Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Directed by David Lean
During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.
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What critics compared Lawrence of Arabia to
He’s an avatar for Stahelski’s homages to classic cinema of the past, from a tribute to Lawrence of Arabia ‘s match cut in the beginning to the close-up of a Black female DJ’s mouth ushering in our final chase, in a nod to Walter Hill’s The Warriors .
It’s a measure of the strength of this series’ brain trust that an allusion to the famous match-cut from Lawrence of Arabia doesn’t feel cutesy: rather, it feels like an earnest tribute to Lean’s ambition and artistry, a literal burnt offering to their ancestors as a blessing.
The quiet moments are evocative — like when Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King blows out a match before the camera cuts to a cresting sunset (a cheeky homage to Lawrence of Arabia and one of the most famous cuts in film history) — and the unleashing of violence is clear and easy to follow.
In the first few minutes, we get a homage to a classic match cut from Lawrence of Arabia .
Opening with a horse chase across the sands of Morocco that evokes Lawrence of Arabia in more than just its epic scale, Chapter 4 then surges from New York to Osaka to Berlin to Paris, finding in these locales open playgrounds for both carnage and homage — to great film artists as distinguished as Zhang Yimou, Jet Li, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, John Woo, Shintaro Katsu, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Yuen Woo-ping, Walter Hill, and Jean-Pierre Melville, but also to iconic works of Renaissance art and classical architecture — all generously reflected through the John Wick series’ abstracted-urbanity aesthetic (thrillingly realized by production designer Kevin Kavanaugh and cinematographer Dan Lausten) but enabled by its ever-deepening mythology and correspondingly expansive capacity to synthesize inspirations.
And yet, the franchise possesses both the self-confidence and the ingenuity to earn its boldness – even at one point replicating the 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia and its famous cut from a blown-out match to a shimmering expanse of desert.
Alongside the references to Wick’s childhood, there are bizarre scenes set in Morocco and in the African desert, through which Wick walks in search of spiritual enlightenment, looking like a cross between Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas and Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia .
This character alludes to Rashid ad-Din Sinan – the “Old Man of the Mountain” who led the historical Order of Assassins in 12th-century Syria – although for most viewers he is likely to evoke Prince Faisel as depicted in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
The room is just one flank of the franchise’s visual style with its neo-noir flair that now extends to Lawrence of Arabia homages.
You’ll notice nods to plenty of genres and cinematic legends, from Lawrence of Arabia to Rumble in The Bronx .
New York exteriors recall “Blade Runner,” cinematographer Dan Laustsen favoring rainy midnight blues and neon reds, pops of gold anticipating the Sahara of “Lawrence of Arabia” in Morocco.
The look of New York resembles a highly stylized noir, while the dessert portions are shot with a grand scope that evokes the grand epics of cinema history (it’s not quite on Lawrence of Arabia ‘s level, though nothing is, really).
The film continuously presents the audience with obvious parallels to Lawrence of Arabia, a film watched by the android David (Fassbender) in his attempts to gain insight into the folly of humanity’s collective potential/hubris.
The voyage is overseen by Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), a chilly corporate representative with no scientific interest or imagination, and David (Michael Fassbender), a flaxen-haired android created by Weyland whose seemingly benign demeanor is undercut by his HAL-like vocal cadences, which are amusingly modeled on Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (Fassbender, who was so intense and unhinged in Shame, is quite impeccable in playing the uncanniness of simulated human behavior).
Their ship, the Prometheus, is helmed during the long trip by Weyland’s crowning achievement in robotics, David (Michael Fassbender channeling Peter O’Toole from “Lawrence of Arabia”).
(In a witty conceit, we learn the robot has chosen the unearthly Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia" as his human role model.)
The dark, devilish, creepily compelling “Prometheus” may not be Scott’s own “Lawrence of Arabia.”
David stars in the film's single most original sequence, using the Prometheus as his private playground while the mere mortals that he serves slumber, fixing his hair like Peter O'Toole's after watching Lawrence of Arabia and effortlessly sinking impossible hook shots in the gymnasium.
Though visually resembling Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, the Wrath of God, with hallucinatory night-time jungle scenes recalling Apocalypse Now, Gray’s exploration into a driven individual’s morality more resembles Lawrence of Arabia in tone, and he largely succeeds in managing the same coupling of lush, lyrically expressive imagery with rich emotional resonance.
(There is also a cut that clearly references Lawrence Of Arabia .)
James Gray's , based on the best selling book by David Grann, is an epic adventure that brings to mind cinematic classics like Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now, and similar stories centered on obsessive men wading through plots rife with thorny racial issues.
For the first act of the picture, Charlie Hunnam barely registers; he doesn't catch the eye the way the stars of "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Fitzcarraldo" immediately did.
It’s a mission fueled by a near-maniacal obsession, with undertones of “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Apocalypse Now” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Fitzcarraldo” (though I am not suggesting it measures up to any of those; it doesn’t).
Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now meets Lawrence of Arabia with a taste of The Emerald Forest .
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“Avatar” is in the same vein of “Lawrence of Arabia” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
This story’s been told before; many have noted the obvious parallels to Dances with Wolves , or not-as-obvious movies like Lawrence of Arabia and Metropolis ; A.O. Scott draws enlightening comparisons to District 9 and Daybreakers , among others.
Mientras que otros realizadores adoran decir que sus películas responden a una tradición monolítica y ultra conservadora símil el promedio de las franquicias de nuestros días o por el contrario, afirman que las mismas salieron de un repollo autocontenido y narcisista sin influencias externas, James Cameron jamás tuvo ningún problema en reconocer que Avatar (2009) funciona como un refrito de influencias, recursos, procesos históricos y latiguillos formales y temáticos de lo más diversos, basta con pensar que así como el film incluye alusiones a la Conquista de América, la Guerra de Vietnam, la Fiebre del Caucho en el Amazonas, las dos Guerras del Golfo y todo el operativo bélico/ represor/ genocida del desquiciado de George W. Bush en Medio Oriente después de los atentados terroristas del 11 de septiembre del 2001, también recupera el motivo del doble agente de las faenas de espionaje, aquel “salvador blanco/ occidental” de Danza con Lobos ( Dances with Wolves , 1990), de Kevin Costner, y L…
After David Lean, whose Lawrence of Arabia served as inspiration for Herbert’s desert-set sci-fi saga, passed, the project fell into the hands of Chilean mystic Alejandro Jodorowsky, who envisioned it as his Remembrance of Things Past—a 10-hour epic featuring Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, and Salvador Dali, with music by Pink Floyd.
Some comparisons can be made to the film Lawrence of Arabia from the desert landscape to the theme of finding your identity by being in contact with other cultures.
And the cinematic style is “Lawrence of Arabia” meets “Triumph of the Will” meets the most visionary cologne commercial that Ridley Scott never made.
Pulling from Frank Herbert’s landmark science fiction novel—or about half of it, anyway—Villeneuve reaches for an epic on the scale of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings while also not so subtly evoking imagery from the ultimate desert odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia .
"Lawrence of Arabia" and "Dances With Wolves" won Oscars for their skilled indulgence of the theme, so it comes as no surprise that "The Last Samurai" should borrow liberally from both, adding finishing touches culled from the likes of Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" and the classic television miniseries "Shogun."
It has been compared to " Lawrence of Arabia " and "Dances With Wolves," films in which Westerners learn to respect Arabs and Indians, but this film goes a step further, clearly believing that Katsumoto's traditional society is superior to the modernism being unloaded by the Americans.
Small wonder that The Last Samurai reminds of Lawrence of Arabia , since the plot involves a disgraced military officer sent to contact an alien force (that has just raided a railroad) whom he comes to see as noble even as he views himself as their salvation--although Algren ultimately functions not like T.E.
Artistically delivering beyond anyone’s imagination on one of the biggest gambles in Hollywood history, this $330 million masterpiece takes its rightful place among such classics as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Lawrence of Arabia.”
His gift hasn't wavered - a series of bonfires to summon the riders of Rohan to the aid of Minas Tirith has a thrilling immensity as astounding as anything in "Lawrence of Arabia."
Before you toss me to the Orcs, fancy lads though they may be, understand that I agree that Jackson’s adaptations are indeed genius – no other epic since David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia has managed the kind of emotionally crunchy and just downright popcorn-pure exhilaration as The Lord of the Rings, flawlessly combining state-of-the-art effects with a streamlined (compared to the novels, anyway) storyline and some of the most engaging acting in a hobbit’s age – and for pure story payoff, they trump Star Wars, The Matrix, and all of the Andy Hardy films combined.
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Visually speaking, the cinematography of the sand dunes echo that of Lawrence of Arabia .
Kasdan also makes clear that he's not taking any of this too seriously, and little asides -- like a riff on the "Lawrence of Arabia" theme during a desert sequence -- underscore that point.
Yet for the most part the set pieces (which include giant ostriches chasing dune buggies and airborne encounters with snarling monkeys) have an enjoyable grandeur, emphasised by Henry Jackman’s score, which cheekily invokes Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia theme during an early desert sequence.
A pivotal scene on a dry lake bed offers vistas — and optical illusions — that recall Lawrence of Arabia.
Maybe he wanted to emulate the ultimate in intimate epics, that being David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia ?
The format, also used in such classics like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” provides an incredible depth of field.