Lawrence of Arabia
Freddie Young, BSCThe epic Lawrence of Arabia is perhaps the crowning achievement in the long and illustrious career of director of photography Frederick A. "Freddy" Young. Cinematographers the world over were saddened when Young, one of the best-loved members of the profession, died last December 1 in London, at the age of 96.
Young's career behind the camera, which began in 1917 and ended with his retirement in 1992, paralleled much of the history of motion pictures. He had many friends in the ASC, which honored him with its International Award on February 21, 1993.
Born in London in 1902, Young got his first job in 1917 in a munitions plant, but left after a few weeks to work as a lab technician at Gaumont Studios. Within a year, he became assistant cameraman to Arthur Brown, for whom he loaded cameras, drove the camera car, projected rushes, developed film in a bucket, and sometimes cranked the second camera. "The roof of the studio was made of glass," Young recalled. "We exposed film by the light of the sun. There were just a few lamps from France. It was all flat, overhead light, and we lit for illumination. No one ever thought about lighting as an art form. If a cloud came over the sun, the set would go very dark!"
Young got his first credit in 1922 for Rob Roy, and first served as a fully-fledged cinematographer on the 1926 film The Flag Lieutenant. That same year, M.A. Wetherill asked Young to photograph Victory 1918. A year later, he filmed England's first domestic sound film, White Cargo. He soon joined Herbert Wilcox's British Dominion Film Corporation, where he remained for 10 years as chief cameraman. His pictures there included Goodnight Vienna, Nell Gwyn, and — in 1937 — Victoria Regina, a big picture which convinced MGM to borrow him for Goodbye, Mr. Chips, an international hit. Young then moved to Hollywood, where he photographed two spectacles for RKO Radio, Sixty Glorious Years and Nurse Edith Cavell. Upon the outbreak of World War II, Young returned to England, where he made 49th Parallel (a.k.a. The Invaders) and The Young Mr. Pitt. He then served for three years in the Royal Army as a captain in charge of training-film production.
Mustered out in 1944, Young became chief cinematographer for 15 years at MGM-British Studio at Boreham Wood. His films there included Edward, My Son with Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr, Caesar and Cleopatra with Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains, Invitation to the Dance, Lust for Life, I Accuse and Indiscreet.
In 1949, Young helped to found the British Society of Cinematographers, and served as its first president. Ten years later, David Lean, learning that Young had left MGM, hired him to film Lawrence of Arabia. Shot in Spain and Majorca and photographed in 70mm Panavision and Eastman Color, it became a huge success.
Lawrence successfully blends spectacle, adventure, history and characterization in depth, adding up to one the most satisfying films of the century. Its greatness stems from a fine script by Robert Bolt and the brilliant work of British director David Lean, who was, as Tony Thomas notes in The Great Adventure Films (Citadel, 1976), "immeasurably aided by Freddie Young, one of the most creative photographers in the history of the cinema." It can be said without qualification that imaginative visuals are a major reason that it is possible to stay with this movie through its entire 222 minutes without ever growing restless.
Lawrence was in production for almost two years under frequently difficult conditions. The first location, Jebel Tubeiq, was an intolerably hot, uninhabited area near the Saudi Arabian frontier, 250 miles east of the Red Sea port of Aqaba and 150 miles from the nearest water. The last inhabitants, a group of monks, had abandoned their monastery in the 1600s. The picture's famed action scenes were made among the seemingly limitless red sand dunes. Headquarters were established in Aqaba, but great difficulties were encountered in getting personnel and equipment there from London and Hollywood.
Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus and Aqaba had become too modern to use in the movie, so they were reproduced in Spain as they had appeared in 1916. A big battle scene in which a Turkish regiment is massacred was filmed in Morocco. Some of the most dramatic photography appears in scenes shot in Spain, in which Lawrence leads his forces against the Turkish Hejaz Railway.
Probably the most famous single image is the lingering scene in which Omar Sharif, riding a camel, is first seen as a tiny spot in a mirage on the horizon. In the foreground, Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) and an Arab youth are drawing water from a well when they notice the wobbly, distorted shape coming toward them. Shimmering in waves of heat and strangely liquid colors, the rider steadily approaches the well. As he gets closer, he is still indistinct, but the ominous thumping of the camel's feet can be heard. Sharif finally emerges from the mirage, raises his rifle and shoots the Arab. The long scene carries a strong element of dread and suspense.
Before actual filming began, Lean had told Young that he wanted to show a mirage in the picture. Because mirages are usually seen only in the distance, Young decided that his best bet would be to bring one close with an extra-long telephoto lens. While he was at Panavision, he saw a huge telephoto which Robert Gottschalk described as a 430mm long-focus lens. This lens was used to make the mirage scene, which was shot in Jordan. Sharif was sent off to a distant mark where he appeared to be a mere pinpoint. Lean told him to ride straight toward the camera, and the entire journey was photographed from only one position.
Young's camera operator was Ernest Day, BSC, while second-unit photography was handled by BSC fellows Skeets Kelly, Nicolas Roeg and Peter Newbrook. All of these men became leaders in British cinematography.
The photographic grandeur of Lawrence of Arabia spurred even the usually blasé Time magazine to a rather poetic response: "Time and again the grand rectangular frame of the Panavision screen stands open like the door of a tremendous furnace, and the spectator stares into the molten shimmer of white golden sands, into blank incandescent infinity as if into the eye of God."
Lawrence of Arabia garnered a well-deserved Academy Award for Young — as did the next two pictures he made with Lean, Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Over the course of his career, the cinematographer also received Academy Award nominations for Ivanhoe (1952) and Nicholas and Alexandria (1971).
In 1972, Young was named a Fellow of the British Academy for Film and Television Arts, the only person to receive that honor since Alfred Hitchcock. His other honors included an Emmy for a lavish television rendering of Macbeth (1963), the Guild Award of Excellence from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Golden Lion Award of the Venice Film Festival.
In addition to Wilcox and Lean, Young worked with many other famed directors. His favorite, he said, was John Ford, because of "his willingness to try unconventional photographic effects." Of his own work, he liked Doctor Zhivago best "because it enabled me to try the greatest variety of camera techniques." In 1986, he directed a small picture, Arthur's Hallowed Ground, which told the story of an elderly cricket player.
In addition to articles in industry magazines, Young co-authored the book The Work of the Motion Picture Cameraman (1972); at the time of his death, he had been working on a memoir titled Seventy Light Years: A Life in Movies, which was scheduled for publication last month.
Young's first wife, Marjorie, died in 1963. He is survived by his second wife, Joan, and a son, David.
—George Turner
© 1999 ASC