Classics Night

Once a month - for one night only - we present a special Classic film from the past. All seats are usually $8.00 for Classics Night.

Past Classics Nights have included THE WIZARD OF OZ, BEN HUR, METROPOLIS, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, THE KING OF HEARTS, DR ZHIVAGO, JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, JAILHOUSE ROCK, DR. STRANGELOVE, GONE WITH THE WIND, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, HAROLD & MAUDE, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, CITIZEN KANE, ZORBA THE GREEK, MODERN TIMES, THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY, ON THE WATERFRONT, WHITE CHRISTMAS, Howard Hughes' HELL'S ANGELS, SUNSET BOULEVARD, 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, INHERIT THE WIND, CASABLANCA, BABY DOLL, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, and Sing-a-Long SOUND OF MUSIC.

Silent Film Event - When it opened in July 1936, Lynwood Theatre was Bainbridge Island's first (and only) talking motion picture house. So each year on July 5 we present a Silent Film to commemorate the art form which preceded us - with LIVE MUSIC ACCOMPANIMENT by Dennis James, organist extraordinaire. So far we've delighted audiences with Buster Keaton's THE CAMERAMAN (1928), THE BLACK PIRATE (1926) with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (1925), Marion Davies in SHOW PEOPLE (1928), Rudolph Valentino as THE SON OF THE SHEIK (1926) and King Vidor's THE CROWD (1928). With world-renowned accompanist Dennis James at the organ, we bring to life silent classics just as they were presented in the 1920's.

Classics Night - Tuesday, August 10 - 7:00 p.m.

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
1962 - 227 minutes

David Lean's Epic in a 35mm Print
Peter O'Toole, Anthony Quinn, Omar Shariff, Alex Guiness
Directed by David Lean
Music by Maurice Jarre

Winning 7 Academy Awards - including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography & Music
Nominated for 4 Oscars - including one for Peter O'Toole, Omar Shariff & Screenplay

See Siskel & Ebert's Review here:
http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/atm/reviews.html?sec=1&subsec=98

See the Trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1481310233/

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is the filmic retelling of Britishman T. E. Lawrence's heroic, autobiographical account of his own Arabian adventure, published in "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom". The cinematic spectacle (with first-time screenwriter Robert Bolt's) is a superb character study of a compelling cult hero, who exhibits a dark personal nature and an obsession with Arabia itself. The beautiful masterpiece (accompanied by a superb score from Maurice Jarre) is thought by many to be director David Lean's best (even topping "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), with its Super Panavision 70 mm scope, magnificent color cinematography and poetic imagery of the desert captured within a spectacular epic story of a larger-than-life, idealistic adventurer.

The Arabian desert functions as a majestic backdrop and metaphysical land for Lawrence's exploits. Its two most famous shots and cinematographic images are the mirage shot - to announce the arrival of Sherif Ali, and the jump-cut from the burning match in Lawrence's fingers to the rising desert sun. The film conveys the enigmatic, complex life and exploits of an eccentric, rebellious, desert-loving, messianic, Oxford-bred British Army officer/Welsh cartographer (repeatedly referred to as an "Englishman"), who unites the desert-dwelling Arabian Bedouins against the oppressive Turks (allies of Germany) during World War I. His extraordinary knowledge of the politics and culture of the Mideast allows him to organize the various, willful Arab tribes to repel enemies of the British.

T.E. Lawrence must be the oddest hero to ever stand at the center of an epic. To play him, Lean cast one of the strangest actors in recent movie history, Peter O'Toole, a lanky, almost clumsy man with a sculptured face and a speaking manner that hesitates between amusement and insolence. O'Toole's assignment was a delicate one. Although it was widely believed that Lawrence was a homosexual, a multimillion-dollar epic filmed in 1962 could not possibly be frank about that. And yet Lean and his writer, Robert Bolt, didn't simply cave in and rewrite Lawrence into a routine action hero. Using O'Toole's peculiar speech and manner as their instrument, they created a character who combined charisma and craziness, who was so different from conventional military heroes that he could inspire the Arabs to follow him in that mad march across the desert. What Lean, Bolt and O'Toole create is a sexually and socially unconventional man who is simply presented as what he is - without labels or comment.

The nearly four-hour long film (without any female speaking roles) featured a star-studded cast, with a virtually unknown, blue-eyed Irish Shakespearean stage actor Peter O'Toole in his first starring role. The lead character is the heroic, contradictory, uncrowned King of Arabia - T.E. Lawrence - a solitary, masochistic adventurer who paradoxically wanted to be both extraordinary and ordinary. When people remember "Lawrence of Arabia," they don't talk about the plot. They get a certain look in their eye, as if they are remembering the whole experience and have never quite been able to put it into words. Although it seems to be a traditional narrative film - like "Bridge on the River Kwai," which Lean made just before it, or "Doctor Zhivago," which he made just after - it actually has more in common with such essentially visual epics as Sergei Bondarchuk's "War & Peace", Kubrick's "2001" or Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky." It is spectacle and experience, and its ideas are about things you can see or feel, not things you can say. Much of its appeal is based on the fact that it does not contain a complex story with a lot of dialogue; we remember the quiet, empty passages, the sun rising across the desert, the intricate lines traced by the wind in the sand. - excerpted from Tim Dirk's "The Greatest Films" & Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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