, Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score, and Sound, it was also nominated for Best Actor (Peter O’Toole), Best Supporting Actor (Omar Sharif), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson). Notably, Gregory Peck won Best Actor that year for To Kill A Mockingbird. As for our purposes, ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ has actually never appeared in the Top 10 or as a runner up on Sight & Sound magazine’s critics poll of the greatest films of all time, but it did rank at #4 on their poll of directors in 2002. Produced by Stereoactive Media