Lawrence of Arabia PILF-7064 ( 0131 )

T. E. Lawrence dies in a motorcycle accident in 1935. His life is memorialised at a service at St Paul's Cathedral, but it becomes clear that many influential Britons dislike him.

During the First World War, Lawrence is a misfit British Army lieutenant, notable for his insolence and education. Mr. Dryden of the Arab Bureau sends him to meet with Colonel Harry Brighton, who is advising Prince Feisal in his revolt against the Turks. On the way, Lawrence is outraged when his guide is ruthlessly killed by Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish for drinking from Ali's well without permission. He accuses Ali of being an uncivilised barbarian and is dismayed to learn that Ali is Feisal's advisor.

Relations between the United Kingdom and the Arabs are polite but tense. While Britain will supply guns to the Arabs, it will not provide artillery, which would make Feisal an independent force after the war. Brighton asks Feisal to fall back and help the British defend the Suez Canal. Lawrence violates his orders by encouraging Feisal to attack. Feisal is impressed by Lawrence's familiarity with the Quran and his honesty about British interests in Arabia.

Lawrence convinces Feisal to launch a surprise attack on the port of Aqaba to improve his supply lines. Ali protests, as Aqaba is protected from land attacks by the harsh Nefud Desert and the local Turkish enforcer, Howeitat tribal leader Auda Abu Tayi. Feisal gives Lawrence just fifty men. Lawrence also hires teenage orphans Daud and Farraj as his attendants.

The march to Aqaba demonstrates Lawrence's cunning and charisma. He wins over Feisal's men by turning back into the desert to rescue Gasim, a lost Arab. The grateful Arabs give Lawrence traditional Arab clothing; Lawrence in turn grows to admire the Arab civilisation. In addition, Lawrence convinces Auda to switch sides by promising him a vast Turkish gold hoard at Aqaba. The Arabs begin relying on Lawrence, as an outsider, to arbitrate tribal disputes. Lawrence is shaken when he is forced to execute Gasim to prevent an all-out conflict.

Lawrence and Auda capture Aqaba, but there is no gold. To placate Auda, Lawrence agrees to ask his superiors in Cairo for more money. Daud is drowned by quicksand on the way.

In Cairo, Lawrence perplexes the British officers with his Arab clothes and his insistence that Farraj be treated with the same respect as a white person. General Edmund Allenby promotes him to major and agrees to back the Arabs with arms and money. Lawrence confesses that he is worried about his own bloodthirstiness, but Allenby dismisses his concerns. Before returning to his desert forces, Lawrence asks Allenby whether the Arabs are correct that the British seek to dominate Arabia and demands artillery for Feisal's army. To please Lawrence, Allenby lies to him on both counts. He privately worries that Lawrence has "gone native".

Lawrence launches a guerrilla war to harass the Turks. The American media romanticises Lawrence's exploits and makes him famous, as the American journalist Jackson Bentley is looking to highlight the "more adventurous aspects" of war to help draw the United States into the fight. Ali urges him to slow down, but Lawrence ignores him. Farraj is badly injured on one raid. Lawrence is forced to kill him to save him from the Turks, who torture their captives.

The Turks capture Lawrence while he covertly scouts the Turkish-held city of Deraa.^[a] They do not recognise him, but the Turkish Bey orders him stripped, ogled, prodded, and beaten—and, it is implied, raped. The Turks throw the injured Lawrence into the street. Ali rescues him and nurses him back to health. The experience leaves Lawrence shaken and humbled. He returns to British Cairo but does not fit in.

With the Turks on the run, Dryden informs Lawrence about the Sykes–Picot Agreement, a secret treaty to partition the Middle East between Britain and France after the war. Allenby urges Lawrence to return to Arabia to support the "big push" on Damascus. Lawrence feels betrayed but reluctantly complies. He recruits a mercenary army with little interest in Arab liberation. Lawrence hopes that if the Arabs can take Damascus before the British, they will have enough leverage to demand an independent Arab state after the war.

Lawrence's army sights a column of retreating Turkish soldiers who have just massacred the residents of Tafas. One of Lawrence's men is from Tafas and demands no prisoners. Ali insists on proceeding to Damascus, but the man charges alone and is killed. Lawrence takes up the dead man's battle cry, and the Arabs massacre the Turks. After the battle, Lawrence looks at his own reflection in disbelief, having become the image of the barbarity for which he had once condemned Ali.

The Arabs beat the British to Damascus. To protect their independence, Lawrence asks them to run the city without British support. His plan fails. The tribesmen bicker constantly, the public utilities fail, and the understaffed hospitals can barely function. Without recognising him, a British medical observer furiously criticises the situation in front of Lawrence and slaps him. Feisal coldly discards Lawrence's dream of Arab independence in exchange for British support.

Lawrence bitterly returns to the British Army, where ironically the medical observer greets him as a hero. To get rid of him, the British promote Lawrence to colonel and order him back to Britain. As he leaves Damascus, he looks longingly at the departing Arabs before his car is passed by a motorcyclist, who leaves a trail of dust in his wake.