"the trick is not minding that it hurts"

Lawrence of Arabia rides on iron ribbons of design.  Take the script.  Nearly every word of the dialogue has an identifiable purpose either in propelling the story or exhibiting character.  Four hours adds up to a lot of words, but minute by minute, the dialogue is spare, elegant, heightened.  If words were shot the way a scene is shot, so these words would be.  The effect on a first time viewer reaches a break through at the first dangerous confrontation: the well.  Sherif Ali confronts Lawrence.  The words are few: "Are you afraid, English?", "A man's fears are his own.", "Truly."  I once had someone sitting next to me, who was seeing Lawrence for the first time, lean and say "Why are they talking that way?" - but not for long.  Once tuned to this channel of expression, the listener experiences why, even if he does not realize it.  Because it pierces deep.  Because it is clean.  Indeed, what is cleanest about the desert - which doesn't look it but is praised as such by Lawrence - is the expression.