You wouldn’t think that dismounting a camel could be cool. Omar Sharif makes it cool.
There’s a surfeit of magnificent scenes to choose from in David Lean’s masterpiece, still visually spectacular after six decades, but there’s nothing that displays the film’s masterful direction and superb widescreen cinematography better than when Lawrence and his local guide stop to drink at a well in the middle of a vast, flat, wasteland of desert sand. Off in the distance, so far away that it’s just a dot that could be taken for a mirage, something is approaching. It’s black, and as it slowly draws closer the menace builds, while the guide grows more and more agitated. Lawrence, still a bit of a naïf in this unfamiliar theatre of war, is nonplussed. He has no idea what’s going on, and at this point can’t anticipate the savage display of tribal animosity he’s about to witness.
Out here in the audience, we’re unsure what’s happening too, but can’t help but feel mounting dread as the figure draws closer and closer. You just know this camel-riding badass dressed all in black isn’t here to exchange pleasantries.
It’s said that to get this ultra-long distance shot, Panavision had to custom-build a unique 482 mm lens, which hasn’t been used since.
the needlefish 