Disappointedsville, population: me

I watched Lawrence of Arabia last night on TCM. I've wanting to watch that movie for a while due largely to its reputation of one the best "epic" movie made. I thought the cinematography was excellent (did you know that the lens used to shoot the mirage scene of Omar Sharif is now known as the "David Lean Lens") and the music certainly matched the epic scale of the desert. But I was still disappointed in the movie because I found it really boring. The movie just goes on and on and on (and on and on). I don't have a problem with long movies (see the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice which is 310 minutes or the two Anne of Green Gables movies, one is 194 minute and the other is 240). But holy moly Lawrence of Arabia is a long movie. The action scenes seemed really short and then were long interludes of basically nothing, no character development, no talking. The casting really bothered me too. Alec Guiness is not Arabic, and neither is Anthony Quinn (he is actully Mexican). I liked Peter O'Toole in the role but he looked very odd with his super blond hair and really blue eyes against his really tan skin (apparently Peter O'Toole is much taller and better looking than T.E. Lawerence). I do apperciate that a majority of the extras in the movie are actully Arabian (King Hussien lent a brigade of the Arabian Legion as extras in the film; he also visited the set often and met his second wife on the set). So overall, I was a disappointed in the movie. But after Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca was on so the evening ended on a high note (the Great Escape was on at 11:30 and that was a little too late for me!)