'Lawrence of Arabia' or 'Smith in the Desert'

Lawrence of Arabia or Smith in the Desert?

David Lean's film reviewed by a historian

Jeremy Wilson

Page 8

14-20: At Feisal's camp

No time-span is indicated for this sequence of scenes, which in reality spans a period of several months, from October 1916 to May 1917 (Chapters 12 to 39 In the subscribers' abridgement of Seven Pillars).

14. Feisal's camp bombed by Turkish aircraft. Starts 0:37:19

What happens:
View of Feisal's camp. There is general panic as two Turkish aircraft attack with bombs and machine-guns. Feisal is seen riding to-and-fro on a white horse, attempting to steady the nerves of his men. He cries: "Stand and fight! Fire back at them!" A sequence of shots shows the continuing attack. Finally, the aircraft leave. Feisal, exhausted and despondent, sheathes his sword, then looks up to see Lawrence, accompanied by Brighton. Brighton urges Feisal to move south. Feisal wearily agrees: "fifty miles south", but is concerned about the wounded. Brighton says they should go to Yenbo (which, by implication here, must be closer than the fifty-mile-south destination). Feisal asks Lawrence to understand that his people are unused to explosives and machines: "First, the guns, and now this."

Source:
The scene draws on accounts in Seven Pillars of Feisal's conduct during Turkish attacks on his force some time earlier, when it was near Medina.

Comment:
Placed at this point in the Revolt, the scene is fictional; Feisal's camp at Wadi Safra was not being bombed when Lawrence arrived. Turkish aircraft did not operate against Feisal in Wadi Safra.

Brighton would certainly not have advised Feisal to move 'fifty miles south'. No specific destination is mentioned, but fifty miles south would have taken Feisal to the vicinity of Rabegh. The role of Feisal's army was to prevent the Turks approaching Rabegh. By retreating to Rabegh he would have abandoned that task. In all probability, the Arab revolt would then have foundered.

The dialogue here shows some regard for geography, since "fifty miles south" is represented as further away than Yenbo. Although it is not stated, Wadi Safra is only few miles east of Yenbo.

15. The Arab army moves; appearance of Daud and Farraj [September 1916]. Starts 0:39:47

What happens:
There are spectacular shots of Feisal's Arab army on the move. No destination is stated, leaving the audience uncertain whether it is going fifty miles south, or to Yenbo. Farraj and Daud appear among the camel riders, on foot. They ask Lawrence, who is on camelback, for cigarettes. He has none. Then they see a British corporal (Brighton later addresses him as "Jenkins") lighting a cigarette. They ask him, and he gives them an empty packet, then laughs. Daud thrusts a stick up the camel's backside, causing it to bolt. The corporal is thrown off. Farraj and Daud then return to Lawrence, offering themselves as servants. But he says he has no need of servants and cannot afford them.

Source:
The images of Feisal's army on the move draw on Lawrence's photographs of Feisal's army approaching Yenbo, which happened at about this time, and also on Lawrence's photographs and description of the later Arab advance northward from Yenbo to Wejh (a strategically crucial move that is not mentioned in the film). There are accounts of mischief by Daud and Farraj in Seven Pillars, but much later than this.

Comment:
This move to an unstated destination to avoid Turkish bombing is fictional. Following a misunderstanding caused by poor communications between the rebel forces, Feisal's army did draw back a few miles westward to Yenbo (not "fifty miles south"). That move was not accompanied by any British officer or personnel. At that time there was no real-life British equivalent to Colonel Brighton with Feisal. Lawrence was already in Yenbo when Feisal's force arrived. In Seven Pillars, Daud and Farraj do not appear until the journey to Akaba. Why introduce them so soon?

16. Brighton, Lawrence and Ali in Feisal's tent. Starts: 0:41:51

What happens:
After a brief shot of the camp at dusk, the scene cuts to the interior of Feisal's tent. Feisal, Brighton and Lawrence are about to listen to a recitation from the Koran. Sherif Ali enters. Feisal greets him. Ali sits between Brighton and Lawrence and the recitation begins. Feisal takes it up, speaking from memory. Lawrence then completes it, also from memory.

Source:
There is no such scene in Seven Pillars

Comment:
During this scene Brighton sits opposite Feisal, showing the soles of his boots to the Arab leader. Any British officer sent to advise the Arab forces would have known that showing the soles of your shoes is considered by Arabs to be an insult.

The conversation that follows is a key element in the film, so important that it is worth looking at in some detail.

Brighton asks Feisal for a decision, because the Arabs "are not doing much good
here".
Feisal replies: "You want me to fall back on Yenbo"
Brighton says the British cannot supply Feisal "here"
Feisal replies that the British could supply him through Akaba.
Brighton seems surprised, but says that if Feisal could take Akaba, the British would of course be able to supply him - but Feisal cannot take Akaba.
Feisal replies "You could."
Brighton asks if he is thinking of an attack by the Royal Navy. If so, Feisal must put that out of his mind because the Turks have 12 inch guns at Akaba.

Comment:

1) The geography is now a total mystery. Where is the Arab Army now, after the march we have just seen? Brighton is now urging Feisal to move, not "fifty miles south", but just a few miles westward to Yenbo.

2) Brighton's supply argument is misleading fiction. Yes, Feisal had been having problems with supplies; but that was because stores landed by the British were being blocked by a Turkish sympathiser. The problem had been discovered and dealt with. Feisal could easily be supplied in Wadi Safra from Yenbo.

3) Given Feisal's apparent location, his suggestion that he could be supplied from Akaba is completely fantastic, since Akaba was still far to the north. It could not possibly have been used to supply Feisal, nor Arab operations against the Turks in Medina.

4) The guns "at Akaba" could not have prevented a naval assault, nor were they as large as 12 inch. Akaba itself (then a small village), was virtually undefended. From time to time the Royal Navy put landing parties ashore. The Turkish defences were not at Akaba, but at the mouth of Wadi Itm, the narrow gorge leading inland from Akaba towards the Maan highlands. The guns and other Wadi Itm defences were intended to stop any force that approached Akaba from the sea or across Sinai advancing inland towards Maan.

The discussion continues:

Brighton says that, in any case, the British Navy has other things to do.
Exchanges follow in which Feisal and Ali represent the British as imperialists whose interests are quite different from (and by implication opposed to) the interests of the Arabs.
Brighton says that Feisal is ungrateful. If he will fall back on Yenbo, the British will give him equipment, arms, advice, training, "everything".
Feisal and Ali ask if that will include modern artillery, like the Turks have at Medina.
Brighton tries to evade the question, saying that the Arabs need training far more than they need guns.
Ali asks if the English think they can train the Bedouin to fight.
Brighton replies that the Bedouin are now opposing a modern mechanised army.

Comment:
The script here notes inevitable differences between British and Arab objectives, but builds on that to lay the foundation for a political allegation.

The allegation is hardly surprising, given the political views held by Wilson and Bolt. Their script will claim that the refusal to supply artillery was deliberate British policy, intended to handicap the Arabs and prevent the Revolt becoming anything larger than a local rising. The allegation misrepresents both Seven Pillars and fact. Britain was fighting for its survival in a major war on several fronts. It had limited resources. Not by any stretch of imagination could Whitehall have allocated scarce modern mountain guns to a theatre as insignificant, at that time, as the Arab Revolt. In Seven Pillars, Lawrence accuses the French of the motives that the film here attributes to the British. In reality, however, he yoo was wrong. Despite frequent appeals for artillery, the head of the French military mission was unable to obtain any.

The discussion continues:

Lawrence interrupts but then stops, remembering Brighton's instructions.
Feisal asks him to continue, asking what he thinks about moving to Yenbo.
Lawrence replies "I think it is far from Damascus."
Brighton says the British will get the Arabs to Damascus, but that cannot be achieved by dreaming. What is required is the kind of discipline that has had made Britain great.
Lawrence again tries to interrupt, but Brighton silences him, reminding Feisal that Lieutenant Lawrence is not his military adviser. Feisal, nevertheless, asks Lawrence to speak.
Despite angry protests from Brighton, Lawrence argues that the Arabs should fight in the desert using traditional Beduin tactics. He says that Brighton is wrong, and warns Feisal: "Fall back on Yenbo . . . and the Arab rising becomes one poor unit in the British Army."
Brighton, furious, accuses Lawrence of treason and demands that Feisal decide about the move. Feisal promises to decide next day and ends the conversation. As the others leave, he beckons Lawrence to stay behind.

Comment:
These invented exchanges highlight differences between what is portrayed as Lawrence's idealistic approach and the fictional Brighton's hard-nosed imperialism (reminder: there was in reality no British officer other than Lawrence with Feisal at that time). They suggest that Feisal, while recognising Brighton's arguments, finds Lawrence's views more attractive. They also suggest that Lawrence was at loggerheads with his British superiors.

The conversation bears no relation to what happened or might have happened. In terms of history, its content is nonsense. The British military mission which eventually joined Feisal did not wish his force to remain on the coast. It encouraged him to operate inland. Before then, the British had persuaded and helped Feisal to move north from Yenbo to Wejh - a key tactical move, unmentioned in the film. The move completely transformed the military position in the Hejaz by threatening the Hejaz Railway, which was the supply line to the Turkish force in Medina. Thereafter, the Medina garrison was reduced to a purely defensive role.

At that time, both the British and the Arabs saw the capture of Medina as a logical first step, as indeed it was. Its capture would have a valuable affect on morale, driving the Turks out of Islam's second holiest city (the Arabs had already captured Mecca). If Medina fell, the Sherif would rule the whole of the Hejaz. The Turks would almost certainly retreat far to the north since, without the terminus at Medina, there would be no point in defending hundreds of miles of Hejaz Railway south of Maan.

While he was still near Yenbo, where this conversation is located in the film. Lawrence shared the general British thinking. It was only later, after the move to Wejh, that he realised that there was a tactical alternative using Bedouin forces.

The fictitious conversation in Feisal's tent is the springboard for some of the film's most serious historical errors.

17. Lawrence and Feisal. Starts 0:47:31

What happens:
Lawrence remains behind in Feisal's tent when Brighton and the others leave.

Feisal comments that Brighton wishes to put the Arab force under European officers.
Lawrence agrees.
Feisal thinks he must accept, but is worried about England's "great hunger for desolate places". . . "I fear they hunger for Arabia".
Lawrence replies: "Then you must deny it to them."
Feisal, surprised, questions Lawrence's loyalty of his country.
Lawrence replies that he is loyal to England "and to other things".

Comment:
In the previous scene, the script has suggested that British and Arab war aims in Arabia are opposed. If this were correct, Lawrence would have been unable to support one side without disloyalty to the other. In reality, there was little (if any) conflict between British and Arab war aims in the Hejaz. True, Britain needed to defend the Suez Canal against the Turks, and an Arab revolt in the Hejaz had little direct bearing on that. More relevant, however, was Britain's wish to have a friendly government in the Muslim holy places. There were millions of Muslim citizens in the British Empire, and in the empire of Britain's wartime ally France. Earlier in the war the Turks had attempted, unsuccessfully, to call a jihad. That was a real concern, and Britain was deeply grateful that Hussein of Mecca had refused to endorse the call.

In themselves, the mountains and deserts of Arabia held little appeal for imperialists - nor did Britain consider that the Muslim holy places could be ruled by any non-Muslim power. As the briefing documents for the 1919 Peace Conference show, no European power could at that date see any advantage in colonising the Arabian peninsular. The huge reserves of oil that lay beneath the desert had yet to be discovered.

Yes, there would ultimately be a conflict between Arab and Allied war aims. But the disputed territory lay much further north, in regions as yet untouched by the Arab Revolt. The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement had assigned to Britain and France territory and spheres of influence on the Mediterranean littoral, in Syria, and in Mesopotamia. Later, the film will suggest that Lawrence was at this stage unaware of Sykes-Picot. If so, how could he have felt any conflict of loyalty during this early conversation in the Hejaz?

The conversation continues:

Feisal also speculates that Lawrence is perhaps "another of these desert-loving English" - citing Doughty and others - "Or is it that you think we are something that you can play with?" He reminds Lawrence that nine centuries earlier the Arabs had been great.
Lawrence replies that it is "Time to be great again."
Feisal says that to be great again, the Arabs need either the English or - "what no man can provide" - a miracle.
The conversation ends and Lawrence leaves.

Comment:
This scene sets up the relationship between Lawrence and Feisal. The way it does so is misleading. A first comment is that Feisal seems (and will continue to seem) significantly older and wiser than Lawrence. In reality, Feisal was only three years older. He appears very dignified, which tallies with Lawrence's descriptions. But Lawrence also wrote that Feisal was "full of wild freakish humour". Not a hint of that appears in the film.

The suggestion that Lawrence was a romantic desert-lover - or perhaps saw the Arabs as playthings - is debatable. Certainly, Lawrence entered the war with a romantic vision of winning freedom for the Arabs and an idealized characterization of the Bedouin. To deny that would be to deny his cultural background.

Nevertheless, the suggestion that Lawrence might in some abnormal way have seen the Arabs as playthings overlooks Britain's immense imperial power at that time. Moreover, Lawrence would prove himself to be an anti-imperialist. Someone who obviously saw the Arabs (and other subject peoples) as playthings was Sir Mark Sykes, British negotiator of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and a key figure in the Balfour Declaration. His cavalier attitude to the aspirations of indigenous peoples is clear throughout his memoranda about the future of the Middle East.

18. Lawrence thinking. Starts 0:50:18

What happens:
Lawrence walks about aimlessly in the night, evidently thinking hard. Daud and Farraj follow him at a discreet distance. The music in the soundtrack builds gradually in anticipation. At dawn, Lawrence is seen sitting at the foot of a slope of sand. Farraj and Daud, above him, roll down a stone to wake him. Lawrence picks up the stone and walks on. Finally the three of them are seen sitting in silence, facing one another. Lawrence seems to reach an inner conclusion. He comes to himself and says: "Akaba: Akaba - from the land".

Comment:
This scene attempts to convey something of Lawrence's thinking in March 1917 while ill at Wadi Ais, after Feisal's move to Wejh. This took place some months later than the film depiction suggests. For some unexplained reason the film makes no attempt to convey Lawrence's reasoning, though it was extremely important. It just states, without explanation, one of his conclusions: that Akaba should be attacked from the landward side..

19. Lawrence with Sherif Ali. Starts 0:52:51

What happens:
The shot cuts to Sherif Ali, who one assumes has just heard the Lawrence's Akaba suggestion.

Ali says contemptuously: "You are mad! To come to Akaba by land we should have to cross the Nefudh desert."
Lawrence nevertheless pursues his argument, daring Ali to accompany him with fifty men and raise a force with the Howeitat.
Ali protests that the Howeitat are brigands who will sell themselves to anyone. Moreover, "There are guns at Akaba".
Lawrence assures Ali that the guns face the sea and cannot be turned round. They are useless against an attack from the landward side.
Ali retorts: "With good reason. It cannot be approached from the landward side."
Lawrence takes Ali a short distance and points: "Akaba is over there. It's only a matter of going."
Ali replies: "You are mad" - but is evidently persuaded.

Comment:

The real Sherif Ali had nothing to do with these events. However, we can accept that in the film the Ali is a portmanteau character.
While Ali was not present, Auda Abu Tayi of the Howeitat was with Lawrence and Feisal at Wejh when the Akaba plans were worked out.
Lawrence's route from Wejh to Akaba did not cross the Nefudh desert. It passed to the north, following a route taken routinely by Arab travellers.
Akaba could easily be approached from the landward side: there was a well-used track along the whole route, since that was how the Turks supplied Akaba from Maan.
There was nothing fantastic about Lawrence's plan. However, its success would hinge on Auda's ability to raise a Howeitat force in Wadi Sirhan which could approach the Akaba-Maan route from the Maan end.
Lawrence pointing 'over there' is completely misleading. To attack Akaba he was proposing a wide circuit inland, not a direct line of march.

20. The expedition leaves. Starts. 0:54:07

What happens:
In semi-darkness, the expedition prepares to leave.

Suddenly Feisal's voice is heard: "Where are you going, Lieutenant - with fifty of my men?"
Lawrence replies: "To work your miracle."
Feisal replies "Blasphemy is a bad beginning for such a journey."
Lawrence asks how Feisal knew. Feisal replies that Ali told him, and asks why Lawrence himself had not told him.
Lawrence counters by asking Feisal if he will fall back on Yenbo.
Feisal says he will, but will spare the men for the exhibition. He asks if Lawrence has told Colonel Brighton.
Lawrence says he has not. Lawrence mounts, saying that since Feisal knows about it, the expedition can claim to ride in the name of Feisal of Mecca.
Feisal agrees; but as the scene ends, he asks in whose name Lawrence really rides.

Comment:
This scene is complete fantasy, and also misleading.

Feisal was fully aware of Lawrence's proposed expedition against Akaba, and had done everything in his power to help it.
By the time the Akaba expedition left, Lawrence's British companions - the Military Mission - had been with the force for some time. They knew about the projected attack, but their own efforts were still focused on attacking the Hejaz Railway at El Ula, in order to isolate the Turkish force in Medina.
Far from falling back on Yenbo, Feisal's army was by this time in Wejh.
As for the "miracle", it is a dramatic theme, first introduced in the conversation (17) in Feisal's tent. Bolt will seek to portray Lawrence as someone who thinks he can achieve miracles.

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