"Lawrence of Arabia: a film's anthropology" - Steven C. Caton - Chapter 5: "An Anti-Imperialist, Orientalist Epic"

 Chapter 5: "An Anti-Imperialist, Orientalist Epic"

This whole chapter is dedicated to an important question Caton asks himself around the production of knowledge by orientalists and their capacity to self-criticism. He takes Lawrence of Arabia as a case study. There is not much literature about the explicit criticism of the film on imperialism, but Caton sums up a few scenes where this is clear.

First, he points out the character of the American newspaper reporter. and explains that it can be seen as symbolic. Caton states: "a veiled criticism is made of the United States' involvement in Southeast Asian independence movements during the late fifties and early sixties." Another fascinating scene was the dialogue of Prince Faisal and Colonel Brighton. The colonel is talking about how the British and Arab interests are the same. But Faisal sees through this facade and knows it is only the Suez Canal and its benefits that count for the British. This conversation is a clear allusion to the Suez crisis in 1956. This film isn't only giving critique to the British colonialism during WWI but is hinting at the rise of a new present form of imperialism. This was the forces of the United States and global capitalism. As Caton clarifies they used "anti-Communism scare as a tactic to squelch nationalist, anticolonialist uprisings in other places of the world." For the audience at that time, it wasn't difficult to see the parallel of Lawrence of Arabia with American imperialism in for example Vietnam or their involvement in the Gulf War.

A further critique of the West can be spotted in its technological superiority. It has power over the world of 'the Other' that can be held against them. As the West knew/know, Third World countries rely on these military power the West has in their own fight for independence. So, in the end, you get a paradox. they cannot escape imperialism. 

That the film possible looks Orientalist has to do with how director Lean represented 'the Other'. He makes a visible distinction on the level of culture and ethics. This is best visualised in the trope of 'Tribal Blood Feud' that reappears multiple times during the film. The violence of the Arab, 'the Other', had the purpose of giving us a shock. Realising our ethics are so much more advanced, brings the West finally on a superior position, on a pedestal. Again. Paradoxically, Lawrence is in the first part disapproving of this violence, only to realise in the second part he is eventually worse.