Peter O'Toole was a great actor, but the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" was nothing more than a Hollywood fantasy which, like the imaginary story of Lawrence, swept away many romantics and for decades had a negative impact on the decisions made by influential Western officials and statesmen dealing with policy in the Middle East. The problem is that today as well, Western leaders and policy-makers view and discuss the problems of the Middle East through the prism of Lawrence of Arabia, romantic, distorted and nostalgic as it is, seeing only the unilateral Arab position of every conflict, and adopting paradigms, symbols and historical deceptions as the gospel truth.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Peter O'Toole Was a Superb Lawrence of Arabia But the Movie Itself Did a Lot of Harm
Reuven Berko writes:
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2 comments:
The Arabist clique developed long before Lawrence was born. And the movie only developed its plot along the lines of the traditional historical view of the Arabs.
Cheers
I agree, but those romantic desert vistas certainly didn't do anything to debunk the misbegotten infatuation.
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