Thanks for the love, Blofeld.
Andre, I never realized that connection between Kane and Lawrence. Uncanny, though, and you have to wonder if Lean was influenced by the "death-first" technique of Welles.
I've read that the main criticism of LoA is the lack of knowledge we have of Lawrence's character by the end of the film. In the end, so the critics say, we really haven't cracked the shell that is Lawrence, and the audience is left completely mystified as to his overreaching motivations. Basically, Lawrence is this weird, eccentric, slightly effeminate dude who likes the desert, and at the end, he's a weird, eccentric, slightly effeminate dude who likes the desert and has suffered the tribulations of war and goes home.
I'm not in agreement, obviously. Yes, Lawrence is a very strange man. But I think the character arc is phenomenal. He begins the movie as an awkward, socially inept, bookish man. Not a soldier, to say the least. And then he gets a heaping dosage of what he's always wanted: the desert. It literally and figuratively scours him. No longer a sheltered cartographer, he is now a warrior-poet, a philosopher-king, as someone mentioned earlier. A being of single purpose (defeat the Turks and protect the Arabs), but without a shred of knowledge of his own identity.
Is he British? Is he Arab? Is this determined by birth and blood, or by one's affinity for a certain environment?
"It is a fat land, full of fat people."
"You are not fat?"
"No, I'm different."
And then, of course, the famous scene of the British soldier on the banks of the Suez (actually David Lean) shouting to an unrecognizable Lawrence: "WHO ARE YOU?! WHO ARE YOU?!"
The character is fascinating because we witness the transformation of a human being into a myth. But where other movies have shown us this through the eyes of supporting characters, this story shows us this evolution while the protagonist is realizing it! Lawrence sees his humanity being stripped away, revels in it for a while, and then ultimately renounces it. He becomes near god-like, a vessel of undiluted charisma, a unifying presence to the Arabs who end up forgetting his British blood, and praise him as their deliverer.
In the end, what does he realize? "Difficult to say," as Dryden deadpans. I think part of it is he realizes that's he's only human, and with all the glory that entails, it always comes with a price. He embraced the desert, and the desert embraced back, breaking his spine. It was a love affair where Lawrence didn't stand a shred of a chance.
Galt
