Lawrence of Arabia

I heard Kingdom of Heaven wasn't any good, so I opted to check out a real epic this weekend screening at the Aero...man, what a huge film. They don't make things like this anymore. 70mm print, intermission, I felt like I was at the symphony, which I guess was what some movies were going for at the time to compete with television.

There isn't much I can write about this film, it's such a huge movie, both in ideas and in production, and it's all probably been said from people way smarter than me. My favorite part was Omar Sharif's entrance from the super long lens.

I just realized that there were no women in the film. And this fact made me remember a moment when my gaydar went off during the movie, when Lawrence is being tortured by the Turks and the Turk leader goes off into his room, leaving his door a tad open for Lawrence to peek into. The turk watched and listened to the torture from what seemed to me was his bedroom - there was something really gay about the whole scene. Then there's the part when Anthony Quinn asks Omar, "Do you love him?" in reference to Lawrence as he weeps. And also the part when Lawrence prances around in his new Arab clothes.

A big gay epic.

2 Updates: Of the many interesting credits, the most interesting, to me, was Nick Roeg as one of the 2nd unit camera people. Earlier this year I watched Walkabout, an amazing film about a young brother and sister who get stranded in the Australian outback. Many of the images were similar to those in Lawrence...interesting little connection. For lovers of weird/semi obscure films, Nick Roeg is one to check out, Walkabout and the Man Who Fell to Earth.

Sightings. I saw a couple of USC affliated people at the screening. We're everyone in LA, I swear. You can't go to a movie event in LA without seeing USC people....the head of the editing track was there, the head sound SA. I think I saw one of the desparate housewives, too - the one with red hair.