Peter Seamus O'Toole died Saturday at the age of 81 years of living life to the full and relishing a career as an actor, communicating that joy with every part. He was always an "active" actor, investing even moments of thought with a commitment of 110%, making you believe that the brain behind the haunted blue eyes was percolating at a boil, making each moment on stage or on film an event and a master-class in acting at its highest register. "Magnificent" was never too strong a word for a Peter O'Toole performance.
And daring. I remember seeing him perform Henry Higgins in an HBO taping of "Pygmalion" and he had the audacity to perform some of it while chomping exquisitely through an apple. That's my favorite version of the character, revealing an ego so large and so confident in a class system (that he claimed to despise) that even acting like a slob did not diminish his own confidence in his standing or elocution. It takes a great deal of invention to come up with a way to convey those dichotomies in so simple an act.
There are going to be many, many tributes to the man over the next few days full of the actor's generosity and examples of how he lived his life with a great theatricality.
John Goodman had a good O'Toole story on "Inside the Actor's Studio." The two were doing a movie together (King Ralph, written and directed by David S. Ward, after the novel by Emlyn Williams) and during a smoke-break, Goodman started looking around for something to put his ashes in. O'Toole responded with a flourish of arms (I suppose) and a loud, royal air (imitated by Goodman): "Boy, make the WORLD your ash-tray!"
Lovely. And he had the perfect answer to what he wanted on his tombstone.
"Many years ago I had a beloved leather jacket... and I never wanted to throw it away. I sent it to the cleaners because it was covered in blood and Guinness and scotch and Corn Flakes, the usual. It went off to the Sycamore Cleaners and it came back with a thing pinned on it: 'It distresses us to return work which is not perfect' - so I want that on my tombstone."
I've had this scene from Lawrence of Arabia planned for awhile, as it contains some fine writing and the single greatest movie edit in the medium's history. I had no idea what I was going to write about it, but it was sitting there on my hard-drive, waiting for meaning and relevance. And with the news of his passing, his career ended but ever-present to be enjoyed for ages to come. That edit perfectly conveys the moment of loss (the blowing out of the match) at his passing, and the eternal legacy of his work (the light of a new day emerging, strong and powerful and in perpetuity.
Goodbye, Mr. O'Toole. "It won't really be...good-bye."
The Set-Up: The film is just beginning, but, at this point, T. E. Lawrence (O'Toole) has been summoned to the office of General Murray (Donald Wolfit) in Cairo, at the request of Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains) of the Arab Bureau.
Action!
26 INT. GENERAL MURRAY’S OFFICE CAIRO
CLOSE SHOT. GENERAL MURRAY is one of those regulation officers whose pride is to appear more regulation than anyone can be. His face is hard and shrewd, his expression exasperated. He is seated at his desk. On the wall behind him is an “Illustrated London News” type pen and ink sketch of heavy artillery on the Western front. On a ledge under the picture is a collection of empty shell cases of varying sizes. GENERAL MURRAY is addressing DRYDEN, a donnish man with a pale, lined, lively face, wearing civilian clothes, who at this moment has his back to us as he stands looking out of a window overlooking the gardens of the Headquarters.
MURRAY: I smell an intrigue! An intrigue between the Arab Bureau and a junior officer of my staff! A very junior officer, an insubordinate junior officer, an officer who, so far as I can gather, has proved markedly incompetent in a very junior post!
DRYDEN turns from the window, smiling a little at the reference to LAWRENCE’s incompetence, and offers a smiling explanation of it.
DRYDEN: He wants to go to Arabia, sir.
He strolls away from the window towards a chair in front of MURRAY’s desk, the CAMERA TRACKING BACKWARDS with him into a medium shot of the two of them. We now see that DRYDEN is carrying a copy of the Arabic newspaper.
MURRAY: I’m aware of that. He’s made application for a posting to Arabia once a month ever since he got here. Very well then, the Arab Bureau comes along and says, “We want an Intelligence man in Arabia. We want you to second us a man in Arabia. We think it should be Mr. Lawrence.”
1_It'sanintrigueDryden.jpg)
He loosens the collar of his shirt as DRYDEN smiles again, and sits in the chair.
DRYDEN:(calmly quizzical) It doesn’t sound as though he’d be any great loss, sir.
27 CLOSE UP DRYDEN
28 CLOSE UP. MURRAY. He is a little put out by the moral tone of this, which though a shade spinsterish is not less authentic for that. He grumbles:
MURRAY: I’ve already sent out Colonel Brighton—who is a soldier—and if Brighton thinks we should send them some small arms then we will.
29 MED. SHOT
DRYDEN: There would be no question of Lieutenant Lawrence
giving military advice, sir—
MURRAY: —My God I should hope not!
DRYDEN: It’s just that the Arab Bureau wants its own man on the
spot sir, to ...
MURRAY:(suspicious) To what?
DRYDEN spreads his hands deprecatingly as he says this, as
one who makes an almost childishly small request. But his
eyes are ready for conflict—he speaks for the Bureau—and
MURRAY is uneasy.This is a conflict which has been brewing
for some time.
30 CLOSE UP. MURRAY.
He looks away, fiddles with a ruler. Blurts out:
that of my staff that any time spent on the Bedouin will be
time wasted.
31 CLOSE UP. DRYDEN.
He raises and lets fall the newspaper.
MURRAY:(off) And the Turks made mincemeat of them.
32 CLOSE UP. MURRAY.
Dryden, a side-show— (he broods)
operations is a side-show.
the Turks. Not here, but on the Western Front ... in the
trenches!
(his eyes glow and we see for a moment how he longs to be there,
organising mass attacks through mud)
—would be a side-show of a sideshow!
33 CLOSE UP. DRYDEN.
He is smiling again.
34 CLOSE SHOT.
MURRAY darts a quick look at him and rises.
they’re going to sit down quietly under us when this war’s over?
war.
MURRAY: (flushing, walks back to his desk) Don’t tell me my
duty, Mr. Dryden.
35 CLOSE SHOT.
The door is opened by a STAFF MAJOR. Behind him we see LAWRENCE
standing in the outer office. He moves forward as soon as he is
announced.
MURRAY: (off) Send him in.
LAWRENCE brushes past the MAJOR and walks into the room.
36 CLOSE SHOT. MURRAY
37 CLOSE SHOT.
his legs not quite together, and throws a side-long glance at
DRYDEN expecting approbation, but DRYDEN shakes his head
quickly, somewhat to LAWRENCE’s surprise.
38 MED. SHOT. THE GROUP.
MURRAY has been looking at LAWRENCE, ready to be enraged, but
with something not unlike caution, but he intercepts the look
at DRYDEN and explodes.
under arrest!
LAWRENCE: (apparently crestfallen) It’s my manner, sir.
LAWRENCE: My manner, sir. It looks insubordinate, but it isn’t
really.
MURRAY is again baffled by his own lack of imagination and
LAWRENCE’s apparent innocence. He moves uneasily.
just half-witted.
MURRAY: (thumping the table) Shut up!
LAWRENCE: Yes sir.
to them in Arabia. Why, I can’t imagine. You don’t seem able
to perform your present duties properly.
quote, en passant) “I cannot fiddle but I can make a great
state from a little city.”
MURRAY: (suspicious, barks) What?
in your dossier.
He pushes back his chair, rises, and walks to a window.
39 CLOSE SHOT. LAWRENCE and DRYDEN.
LAWRENCE raises his eyebrows and smiles enquiringly at DRYDEN,
but DRYDEN frowns and gestures with his hand that he is to
simmer down.
40 CLOSE SHOT.
MURRAY standing looking out of the window. A swirl of dust
blows by outside. MURRAY’s face is dark with all the extrovert’s
loathing of the sensitive and introspective. He says, slowly
and with great sincerity:
41 CLOSE UP. LAWRENCE
LAWRENCE’s face lights up, but almost immediately he composes
himself.
42 CLOSE SHOT. MURRAY has turned around eyeing LAWRENCE heavily.
to a knock at the door)
43 LONG SHOT.
The door opens and the STAFF MAJOR enters excitedly with a
sheaf of bills.
MAJOR: Navy signal, sir. The convoy’s coming in tomorrow night.
MURRAY: (real joy) Is that certain?
MAJOR: Yes sir ... there doesn’t seem to be any artillery.
MURRAY’s joy changes to anxiety. He snatches the paper.
DRYDEN and LAWRENCE have been forgotten.
got to get to Yenbo, find transport, find the Arabs, and then
get back. He can’t do that in six weeks.
MURRAY: Two months then.
DRYDEN: Three.
And immediately his attention is back on the papers.
DRYDEN leaves, beckoning to LAWRENCE to follow, but LAWRENCE
remains. He addresses MURRAY’s bent head. He is sincere and
correspondingly awkward.
44 CLOSE SHOT. LAWRENCE.
His expression is hurt, then viciously resentful; then is
replaced by his habitual protective mockery.
THE CAMERA PANS with him as he goes to the door and turns:
45 CLOSE SHOT. MURRAY and the MAJOR.
They both look up.
46 CLOSE SHOT. LAWRENCE.
He performs a slow-motion parody of the regulation army salute
and goes.
47 CLOSE SHOT. MURRAY and the MAJOR.
Even before the door has closed MURRAY is searching rapidly
through the Bills of Lading.
Suddenly he cries out in real distress.
artillery?
INT. CORRIDOR
48 CLOSE TRACKING SHOT. DRYDEN and LAWRENCE.
THE CAMERA IS TRACKING on a CLOSE SHOT of DRYDEN. LAWRENCE
runs up behind him.
DRYDEN avoids him and continues walking.
DRYDEN: (reproving) He’s not a bad chap, Lawrence.
LAWRENCE: No he’s not a bad chap, he’s a fool.
DRYDEN again avoids him and goes on walking.
DRYDEN: You might better ask me why I bothered to.
At this LAWRENCE falls into step beside him, and although
his words are still flippant his face begins to assume its
expression of stiff and bitter withdrawal.
DRYDEN: (looking straight ahead) I just wonder about that.
LAWRENCE: Of course I’m the man for the job.
DRYDEN opens the door and they enter.
INT. DRYDEN’S OFFICE
49 MED. SHOT. This is a room at once similar to but utterly
different from GENERAL MURRAY’S. It is elegantly furnished and
carpeted, the room of a cultivated xenophile. There are
pictures of ancient desert monuments and fragments of carving.
(his gaze wanders some-what)
DRYDEN: —what his intentions are.
Brighton’s business, not yours.
LAWRENCE appreciates the significance of this. He walks away a
little and comes to rest with his hand on a fragment of stone.
...DRYDEN agrees. LAWRENCE puts down the piece of stone.
of desert in a day.
LAWRENCE throws back his head in silent rapture.
desert, Bedouins... and—
(his gaze wanders round the photographs of silent sun-scorched
figures and the fragments of stone)
DRYDEN: —gods. And you’re neither.
fiery furnace.
DRYDEN is irritably tapping a black Russian cigarette for
himself.
LAWRENCE steps forward, takes a box of matches and lights it
for him.
The set intensity of his expression is in utter contradiction
to his words.
50 CLOSE UP. DRYDEN.
LAWRENCE’s face.
sense of fun.
51 CLOSE UP. LAWRENCE.
He smiles and raises the flame to his lips.
He blows it out in the normal manner.
DISSOLVE TO
52 SUNRISE IN THE DESERT
A series of shots taken with an under-cranked camera so that
the change from grey dawn to brilliant sunlight is speeded. The
audience should be unaware of the trick process, but from the
first appearance of the sun over the horizon and the casting of
the first shadow there should be a constant sense of movement
as the sun rises higher and higher and the shadows grow shorter
and shorter.
Prominent in the composition of almost every shot
should be the footprints of two camels. We do not see the actual
camels until the series of under-cranked shots are finished and
we
CUT TO
53 CLOSE SHOT. THE SUN, now a searing white.
54 LONG SHOT. A brilliantly lit desert vista of sand and rock.
The tiny figures of two MEN on camels appear over a distant
Lawrence of Arabia
Words by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson
Pictures by Freddie Young and David Lean
Lawrence of Arabia is available on Columbia Tri-Star Home Video.
The Honorary Oscar given to O'Toole
O'Toole and Vanessa Redgrave from Venus (2006)
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