Ralph Fiennes makes a very convincing impersonation of the enigmatical T.E.Lawrence with all the complications of his case, especially concerning his integrity and political departure from the public scene, Ever since he made his career that brought him world fame and interest, it has been wondered who he really was, he became an enigma from the start, and that enigma has never been solved, while the main result of this film is to add to the enigma. Alexander Siddig makes as memorable a figure of Prince Feisal as Omar Sharif did of Sherif Auda, while the characters of Curzon, Clemenceau, Churchill, Wilson and the others enrich the film with political interest. The main story of the film is the account of how everything went wrong in the peace conference of Paris as Lawrence and the Arabs got practically nothing as a result of their efforts but mainly only were driven over and Lawrence even practically driven into exile, at least forced into disappearing anonymity, The film is therefore most like a documentary and extremely interesting as such, since it is impartial, tells the truth and is meticulous about it. Nothing can vie with or excel the splendour of David Lean's great epic, but one almost feels inclined to regard Ralph Fiennes' characterisation of Lawrence as more real and convincing than Peter O'Toole's.
