58: Irish Movies

Gareth Higgins on IRISH CINEMA

The other day I was watching Lawrence of Arabia for the umpteenth time, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how some great movies reveal more depending on how we watch them. The psychological depth to the portrayal of T.E. Lawrence is more resonant when I watch it on a TV in a room by myself; the epic struggle for land and power is more evident the bigger the screen. But the fine line between endless desert and the fear that what lies within any one of us is as empty as a dried up oasis is perfectly suited to either way of watching. One of the reasons Lawrence of Arabia really is one of the greatest films ever made is that it works whether it’s confronting us with an enormous projection of beautiful and terrifying space, or the smallest focus in the solitary space inside our own minds.