The Best Edit Ever: Lawrence of Arabia

All art is subjective, but the edit that occurs in this scene after Jackson Bentley (Arthur Kennedy) fires off his flash powder when photographing T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is my favorite "edit" in movie history. Perhaps it's the snap from solemn to a loud crash of horse hooves. Or it could be because it's one of the first "flash cuts" in movie history, but it still gives me goosebumps.

• Category

  Film & Animation

[DjBEandip]

What? come on, it's good. I think the match blowout to the arabian sun is the best in the movie

[tlibber]

Oh yeah, no argument. And what katinaanimator said, there's tons of great edits in this film. Among other things, Sir David Lean was a great editor (and filmmaker) and this one cut just always sticks in my head. Good call on this one!

[tlibber]

"The" edit occurs at 1:03.

[smarterthananyone]

Among the finest films ever made. But, gee... isn't the cut from lit match to slow sunrise equaly great?!? The surprise that he's blowing it out instead of pinching it between his fingers is imposed on the visual beauty at that same moment. Of course, your right that all art is subjective.

[NextBus UK]

Absolutely spot on sir.

I thought that was the best piece of editing ever too!

[bob marley]

@FienStudios i think the uploader is being sarcastic

[Oliver Horner]

The cut from the bone to the spaceship? That cut is not only technically brilliant but is important for the narrative so it gets my vote for Best cut as well.

[Oliver Horner]

I wondered about that too



[FienStudios]

I've seen way better than this, the Henley on Thames scene in The Social Network

Won an Oscar for it too

watch?v=8qL-BCph140

[raymonda100]

For those who love this movie, I highly recommend the book "The Making of LoA" - it's on amazon. It has the most fascination info about all aspects of the film - from casting to editing. What is amazing is that they had cast Alain Delon to play Ali (talk about a masterpiece of miscasting) but he couldn't wear contacts and Spiegal said he couldn't have a blue-eyed Arab! Enter Omar - what a stroke of luck!

[bvscfanatic]

The really good films made in the United States are not huge financial successes. I blame the audiences, not the film makers for this. The audiences want to see two hours of shit being blown up, so that's what they get. Plot is irrelevant, as is character development, since the audiences have not the attention span to focus on the film. They're busy texting or playing video games while viewing it.

[McLarenMercedes]

Yes, times have changed alright.

Whereas "Lawrence of Arabia" was a commercial success when it was released and was to my knowledge the biggest box office hit in 1962 (the same applied to "The Godfather" in 1972) today such kind of movies would be lucky to hit the top 20. Instead we have comic book movies, glittering vampires, boy wizards and cgi robots dominating the box office.

The point is, there are still fine movies being made today but they are hardly seen by anybody. Not so with L.o.A..

[bvscfanatic]

This entire film is pure genius. Flawless, from start to finish. Particularly given the working conditions and the tools of the time, there is not a film that compares. Modern film is pure garbage by comparison. More than 90% of it anyway.

[Ron Richo]

That is a great cut no question but this is a perfect film. No bad cuts at all. David Lean was brilliant.