Don't Make a Scene (Redux): Lawrence of Arabia

I've got a couple scenes in the works—well, one's done but I'm not ready to publish it yet—so here's a scene from Lawrence of Arabia, one of those movies that has to be seen on the big screen. The TCM Film Festival is doing that this weekend. I've seen it that way in 70mm at the Cinerama (it's now called the SIFF Cinema Downtown) and, really, it's the only way to really SEE it. 

"The film academic" I mentioned here is David Bordwell, who, sadly, passed away February 29 this year. Despite my dismissing his point about There Will Be Blood, his writing was always entertaining and enlightening.

The Set-Up: I recently read an article from a film academic extolling a scene from There Will Be Blood, in which its playing-out in one shot, or camera set-up, is praised to the skies as a master-stroke of direction.

Tosh.

While it is true that far too many directors these days are seemingly relying on the craft of montage (editing) as opposed to mise en scene (camera placement),* I would submit that it is not that special an achievement, but, rather "Directing 101." Any director worth his view-finder knows the importance of "blocking," or the arranging of actors in a scene. It establishes relationships, points-of-view, all sorts of sub-conscious signals to the audience about the participants of a scene. And it allows the actors to do what is their natural inclination to do: act in an unbroken line with their fellow-actors, playing off of each other, without the technical interruptions of setting-up for another angle.

A competent director knows when to get out of the way of his actors (just as a competent studio should know when to get out of the way of the director). But to praise a director for letting a scene play out in one shot without cutting? Only understandable from someone who's never been exposed to the process, I guess. Or someone who's just griping on the over-reliance of editing in today's movies (given the dependence on editing to create "energy," especially the false kind as pioneered by the hackers at MTV) and is doing it in a back-handed kind of way.

Anyway, the point is—a director who pathologically doesn't let a scene play out without editing, "couldn't direct traffic if given white gloves and a whistle" (in the words of one disgruntled writer I've met).

Or...are directing for the limited band-width of television. Or...are insecure in the material to keep interest. Or...are being told what to do, as in someone's directing the director (so what does that make him? An employee, not an auteur).

Here's one of many scenes I've found lately, that, with the exception of the opening three establishing POV shots, is done in one shot/one take, and it's one of my favorites. It's the "introduction" to the titular hero of Lawrence of Arabia, and it contains two of my favorite lines in this movie, full of great ones.

The Story: Aside from a sequence dramatising T.E. Lawrence's*** (Peter O'Toole) death in a motorcycle accident, and the subsequent funeral at which we hear many opinions of the man, this is the first sequence in the long flash-back of the tumultuous events of his life presented in the film. The first image shows him as we will soon come to know him: dissatisfied with his station, and re-drawing the map of the Middle East. 

Action!

T.E. Lawrence: Michael George Hartley, this is a nasty, dark. little room.
M.G. Hartley: That's right.

Lawrence: We are not happy in it.
Hartley: I am. It's better than a nasty, dark little trench.
Lawrence: Then you're an ignoble fellow.
Hartley: That's right.
Lawrence: Ah! Here is William Potter with my newspaper.
W.Potter: Here you are, Tosh.
Lawrence: Thanks. (Potter waits)
Lawrence: Would you care for one of Cpl. Hartley's cigarettes?
Potter: Ah! (Potter grandly takes one)
Hartley: Is it there?
Lawrence: Of course. Headlines. But I bet it isn't mentioned in The Times. "Bedouin tribes attack Turkish stronghold."
Lawrence: And I'll bet no one in this whole headquarters even knows it happened. Or would care if it did.
Lawrence: Allow me to ignite your cigarette.
Potter: Sir...
Adjutant: Mr. Lawrence?
Lawrence: Yes?
Adjutant: Flimsy, sir.
Lawrence: Thank you.
(Lawrence takes the burning match and working his fingers up it, extinguishing it while the others watch)
Hartley: You'll do that once too often! It's only flesh and blood.
Lawrence: Michael George Hartley, you're a philosopher.
Potter: And you're balmy!
(Adjutant leaves. Lawrence reads. Potter lights a match tries to put it out with his fingers while Lawrence watches.)
Potter: OH! It hurts!
Lawrence: Certainly, it hurts.
Potter: Well, what's the trick, then?
Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.
Lawrence: Oh! By the way, should Col. Gibbon enquire for me, tell him I've gone for a chat with the General.
Potter: He's balmy!
Hartley (laughs): He's alright.


Lawrence of Arabia

Words by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson

Pictures by Freddie Young and David Lean

Lawrence of Arabia is available on DVD from Sony Home Video.**

* I attribute this to studio insistence on "coverage"--over-shooting a scene from different angles to ensure that the film will "cut" (edit in a way that isn't "jarring" to the viewer), and, by the way, gives the studio enough material to work with in case they want to fire the director if he isn't amenable enough to cut it the way the studio insists. It's why having the "final cut" in a director's contract is so cherished a clause (Would you like a list of the names of great directors who've had their movies re-cut against their wishes? We don't have time, but I can make a rough estimate---almost all of them!)

** Movie theater advocate Roger Ebert has written that "Lawrence of Arabia" on video "crouches inside its box like a tall man in a low room." That's a wonderful description. He continues "You can view it on video and get an idea of its story and a hint of its majesty, but to get the feeling of Lean's masterpiece you need to somehow, somewhere, see it in 70mm on a big screen. This experience is on the short list of things that must be done during the lifetime of every lover of film." In Seattle, it happens infrequently at the Cinerama. Next time you see it mentioned, go.

*** That link leads to the general Wikipedia entry, for a better site on the man who's the subject of the movie, go here.

Don't Make a Scene: Lawrence of Arabia

The Story: One of the tropes in movie-making is "the good entrance." Actors used to quibble over it with their directors as a point of status and ego in the studio system. A good entrance focused the audience's attention...on them. On stage, an entrance garnered applause. On film, it brought an inherent message of the importance of the character (and, hence, the actor) to the many elements battling for eyes.

This scene from Lawrence of Arabia is one of the greatest of entrances in film, designed to focus—really focus—our attention on the figure entering the frame. And director Lean uses a particular aspect peculiar to the desert to do it—the heat-image of a mirage—to announce the sighting of a solitary figure in all the vastness of space.

The video below—courtesy of CinemaTyler (who is a particularly adroit cinema essayist) explains it in far better detail than I can, but the idea and the details were there (mostly) in the script (I did a little editing as dialogue interactions between Ali and Lawrence were shifted around in filming).

It's an amazing scene—quite simple, really—but enhanced by the canny performances of the actors.

 

The Set-Up: Stationed in Cairo, British Army Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) has been sent by the Arab Bureau (over strong objections) to assess the prospects of Arab forces under the the lead of King Faisal in their uprising against the Turks. He is about to meet one of his key allies (Omar Sharif).

 

Action.

 

82 CLOSE SHOT. A brilliant circle of blue sky framed in black. 

The faces of LAWRENCE and TAFAS appear on the edge of the circle.

A bucket hurtles towards CAMERA, and with a loud splash, breaks the reflection of the still water at the bottom of a well. 

83 MED. SHOT. The top of the well is situated on the edge of the mud flat.

As TAFAS begins to haul up the bucket he glances carefully round the horizon.

LAWRENCE, noticing this, does the same - 

but they see nothing.

TAFAS regains the bucket, pours some water into LAWRENCE's tin cup,

then raises the bucket it to his own lips.

They both drink.

TAFAS Good? 

LAWRENCE (with a half-smile) It's all right.

(TAFAS-the idea is new to him, but he looks into the bucket, catches on, and with the patronizing indulgence proper between two civilized gentlemen for the weakness of the primitive)

TAFAS This is a Harith well. 

TAFAS (with hypocritical regret) The Harith are a dirty people. 

(He drinks greedily)

84 CLOSE SHOT. LAWRENCE begins to whistle to himself. ("The Man Who Broke the Bank") as he drifts off into a little daydream.

The sound of the bucket is heard bumping up the side of the well - then it stops.

There is a moment's silence followed by a heavy splash. LAWRENCE looks up.

85 CLOSE UP. TAFAS is standing stock still looking out over the mud flat.

86 CLOSE UP. LAWRENCE turns to see what he is looking at.

87 LONG SHOT. A little dust cloud is approaching at a distance of about half a mile, floating above the mirage.

88 MED. SHOT. LAWRENCE rises, and slowly goes over to TAFAS.

They stand staring out over the flat.

LAWRENCE Turks?

TAFAS does not answer.

89 LONG SHOT. A black blob wavers out of the center of the dust cloud. It could be a MAN running, a MAN on horse, a MAN on a camel, almost anything.

91. LONG SHOT. The blob is now recognizable as a horse, or a camel, but elongated, as if on stilts by the mirage.

TAFAS Bedu.

90 CLOSE SHOT. LAWRENCE AND TAFAS

The approaching figure out on the mud flat is now clearly seen as an ARAB, mounted on a camel.

LAWRENCE Who is he?

92. CLOSE UP. LAWRENCE AND TAFAS. A moment's pause.

Without looking at LAWRENCE, TAFAS hurries off.

93. MED. SHOT. As TAFAS leaves LAWRENCE and goes over to his camel 

CLOSE UP. TAFAS unhitches his gun from the side of the camel and keeping close into animal, stands still, waiting...

LONG SHOT. The approaching stranger is now quite near...he wears a black hooded cloak with a black cloth drawn across his face.

LAWRENCE Tafas!

CLOSE SHOT. Tafas is standing in the foreground of picture, while LAWRENCE waits, puzzled and apprehensive by the well. TAFAS masks his face with his headcloth.

TAFAS cocks his pistol.

QUICK CLOSE SHOT. TAFAS, masked. His eyes frightened. Deaf to LAWRENCE.

QUICK MED. SHOT. At a distance of some 125 yards the STRANGER is tapping his camel into a kneeling position. As he reaches the ground he draws his rifle from the saddle holster.

CLOSE SHOT: With a sudden move, TAFAS steps out from his side of the camel, raises his pistol and fires.

MED. SHOT. The STRANGER drops to the ground behind his camel. There is another shot. TAFAS remains as still as a statue in the foreground of picture.

CLOSE UP, LAWRENCE frozen in place, numbed by the unexpected explosion of violence.

LONG SHOT. The three men remain completely still. Then, TAFAS' gun falls to the ground with a clatter, and very slowly he sags at the knees and crumples into a heap beside it. LAWRENCE runs over to the body.

CLOSE SHOT. LAWRENCE stands looking down at the dead man, 

and then raises his eyes to the mud flat.

LONG SHOT. The STRANGER rises to his feet, reloads his rifle, and mounts his camel.

CLOSE UP. LAWRENCE goes down on his haunches by TAFAS, keeping his eyes on ALI.

MED. SHOT. LAWRENCE stand with his back to the camera in the foreground of picture.

In the background the STRANGER rides slowly towards him and finally comes to a halt on the other side of the dead man. 

After a glance to make sure TAFAS is dead he thrusts his rifle back into the saddle holster, unwinds his headcloth, and leaps gracefully to the ground. He is a handsome of young man of about LAWRENCE's age; an impressive figure in both bearing and costume.

ALI He is dead. 

LAWRENCE Yes.  Why? 

ALI This my well. 

LAWRENCE I have drunk from it. 

ALI (politely) You are welcome.

They look at one another. Neither of them frightened, but in mutual incomprehension.

LAWRENCE He was my friend. - 

ALI (looks at TAFAS) That? - 

ALI looks at Lawrence.

LAWRENCE Yes, that. -

ALI raises his fine eyebrows, but politely refrains from comment.

He picks up the pistol.

He examines it.   

ALI This pistol yours? - 

LAWRENCE No, his.

SO, ALI stuffs it complacently into his own waistband 

...and approaches the well followed by his camel.

He picks up the tin mug which is lying on the wall of the trough.

ALI His? 

LAWRENCE Mine. 

ALI (as one who confers a compliment) Then I will use it.

He scoops a little water from the trough,

ALI Your friend... 

ALI ...was a Hazimi of the Beni Salem. 

LAWRENCE I know. 

ALI I am Ali ibn el Kharish. 

LAWRENCE (this is real news, evidently and makes LAWRENCE's mood more thoughtful) I have heard of you. 

ALI So... 

ALI ...what was a Hazimi doing here? 

LAWRENCE He was taking me to help Prince Feisal. - 

ALI You've been sent from Cairo. - 

LAWRENCE Yes. 

ALI I have been in Cairo for my schooling. I can both read and write.

ALI My Lord Feisal already has an Englishman.

ALI What is your name? 

LAWRENCE (indignation rising spontaneously) My name is for my friends. 

LAWRENCE None of my friends is a murderer. 

ALI (after a little pause, quietly) You are angry, English. 

ALI He was nothing. 

ALI The well is everything. 

ALI The Hazimi may not drink at our wells. 

ALI(shrugs) He knew that. 

ALI Salaam.

ALI raises his head in salute and turns his camel back to the mud flat.

ALI Hut! Hut-hut!

LAWRENCE (calling after him) Sherif Ali! 

LAWRENCE So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe...so long will they be a little people... 

LAWRENCE ...a silly people. 

LAWRENCE Greedy, barbarous and cruel, 

LAWRENCE ...as you are. 

ALI Come. I will take you to Feisal. 

LAWRENCE I do not want your company, sherif. 

ALI Wadi Safra is another day from here. You will not find it, and, not finding it, you will die. 

LAWRENCE I will find it... 

LAWRENCE ...with this. 

ALI Good army compass. How if I take it? 

LAWRENCE Then you would be a thief. 

ALI Have you no fear, English? 

LAWRENCE My fear is my concern. 

ALI Truly. 

ALI God be with you, English.

 

Lawrence of Arabia

 

Words by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson

 

Pictures by Freddie Young and David Lean

 

Lawrence of Arabia is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Sony Home Video.