#el aurens is a name ali gives lawrence not one he chooses for himself
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i'm having lawrence of arabia thoughts now, but that movie is so good, and I mean it is 100% a product of its time (the egregious brown face speaks for itself), but there was a sensibility towards lawrence's orientalism that was so cutting and smart! They were so careful at making it obvious that Ali loved Lawrence because he was Lawrence, a man he respected and was attracted to, but Lawrence loved Ali because he saw him as the epitome of the ideal "arab man". He exotizes him constantly, and yet Ali always saw the humanity in Lawrence while Lawrence saw a racialized ideal in him. It's a very subtle and keen depiction of a relationship doomed by cultural and racial fetishism. The ending scene where Lawrence looks back at the bedouin men wearing all black looking for Ali is so telling, he's looking for him in every arab man, because he's in love with a concept not a person.
#omar sharif gives such a heartfelt performance#he's so so good#he's always on the verge on tears when lawrence disappoints him (often!) and yet he loves him so much and so deeply#truly one of the best characters of all time#coincidently dune is also at its best when it shows paul's egregious fetishization of the fremen#that scene where he's marveling at their technology is literally 'how could these backwards people have made this'#he literally tells chani 'i would love being equal to you' and then makes her a concubine to make a white woman his wife#watch things with your eyes and ears please#also frankie boy (i assume it's from the books and not movies) doesn't understand romance#el aurens is a name ali gives lawrence not one he chooses for himself#although i suppose there might be something to paul being known by the name he chose instead of the name he was given by the fremen...#'el aurens is best' 😭😭😭 devastating the best man in the world is in love with a mid white guy
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