Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
When
my dad took me to see this film at the cinema in Mexborough
(because he wanted to see it no doubt) my tiny schoolboy
mind was much puzzled that nobody else noticed the glaring
continuity error.
Within seconds of the curtain going up, Lawrence dies on his
motorbike at the beginning of the film . . .
And yet, unperturbed by his own death he goes off to fight in
World War I in the desert.
Throughout the war, Lawrence keeps returning to Cairo and
complaining that he won't go back to the desert because he's not
fit. Then someone gives him a drink or a cigarette and off he
tears again into the sand to kill more Turks.
He
does this three or four times until everyone gets so pissed off
with him that they send him back to England so he can ride
motorcycles around all the time (even though he actually killed
himself doing this very thing at the beginning of the film).
There are also several thousand camels, miles of sand and loads
of big explosions. Add a bombastic Maurice Jarre score, pumped-up
Technicolor and a few dignified thespians to brown-up as Arabs
(Alec Guiness and Anthony Quinn) and you have a package designed
for Oscars to be flung at!

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