| “ | He was the most extraordinary man I ever knew. | „ |
| ~ Harry Brighton referring to Lawrence. |
| “ | It was my privilege to know him and to make him known to the world. He was a poet, a scholar, and a mighty warrior. ... He was also the most shameless exhibitionist since Barnum and Bailey. | „ |
| ~ Jackson Bentley's views on T.E. Lawrence. |
Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Colonel T.E. Lawrence or just T.E. Lawrence is the titular protagonist of the 1962 epic film Lawrence of Arabia. He's the heroic, contradictory, uncrowned King of Arabia as well as a solitary, masochistic adventurer who paradoxically wanted to be both extraordinary and ordinary. He's also an illegitimate child to his parents.
He was portrayed by the late Peter O'Toole (who also voiced Pantaloon in The Nutcracker Prince) in his first starring role.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
When Lawrence was 29, he was a military cartographer coloring maps in Cairo, just wanting to get involved in adventures out in the desert. As an exhibitionist, he'd often show off how he could snuff out a burning hot match with his fingers, and once also advised Corporal William Potter to try to repeat the performance, about the masochistic trick, though Potter felt the pain more easily.
One day, Mr. Dryden of the Arab Bureau would proposes to General Murray that Lawrence -- who was scholarly, dedicated, knowledgeable (about Arabian affairs) but undisciplined -- would be assigned to special duty with a transfer to Arabia. Murray contemptuously notes the "insubordinate," unmanly manner of Lawrence's nature. Murray though the six-week mission to Arabia may "make a man" of Lawrence, hardening him into a courageous, heroic leader.
With subtle persuasion, Dryden negotiated for a longer stay of three months. Lawrence was enthusiastic about his arduous mission to Arabia, but wasn't sure just what the job was. It's revealed that Lawrence's mission is to find Prince Feisal, try to acquire Feisal's support, and serve as an emissary/liasion between the British and the Arabs. In Dryden's office, Dryden explained Lawrence's task: He was to investigate the progress of the Arab Revolt against Constantinople (Turkey) and to appraise the strength of the fragmented Arab tribes for the British Political Bureau, at Prince Feisal's encampment. Lawrence is still optimistic about the journey as he exhibitionistically extinguishes the match by blowing it out rather than painfully snuffing it between his fingers.
First Days in Arabia[]
Later in the middle of an Arabian desert at sunrise, unaware of the greater challenges Lawrence would have to face, Lawrence would ride on camelback for many days, as he's led across sweeping desert sand dunes by a nomadic Bedouin guide Tafas. He slowly learns Bedouin ways and how to swiftly ride on his camel. During his camel-riding lesson, he is taught how to spur his camel forward, but impulsively makes the camel run fast, and is promptly thrown from the camel. His golden hair and tan clothing blending into the natural sand-colored surroundings. At night under a sparkling, star-studded sky, he assures Tafas that although he is from England, he is unique and not fat like most English-speaking people.
At a Harith well at Masruh (belonging to a rival Bedouin tribe), Tafas draws up water. A dust cloud and then a tiny speck appear through shimmering, mirage-like heat waves on the desert horizon - Lawrence fears it is Turks. The ominous image steadily enlarges and grows into a human being as it comes closer and closer. Tafas, Lawrence's escort, is shot down in cold-blood by the black-robed Bedouin for drinking at the well owned by a rival tribe. Through this ugly, ferocious act of ancient Bedouin tribal warfare, a fearless Lawrence is introduced to Sheik Sherif Ali Ibn el Kharish. Sherif Ali offers to take Lawrence to Faisal but he refuses to work with a murderer, even though Ali was polite to him.
Lawrence rides off alone, singing before a rock surface and humorously listening for the echo. On a rock ledge above him, Lawrence receives echoing applause for his song from British Colonel Harry Brighton, who has been notified by Prince Feisal that he was expected. According to Lawrence, his mission is to "appreciate the situation." Colonel Brighton, Lawrence's ranking officer in the desert, briefs him about the disarray among the demoralized Arab tribes.
Feisel's camp is under attack from the Turks. They are interrupted by the sounds of explosions and Turkish bi-planes flying overhead in an air-raid bombing attack on the camp. Obviously indifferent to the needs of the Arabs, Brighton explains why the primitive Arabs are so vulnerable and how they ignored his suggestion to move south as they didn't understand modern weapons.
Meeting Prince Feisal[]
As he steps out of thick black smoke, Prince Feisal saw Lawrence almost as an answer to his prayers. Demoralized and feeling defeated, Feisal realizes his sword, and other long-standing, archaic Arab methods of warfare, are powerless against the modern weaponry from the air. The thousands of Bedouins are amassed and moved further south for protection.
In Feisal's tent, Sherif Ali appears, where Lawrence and British Colonel Brighton discuss with the wise and prophet-like Prince Feisal how the British may help absorb the Arabs into the British campaign. The primary objective of the British, however, is to protect their interests at the Suez Canal, and not to divert their attention toward assisting in the defense of the Arabs and defeating the Turks at Aqaba. Brighton believes the Arab guerrilla tribes should retreat to Yenbo because they need discipline, training by European officers and equipmen. Instead, Feisel demands "guns like the Turkish guns at Medina." Brighton insists that the English must first teach the Bedouin to fight a modern, mechanized army. Although Lawrence is silenced by his military superior for being a disloyal "traitor," he's sympathetic with Feisal's views and refuses to remain quiet. He is allowed to speak his personal opinions in Feisal's tent, expressing a "passionate" appreciation of the vastness of the desert and the independent fighting spirit of the Arab tribes: on the land the Bedouin go where they please and strike where they please and they should continue to fight that way, and if they fell back on Yenbo, the Arab uprising would become a poor unit in the British army.
Lawrence remains with the soft-spoken Feisal after Brighton and Sherif Ali leave the tent, and as they speak about the Arab destiny in the face of Western warfare, the masts of the tent creak as the wind blows. All too well, Prince Feisal understands the imperialistic English hunger for Arab lands. "Desert-loving" Lawrence has his own personal hungers for desolate places. That night, he wandered around and contemplated whether he'd be the messianic, god-like, miraculous savior of the Arabs. He announces his decision to capture the Turkish garrison at the port of Aqaba.
Journey to Aqaba[]
In a second confrontation with Sherif Ali, Lawrence is accused of being stark-raving mad, or at the least, arrogant for proposing a painful, arduous trek across the beautiful but waterless, sun-drenched Nefud Desert. Riding "in the name of Feisal and Mecca" and without Brighton's knowledge, Lawrence is allowed to take a small force of fifty of Feisal's men to set out for Aqaba to "work a miracle." For pragmatic reasons, Sherif Ali joins the "Englishman" to cross the blazing Nefud Desert. At an oasis stop at the beginning of their journey, two outcaste boys Ferraj and Daud who have secretly followed the guerrillas are appointed to be Lawrence's servants, although Ali disapproves after whipping them, seeing them as worshippers rather then servants." One of the tribal Arabs named Gasim interprets Lawrence's kindness as a good omen. When they reach the edge of the beginning of the Nefud Desert, Sherif Ali again reminds the single-minded Lawrence that the murderously-hot desert is impossible to cross.
The Arabian desert crossing is treacherous - searing heat in the "Sun's Anvil," dust storms and swirling cyclones - an endless trek that exhausts and kills some of the men. As they begin to reach the end of the desert, it is noticed that Gasim's camel is riderless, and Lawrence unhesitatingly insists and proposes going back for him, which Ali reasonably objects to. Lawrence retraces his steps, finds the half-dead Gasim (who has been wandering aimlessly), rescues him, and returns into the oasis/camp with Gasim clinging to his saddle. As his camel mount is surrounded by the men, the now-charismatic, sun-baked-faced "Englishman" gives a penetrating, searing look at Ali, and before drinking from water offered to him, he defiantly and proudly repeats his "nothing is written" line.
Later, Ali acknowledges Lawrence's remarkable, dramatic, miraculous rescue. The young "Englishman" is given an easier-to-pronounce, deified, Arabian name as a symbol of his rebirth and new identity. He replaces his bastard heritage with an Arabian one: El Aurens. As he sleeps that night, Ali throws his British uniform/clothes into the camp fire and burns them. Lawrence is in spotlessly-white Arab/Harith robes for the first time. Inside a circle of Arabs, Lawrence is told of his new being and heritage - as an Arab.
Piercingly blue-eyed and innocent, Lawrence proudly struts on a camel in his new apparel and rides off to an isolated area - symbolic of his separateness. He dismounts from his camel and contemplates his new costume - play-acting and fantasizing that he is an Arabian knight. Using his knife blade as a shiny mirror, he conceitedly holds it in front of him to view and adjust his headgear. He self-consciously smiles to himself, practices turning and bowing and various other theatrical postures, and then laughs outloud. Finally, he outstretches his arms like the wings of a plane, letting his robe balloon out behind him. As the wind catches his robe, he runs in a half-circle until his play-acting is interrupted by the appearance of Auda abu Tayi, the Arab chief of the Howeitat clan, leading to a tense confrontation over drinking rights at the well between Auda (and his young son), Ali, and Lawrence. Lawrence outnumbered Auda 50-2, but Auda's still not worried.
Auda eventually grants his "hospitality" and invites them to dine with him, and the Harith Arabs are grandly welcomed to the Howeitat encampment. In his tent, the vain Auda asks about their Aqaba mission against the Turks. Lawrence speaks of Arab unity and seeks to identify himself with the Arab cause. Auda declared that the Turks pay him 100 golden guineas each month as service. Lawrence calls Auda's buy-off an insignificant amount, playing upon his pride and mercenary desires to recruit him to join them in battling against the Ottoman Turks at Aqaba. Auda is cautious of being seduced by Lawrence's wily, 'feminine' view of things, thinking he troubled him.
In their camp the night before the attack on Aqaba's undefended landward side, a potentially divisive event occurs that could split the rival tribes into a bloody feud. One of the Harith Arabs has murdered one of Auda's men and the reason could be one of many. Lawrence boldly, proposes to even-handedly execute the offender - becoming 'godlike' by deciding for himself who shall live or die. As the offender raises his head, Lawrence sees it is Gasim - the man whose life he saved in the Nefud desert when he risked his own life. With a look of disturbed shock, he cold-bloodedly fires all six shots from his pistol into Gasim's body. He ends up enjoying the execution to his discomfort. The two rival chieftains Ali and Auda discuss the execution and the emotional uncertainty displayed by Lawrence.
The sea fortress at Aqaba is attacked the next morning, and Lawrence's mounted group of Arab tribesmen overruns the Turkish garrison and reaches the sea - the powerful guns mounted toward the sea. After conquering the city, Lawrence rides his camel along the waterfront. Ali appears behind Lawrence (the "conqueror"), throwing him a red wreath of flowers that lands in the surf at his feet - but feeling like the outsider, Lawrence cannot accept the accolades of victory. Lawrence instructs Ali to send a message to summon Prince Feisal and the Arab army on boats to Aqaba. His own plans are to go back to Cairo to report the victory, but Ali doubts Lawrence's true Arab loyalty. The excitable, emotional Auda is angered and displeased while looting the Aqaba garrison when he finds only paper money and not a "box of gold." To appease his ally, Lawrence makes out a voucher for payment of gold to Auda before crossing the Sinai to reach Cairo.
Return to Cairo[]
While crossing the Sinai, Lawrence spots a cyclone of dust that he calls "a pillar of fire," alluding to Moses. A ferocious sandstorm confronts them, and Lawrence accidentally drops his compass. To keep from going in circles, they had to ride "due West" toward the golden disc of the setting sun on the horizon. Daud is lost in a sinkhole, and Lawrence tries to use his headdress as a lifeline to save him but fails. Lawrence broods over the death of his young servant boy/follower. Ferraj throws water on his dusty face to awaken him from his trance.
Finally, Ferraj and Lawrence (in his Bedouin robe) reach the Suez Canal, where they first realize that they have arrived when a ship looms up in front of them on the narrow canal They signal a motorcyclist on the other bank who cries back asking who Lawrence is, which he doesn't respond to.
Lawrence and Ferraj are delivered into the heart of Cairo, where despite resistance, Lawrence marches into the Officer's Club and at the bar orders drinks for himself and his Arab servant. When he is just on the verge of being thrown out and ostracized due to racist attitudes, Col. Brighton appears and asks Lawrence to explain himself. Lawrence proudly announces his military success.
In preparation to see General Allenby, Brighton agrees with Lawrence that he needs a shave and adds: "You'd better get into some trousers too."
Before General Lord Allenby, Mr. Dryden of the Arab Bureau, and Col. Brighton, Lawrence first listens to a description of his background from his file, and then is questioned about the strategic take-over of Aqaba.
With his idealistic motivations, Lawrence had ultimately prepared the way for later imperialists to take over territory. Though he's accused of acting without orders Lawrence asks whether officers should use their initiative at all times. Allenby answers that independent actions may be too dangerous, but then promptly promotes Lawrence to the position of Major, wishing him to return to the desert. However, the self-doubting and disturbed Lawrence believes that he is "unfit" and should be relieved of further duty - he knows that the war has been progressively corrupting him. In addition, he makes the frightening confession that he enjoys bloodshed after he had unintentionally let Daud die in the sandpit and had to execute Gasim.
Allenby claimed he knew a good thing when he saw one and cannot afford to let the heroic Lawrence go. Lawrence is ceremonially marched down the stairs and to the officers' club where it is publically announced that he is now a Major. With a change of heart, Lawrence enthusiastically describes how his small desert Arab force of a thousand men could hold down the entire Turkish army and continue to inflict destruction with guerrilla warfare. He wishes to fulfill his promises to unite the Arab tribes when he continues his work in the desert with British support of arms, money, and training. As he's separated from his fellow officers who stand inside the club behind a window pane, the non-conformist Lawrence is in the courtyard, garbed in his white Arabian robes. But he is congratulated, although embarrassed by the attention, when he steps inside. With Lawrence out of earshot and not present, Allenby ruthlessly and manipulatively agrees with Dryden that the Arabs must not be made completely independent.
Top of His Game[]
Back in the Arabian Desert, syndicated American Chicago Courier journalist Jackson Bentley is introduced to Prince Feisal. Bentley, who wishes to record Lawrence's exploits as a public figure, wants to know where to find Lawrence. Bentley knows that the Arabs lack artillery and therefore are "handicapped" and "restricted to small things." He offers an unsolicited opinion about General Allenby as he's a slim customer to him. After offering his cooperation and guidance during the interview, Feisal remarks that they we are destroying the Turkish railways. He then describes the barbaric nature of their warfare, led in part by tribal leader Lawrence, against their savage Turkish enemy. As Bentley prepares to leave, he describes the nature of his interest in Feisal's people and "hero" Major Lawrence.
Meanwhile, Lawrence is on a sand dune ridge and he pushes a plunger to detonate some dynamite laid on the tracks of a Turkish train. The band of Arab guerrillas open fire with British machine guns on the derailed and sabotaged train, while the ambush is photographed by Bentley. Lawrence calls for his men to stop, then rises in his flowing white robes and runs in front of the line of fire, shooting flares to get his men's attention. Then, with one sweeping hand, he leads the bloody desert assault down the sand dune hillside.
The men loot the train for treasures - Auda laughingly sports a trophy of war from the train, a battered black umbrella. Memorably, one finely-dressed, mortally-wounded train passenger staggers away from the wreck in a daze. Lawrence parades atop the wrecked train like a god, where he is shot in the right upper arm by a wounded Turkish officer. He faces and watches as the Turkish man unsteadily empties his 'broom-handle' Mauser automatic pistol directly at him. After Auda swiftly dispatches the man with his raised sword, Bentley comments he had never seen a man killed with a sword before. Auda takes Bentley's camera from him and smashes it when he finds out his picture was taken.
Bentley photographs Lawrence in front of his hero-worshipping followers with a backup camera. His arm bloodied, he climbs back aboard the top of the train, casting a giant shadow on the ground that the Arabs follow. In his flamboyant white robes, he is framed against the bright sun with his arms outstretched, as his men enthusiastically chant his Arabian name. Ali considers the looting as "customary" "payment" for the men's services. Colonel Brighton thinks Lawrence's tribal army is solely composed of thieves who will carry off the loot to their homes - never to return, but Lawrence disagrees. Asked if he is physically wounded by Brighton, Lawrence vainly and recklessly believes in his own legendary invincibility.
Later, Bentley asks two questions "straight" of Lawrence before he returns to Western "fleshpots". Another Turkish train carrying wagonloads of horses is successfully attacked by Auda's tribe. Having taken an "honorable" loot this time, Auda prepares to go home, but he is called a "deserter" by Brighton.
On their way north to the Turkish-held town of Deraa, Lawrence and about fifty of Ali's tribe prepare to ambush a third Turkish train. As the train approaches, Ferraj is seriously injured in a freak accident with detonated explosives. To prevent his torture by the Turks if left behind, Lawrence executes his adored Arab servant/friend in a mercy killing at the scene of the aborted attack. Before the sacrifice, he tells Ferraj: "Salute him [Daud] for me."
Recognized as a serious Turkish threat, the Turks offer twenty thousand pounds for Lawrence's capture. During the winter when the fighting abates, Allenby doubts whether Lawrence will live long enough to rise again and rally the Arabs to him. Even Ali, his loyal desert leader, notes the decline of Lawrence's attraction by the men and the derailed efforts at Arab nationalism. But Lawrence persists in believing in his own mythological invulnerability.
Lawrence daringly flaunts his presence, jeopardizing his life and inviting pain in the Turkish stronghold of Deraa during a reconnaissance mission. Dressed as a poor Arab, he tries to find "some way to announce" himself on the street of the Turkish-held town, as Ali looks anxiously heavenward. With his arms outstretched and acting conspicuously, Lawrence walks through a large mud puddle (his "walk on water"), and then openly strides by a Turkish patrol, smiling calmly at Ali. But Lawrence is seized by the patrol and brought before the Turkish Commander, governor of Deraa. Placed in a lineup of four men, he is picked to remain behind for his fair skin and blue-eyes.
Lawrence's Downfall[]
"Isolated" for three and a half years at Deraa, the Turkish Bey only hints at Lawrence's fate. Lawrence's clothes are stripped from his back, and the Turk notices the gunshot wound, asking: "Yes, you are a deserter, but from which army?" As the Turk makes sexual advances - admiring Lawrence's white, fair skin while pinching his chest, Lawrence strikes him sharply in the groin. Lawrence is ordered to be flogged - he is laid bare-backed and spread-eagled on a long, narrow bench by the Bey's degenerate-looking guards. As a grinning, sadistic private stretches and pulls on him, Lawrence is savagely beaten, and then is thrown out that night into a muddy street.
Ali rescues him, and as he recuperates, tells him: "Sleep, sleep, eat, eat. You have a body, like other men." After his experience and realizing that he is only a frail, flesh-bound human and not invisible or invulnerable, Lawrence is brought down to reality. Having lost heart, Lawrence wishes to retreat back to his own people and give up his command to Ali.
Back in Cairo, Lawrence wears an ill-fitting, light tan uniform when visiting with General Allenby. He requests a "release from Arabia" for personal reasons - on the brink of madness, he wishes to resign and take "an ordinary job." To Lawrence's slight surprise, he learns he has been the unwitting pawn of an imperialist power struggle for control of the Middle East. He has himself become an unwilling victim of imperialism. The suave Dryden describes the timely, recent Sykes-Picot Treaty or "agreement" between England and France - an infamous plan between two European nations to divide Arabia. The treaty betrays the cause of Arab nationalism and unity. Lawrence pleads for "my ration of common humanity".
Bentley, the opportunistic reporter, is in the outer offices and is not allowed to know what is happening to Lawrence, his "hero". General Allenby unscrupulously plays upon Lawrence's sense of destiny to convince him to stay on and return to the desert for one "big push" to take Damascus (for the Arabs). Once again, Lawrence is led to believe in his own power over others, and to see himself as the savior (or demi-god) of a race of disunited people.
Lawrence's Greatest Regret[]
By camelback, Arabian-clothed Lawrence is led to the assembled Arab tribes who have been handsomely paid off to join the assault on Damascus. Dismayed by the appearance of Lawrence's body guards, Ali calls them "murderers" who know nothing of the Arab Revolt. The British Generals call the Arab force approaching Damascus an "irregular cavalry...about two thousand." Brighton believes that the "cocky" Lawrence has "the bit between his teeth" and may reach Damascus before the English, unless held up by a Turkish column in front of him.
On their way to Damascus, Lawrence and his cavalry force come upon the Turkish column that has just massacred an Arab village in its path. Lawrence has to decide whether to lead a charge on the Turkish column, or to go around them and head instead for Damascus. Incensed by the massacre, one of the Arabs (who grew up in the village) charges from the ranks and is shot down by the Turks in front of everyone. Revealing his satanic, repressed bloodthirsty and maddened state, Lawrence leads the Arab charge against the retreating Turkish column, shouting with wild-eyed vengeance and battlefield-intoxication: "No prisoners!"
After the massacre at Tafas, Lawrence rushes through the dusty scene of the blood-bath assault. He ruthlessly joins in the violent mayhem, firing his pistol until it empties. His white robes are first only speckled with the blood of his victims; then, his curved dagger and right arm are pictured dripping and caked in blood. Lawrence's face, revealed in his dagger blade, reflects barbarism and madness lurking beneath his civilized veneer. Bentley arrives at the scene of the massacre, exclaiming: "Jesus wept." Ali confirms what has occurred to the dismayed, disillusioned reporter - that Lawrence's former heroism cannot be recognized. In his journey from Oxford to Damascus, a journey eclipsing both genius and madness, Lawrence has become corrupted and bloodied.
A clump of unripe grapes cut the previous night in Damascus are brought to Lawrence. Not even sidetracked or delayed by the attack on the Turkish column, the Arabs reach Damascus a day and a night before General Allenby and the British. Brighton informs Allenby about Lawrence's take-over of Damascus. The Arabs also control the telephone exchange, post office, power house, hospitals, fire station, etc. They call themselves "the Arab National Council," and run the city from the Town Hall.
However, the Arabs are as divided as ever - there is disarray and chaos in the Arabs' attempt at unification and government in the Town Hall in Damascus. Loud shouting erupts from one faction to another, ancient animosities flare up, and dissension arises between tribal leaders over the division of powers and responsibilities. Lawrence quiets the bickering by pounding his gun butt on the round table. Hr argues that if they rely on English engineering to fix their technical problems (telephone, electricity, water, etc.), they will sacrifice themselves to the British government. British masters would be substituted for Turkish rulers.
Under the strain of arguments between different tribal sovereignties, the council and Lawrence's dream of a democratic Arab state quickly dissolves into chaos and collapses, and the Arabs leave the city. General Allenby calmly waits for the disintegration of the United Arab Council. Auda begs Lawrence to leave the civilized world and return to the desert, and then walks off.
Aftermath of Damascus Capture[]
After the anti-climactic capture of Damascus, Ali decides to remain and "learn politics" - an occupation that is characterized as "very low" by Lawrence. According to Auda, being a "politician" is foreign to the Harith's cultural upbringing. Problems for the Arab Council, now decimated, are insurmountable. The Turkish hospital is overflowing with wounded, and there is no water. A British medical officer (Howard Marion Crawford) finds the situation "outrageous," calls Arab-garbed Lawrence a "filthy little wog" and slaps him in the face, and then takes over the medical care of the Turks.
Realizing his actions to unite the Arabs have failed, Lawrence accepts the rank of Colonel as a final mark of privilege, and acknowledges that he has outlived his usefulness. He must lay aside his Arab costume and return to England. The intelligent Prince Feisal craftily negotiates a peaceful compromise/accord settlement with the British.
As Lawrence leaves the conference and moves out to the lobby and a waiting car, the British medical officer (who slapped him in the face in the hospital and called him a "filthy little wog") asks for a favor to let him shake his hand.
As the wily old politicians hammer out an expedient (doomed-to-fail) compromise, Feisal claims the Arab Council took power in his name - an illusory but powerful connection. Feisal presents the falsely apolitical Allenby with a copy of the Chicago Daily Courier that prominently displays a picture of Lawrence of Arabia - the liberator of Damascus.
On the first leg of his journey home to England, Lawrence is driven out of Damascus on a desert road in an open car, passing a group of Arabs riding on camels. He rises out of his seat as the Arabs partially move off the road to let them go by.
Final Moments and Death[]
After Lawrence has arrived back to England from Arabia, he climbs onto his motorcycle and races it along an English country road. At the crest of a hill, he brakes and swerves to avoid two bicyclists, losing control and crashing his motorcycle into shrubbery. He falls off of his motorcycle as it hurtles through the air and comes to rest with its rear wheel spinning, and the crash is fatal for him.
Aftermath[]
Following the mysterious accident, a bronze bust of T. E. Lawrence is shown in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where a memorial service is being held. Colonel Harry Brighton stated he was the most extraordinary man he ever knew. On the steps, General Lord Allenby and then American journalist Jackson Bentley are asked for a few words by an agile reporter. In an informal eulogy, Bentley provides two contrasting, contradictory views of the man and legend. Another memory from one of the funeral-goers provides the framework telling the full true story of Lawrence's earlier life.