"The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts." This is Lawrence's response to a soldier who asks what the trick to letting a match burn out on your fingers is. Lawrence's response to the soldier may be meant to illustrate that Lawrence is a bit crazy, but from an existentialist standpoint, what's interesting about this quote and the aspects of Lawrence's personality that it illuminates, is the amount of freedom it exhibits. To the common man, there is no choice, the fire hurts and he must react as such. To T.E. Lawrence, the flame may hurt physically, but his reaction to this is preordained by no external forces and is determined by his own free will. Lawrence of Arabia is a demonstration of what a man who so fully embraces his radical freedom can accomplish. Lawrence is an English citizen with no prior history with the Arab region or people, but this in no way inhibits his belief that he can be their leader. Gathering seemingly disparate tribes together, for a long time he has them all focused on one goal, the goal that Lawrence has chosen for himself. However, the film also displays the dangers of Bad Faith as the adoration and power of Lawrence's position as Leader of Arabs quickly becomes his sole definition of his own worth and being, setting him up for an inevitable thud when the truth of his reality comes hurtling to the ground. Despite Lawrence's flaws and tendency towards auto-theism, there's no doubt Lawrence of Arabia is one of the greatest existential warriors in the history of cinema.
A film fanatic at a very young age, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and gradually moving up to more sophisticated fare, at around the age of ten he became inexplicably obsessed with all things Oscar. With the incredibly trivial power of being able to chronologically name every Best Picture winner from memory, his lifelong goal is to see every Oscar nominated film, in every major category, in the history of the Academy Awards.
