By Ranjan Bhaduri
New York, Mar 21, (THAINDIAN NEWS) One of the favorite classics of all time, “Lawrence Of Arabia” was aired on TCM yesterday. The movie that happens to be one of the big budget movies of yesteryear Hollywood, stars Anthony Quinn, Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif in one of the best roles of their lives.

Directed by David Lean, the movie relates the adventure story of Thomas Edward Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) and his episodes of adventure during the times of World War I. The story draws its hint from the attacks of Aqaba as well as Damascus and Lawrence’s involvement in the same, under the banner of Arab National Council. The movie is narrated in flashback style that kicks off with the scene when Lawrence dies in an accident. The storyline goes beyond the ravages of time that shows Lawrence and his intelligence operations in Cairo 1916. He moves on to travel further to figure out the conflict between the Turks and the Arabs. Moving ahead in his journey, he forms his own guerrilla troops and helps the Arabs battle it out against the Turks. Lawrence then moves forward to help a native English general who takes out the mighty Ottoman.

The role of the protagonist was first offered to Marlon Brando, who had refused. Following that, Anthony Perkins was also considered for the same until the filmmakers settled upon Peter O’Toole to play Thomas Edward Lawrence. Similarly, Omar Sharif, who played the role of Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish was the last choice of the filmmakers to fit in the cast frame. Prior to this, several different actors were being considered to essay the character. First among them was Horst Buchholz, followed by Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet and Dilip Kumar.