And the countdown continues in my quest to watch and find something inspiring in every single one of Yahoo’s 100 Movies to See Before You Die…
T.E. Lawrence: I killed two people. One was… yesterday? He was just a boy
and I led him into quicksand. The other was… well, before Aqaba.
I had to execute him with my pistol, and there was something about it that I didn’t like.
General Allenby: That’s to be expected.
T.E. Lawrence: No, something else.
General Allenby: Well, then let it be a lesson.
T.E. Lawrence: No… something else.
General Allenby: What then?
T.E. Lawrence: I enjoyed it.
It’s World War I, and Peter O’Toole is T.E. Lawrence, an eccentric British officer stationed in Cairo who has plans to infiltrate the Arab tribes and learn what Prince Feisal is planning to do against the Turks. He eventually aligns warring tribes to stage battle on several cities, the last of which is Damascus. Along the way, he gets really tan. People die. And he keeps getting promotions in the army despite his conflict of allegiance to the tribes he’s been leading into battle. Truthfully this four-hour movie could’ve been half the length. I had to watch it in installments. But the breathtaking desert scenery on our flat-screen? Now that was inspirational. Gorgeous, gorgeous Super Panavision 70 cinematography. I can’t say enough about it.
Steward: I said, “Breakfast, sir?”
Charles: Two scotch and sodas with plain water.
Jean Harrington: Don’t you take cream and sugar?
Charles: No, I always take it black.
[pause]Charles: Say, what am I talking about?
Jean Harrington: That’s what I was wondering.
In a nutshell, Barbara Stanwyck is a con artist who falls in love with a wealthy ale brewer. He finds out, he dumps her. To torture him for breaking her heart, she feigns a new name and a disguise (well, not really, but kinda) and re-introduces herself. He for some reason can’t tell that she’s the same woman. Follow me? They end up getting married, she tortures him some more, he wants a divorce. She then re-re-introduces herself as the original con artist, and he once again doesn’t realize she’s the same woman he just married. Follow me? And, here is the kicker, he is overjoyed to be reunited with the original con artist. Whew. Inspiration? Maybe, if you know a really dense man, you can pretend to be someone else who just happens to look exactly like you and he will believe it’s not you. But he has to be honest-to-god Forrest Gump dense or you’ll never pull it off. Good for playing practical jokes and/or exacting revenge.
