A lost art
Jan. 23rd, 2013 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
litlover12Last night, after many, many increments of Lawrence of Arabia, I saw these words: The End.
(But then there was "Exit Music." Ah, '60s movies, I love you.)
By that point I felt like I'd spent several years marching through the desert myself. Make no mistake, Lawrence is LONG. And there is a LOT of sand. And camels. Many camels. Many, many, many camels.
Nonetheless, y'all were right, I liked it. It did feel a little draggy at times, possibly because the epic, as a genre, is not really my thing. But it was a beautiful epic -- you can't help but admire David Lean for being able to switch back and forth between small, intimate films and grand epics full of desert scenery, apparently without breaking a sweat. And it was an intelligent epic, full of nuance, food for thought, and fantastic characterization -- the kind of epic that I'm afraid may be becoming a lost art.
And oh, what a dream cast. I'd seen and loved Peter O'Toole in other roles, especially King Henry in The Lion in Winter, but this one was something special even for him. I've never noticed Jack Hawkins much before, though I'm sure I've seen him elsewhere, but his General Allenby was a treat. One of my favorite parts of the whole movie is when Brighton is having a full-on meltdown over the Arabs taking over Damascus, and Allenby comes back with a cool "Well, they're your pigeon, Harry." How British can you get?
And listening to Alec Guinness declaiming in that silver-toned voice of his while Claude Rains is giving one of his droll looks is like being given a birthday present when it isn't your birthday.
So all in all, that was well worthwhile. And there's another one crossed off the best British films list. ("The most represented actor [on the BFI list] was Alec Guinness," says Wikipedia. No kidding. When one begins to delve into the British classics, one soon gets the impression that for a few decades, the entire U.K. film industry consisted of Alec Guinness and a couple of other people. He's basically the Claude Rains of British films -- which made it all the more fun to see the two together! A special joint appearance by the Ubiquitous Brothers.) Now to pick the next one . . .
By the way, if any of you are following along on my journey through British Classic Filmland, would you like me to tag those posts somehow? Or should I not bother?
OT: WHY is LJ constantly chopping letters off my words these days!? Is this another one of those "improvements" that mess everything up?
(But then there was "Exit Music." Ah, '60s movies, I love you.)
By that point I felt like I'd spent several years marching through the desert myself. Make no mistake, Lawrence is LONG. And there is a LOT of sand. And camels. Many camels. Many, many, many camels.
Nonetheless, y'all were right, I liked it. It did feel a little draggy at times, possibly because the epic, as a genre, is not really my thing. But it was a beautiful epic -- you can't help but admire David Lean for being able to switch back and forth between small, intimate films and grand epics full of desert scenery, apparently without breaking a sweat. And it was an intelligent epic, full of nuance, food for thought, and fantastic characterization -- the kind of epic that I'm afraid may be becoming a lost art.
And oh, what a dream cast. I'd seen and loved Peter O'Toole in other roles, especially King Henry in The Lion in Winter, but this one was something special even for him. I've never noticed Jack Hawkins much before, though I'm sure I've seen him elsewhere, but his General Allenby was a treat. One of my favorite parts of the whole movie is when Brighton is having a full-on meltdown over the Arabs taking over Damascus, and Allenby comes back with a cool "Well, they're your pigeon, Harry." How British can you get?
And listening to Alec Guinness declaiming in that silver-toned voice of his while Claude Rains is giving one of his droll looks is like being given a birthday present when it isn't your birthday.
So all in all, that was well worthwhile. And there's another one crossed off the best British films list. ("The most represented actor [on the BFI list] was Alec Guinness," says Wikipedia. No kidding. When one begins to delve into the British classics, one soon gets the impression that for a few decades, the entire U.K. film industry consisted of Alec Guinness and a couple of other people. He's basically the Claude Rains of British films -- which made it all the more fun to see the two together! A special joint appearance by the Ubiquitous Brothers.) Now to pick the next one . . .
By the way, if any of you are following along on my journey through British Classic Filmland, would you like me to tag those posts somehow? Or should I not bother?
OT: WHY is LJ constantly chopping letters off my words these days!? Is this another one of those "improvements" that mess everything up?
