Lawrence: After Arabia

First things first, This was made on a non-existent budget for a feature, a first time director and a tiny crew. So I'll try not to be too harsh, but the director needs to know where he went wrong, so he can improve on it next time.

So there isn't a single aspect of this film that didn't have issues, some more glaring than others. By far the biggest issue is that technically is this the worst film I've ever seen. From Inaudible sound due to the lack of sound mixing and background noise, green screen issues such as jpegs being used as background and no effort to make these believable, visible artefacts from poor keying, horrendous editing (was there anyone keeping an eye on continuity??) along with all that, the camera work really felt like a lazy student film, shots being over and under exposed, lack of thought put into the shots, no colour grading and the footage just looked so dull, and finally I've never seen a film reuse so much footage before, you could turn it into a drinking game (which probably isn't a bad idea if you're going to watch this)

The acting wasn't the worst, but I can't see anyone getting any Oscars any time soon, and oh my god the pacing was mind-numbing this felt like a 4 hour movie. I hope the director reads and takes in all the feedback he will inevitably get and uses that as a jumping off point to improve his skills as a director.

I think my heading sums it up best...

When they started with the opening scene I though it had to be part of the local adverts..... right?

Wrong.... Yes i went in knowing it was low budget & shot locally but even so I expected much better than this.

Everything about it was poor, opening music sounded like it was done on one of those toy xylophone's, sound quality abysmal, acting that would have seen those in a local production having non-speaking parts the following year, the direction... where to start.... I think you get the picture...

It really is one to avoid, i walked out after 30 minutes otherwise I would have been rolling in the aisles & watching it locally I suspect there were a few in the audience who were "extras" so I saved myself the shaming....

Looking through the reviews I suspect those giving high marks actually appeared in the film as I really didnt see anything worthy of more than a one.

It really was horrible & moreso as I admire & am fascinated by the TE Lawrence story.

Sadly, a wasted evening. The wooden acting was matched by the poor photography, editing, sound and continuity. We were treated to an overlong funeral procession, on repeat. Even the beautiful Dorset locations were wasted by the lack of focus and lighting. The bloated script was an overlong conspiracy theory taking us up to the present day. Lawrence was a brave - even heroic - man, if confused about his identity. A shame this film couldn't do him justice.

I had high expectations for this film but unfortunately I found it disappointing. The story itself was interesting and held my attention, but the sound, continuity and photography were all inadequate, not to mention the tedious, incessant and inappropriate music score. The acting, with a few exceptions, was weak, and to bill Brian Cox as the star in the opening credits showed some nerve - what a con! He never even appeared on screen, just providing brief narration. I sat through the whole film wondering how on earth it could have won any kinds of awards or indeed how it was even selected for various film festivals. Clearly this film was made on too small a budget, making it look like an over-stretched amateur production.

Imagine an amateur dramatic society at its first meeting gaining access to film equipment & you have some idea of the quality of this film. Sound, photography & continuity were embarrassing in places & the glimpses of good acting brief. The story could have been so much more in depth & instead far too much time was spent on peripheral activity eg the funeral procession.

Having been looking forward to this showing for some time, with a keen interest in the life of T E Lawrence, I was sadly disappointed.