Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

I watched Lawrence of Arabia (1962) looking for indications of orientalism and imperialism and came away confused. At the beginning of the movie, it seemed as though the film was belittling the Arabs, as I expected. As the film progressed however, I could not tell whether or not Lawrence was belittling the Arabs or tirelessly defending them. Was the film showing the world the harm that orientalism can do, or was it just another example of it?
The film is based on British war hero T. E. Lawrence’s autobiographical account of his part in the Middle Eastern campaign during World War One. The film begins with Lawrence’s (Peter O’Toole’s) death from a motorcycle accident, segueing to Lawrence towards the beginning of his military career in Cairo. The first thing that indicated to me that this movie would be yet another example of western imperialism and orientalism was a quick shot of a window, from the cellar where Lawrence is with a few other soldiers, of camel legs and dark feet surrounded in billowing robes followed by Lawrence’s remark that he was in a “nasty, dark, little” place.

Similar instances followed, affirming my assumptions. Lawrence’s guide asked with wonder, “Truly, you are a British officer?” The guide asks naïve questions about Briton, and Lawrence answers him as he would a child, looking at his guide with humour.
One scene in particular began to make me question my assumptions about the film. When Lawrence finally meets Prince Feisal, whom he was ordered to find, they have a discussion of each other’s intentions. Prince Feisal says, “The English have a great hunger for desolate places, I fear they hunger for Arabia…but maybe you are one of these Englishman who loves the dessert, no Arab loves the dessert?” I took his saying this to be a swipe at those westerners who claim to be sympathetic towards a different culture, and who profess a love of it without understanding it. He then goes on to say, “Or is it that you think we are something you can play with? A little people, a silly people? Greedy, barbarous and cruel.”
By having Prince Feisal say this, the film is notifying the audience that it is conscious of the orientalism and imperialist views that many westerners have of the Arab people. The fact that Feisal comes right out with it and accuses Lawrence of imperialist intentions, as well as maybe questioning whether he may have similar intentions to an anthropologist (claiming to love the Arab culture, and claiming to want to preserve it), made me believe that orientalism could not be at work in the film. After all, how could a film that is conscious of orientalism be guilty of it?




A scene later in the film further confirmed my newfound belief that this film was attempting to make the movie-going public conscious of orietalism in film when Lawrence returns to the British Military headquarters in Cairo. Lawerence, dressed in native Arab robes with a head scarf, dirty, unshaven, walks into the clean halls of the British headquarters and the officers try to stop him, not recognizing him as a fellow Englishman. Lawrence, with one of his companions, walks into the officers lounge and is surrounded by identical looking men in clean uniforms with polished boots, clean shaven with neat hair. All the men turned to stare at Lawrence as he made his way through them and attempted to order lemonade for him and his companion. The bartender refuses to serve him and a officer tries to kick him out, with the rest of the officers yelling for him to leave, before he is summoned to talk with a General.
It struck me that Lawrence, at the beginning of his adventure, was an outsider and intruder amongst the Arab people, and upon returning to his people is again an outsider. Despite Lawrence being in the British military, he still represents the native outsider, the other, to the rest of the officers at head quarters. By immersing himself amongst the Arabs Lawrence loses his identity and can no longer identify with his people.
The films messages fluctuated for me, at times clearly showing orientalism and at others being an example of it. At the end of the film I was at the conclusion that while the film attempted to expose orientalism in film, it was undoubtedly unconsciously an example of it as well. I would have to view the film more than once though, to get a really good idea.