Queen of the Desert movie review: Gertrude Bell gets forgotten again
This may be Werner Herzog’s most conventional film, but its mostly untold true story knows what it means for a woman to choose a life of adventure and intellect.
TE Lawrence
Letters from Baghdad documentary review: Gertrude Bell, the original Lawrence of Arabia
One of the most cinematically beautiful documentaries ever is a phenomenal portrait of a shamefully forgotten woman who helped shape political history.
Mojave movie rating: red light
A spoiled melancholy Hollywood brat and a menacing drifter engage in a deadly dick-measuring contest that you will hope neither survives.
Out of Africa (review)
Like Lawrence of Arabia, Out of Africa is a story of time and place. Just as T.E. Lawrence’s tale could only have happened in the Middle Eastern deserts of the Great War, Isak Dinesen’s would not exist without the gorgeous vistas of East Africa of almost exactly the same time.
Lawrence of Arabia (review)
T.E. Lawrence was what a friend of mine calls a ‘transethnic,’ like the couple of Italian guys you always see playing bagpipes in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Lawrence of Arabia’s Lawrence (Peter O’Toole, who inhabits the role) tries to explain to an Arab friend how he is ‘different’ from the ‘fat’ people of his home in England’s Oxfordshire, but he can’t seem to make even himself understand. David Lean’s gorgeous film — one of the greatest movies ever made and one of my very favorites — captures this enigmatic man beautifully.
