Lawrence of Arabia
This movie uses the vast desert as the setting for the adventures of T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence succeeds in enlisting desert tribes to fight on the side of the British -- and against the Turks in World War I. The point of the military aspect is that the Arab Revolt was being helped by the British, as the British wanted to defeat the Ottomans and drive the Turks out of Arab lands. Lawrence was a big part of the elimination of the Turks, and in the process he becomes a very strange hero. Among the most riveting, poignant scenes in the film is after Lawrence has made a miraculous crossing of the desert -- a crossing that would take the life of ordinary people because of the boiling hot sun and sand -- but just as he is about to reach of food, water, and shelter, he turns back to find a friend that has fallen back. The speck of a man approaching Lawrence from a great distance in the desert, a tiny speck that slowly becomes a figure of a human, is a powerful scene that shows the audience just how vast and unforgiving the desert is.
What is anthropological about the film?
The...
148). The author, Caton, a Harvard professor of Anthropology, sees anthropology when an "Other" (Lawrence) heads off for
adventure in an alien environment, to interact with other
cultures in a respectful if dangerous meeting of the minds. Anthropology is the study of humanity, and in this film the moviegoer is treated to a diverse cultural smorgasbord -- the stuffy British, the desert animals known as Bedouins (nomads living off the
land in the crudest fashion), the Turks (with their gleaming swords) and other Arabs. Culture is something that the protagonist understands very well, and he slips out of his British uniform and wears a flowing white robe as though…
