Lawrence’s memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom opens with a poem akin to a love letter addressed to someone only known as “S.A.”. To this day the identity of S.A. remains unknown (though it has been speculated to be Selim Ahmed), but when applied to the movie there is one identifiable character who has the initials S.A. — Sherif Ali.
Peter O'Toole was primarily a stage actor before this, and it shows. But think about the way in which Lawrence is trying to create a larger-than-life persona for himself, and suddenly his grandiose way of carrying himself makes perfect sense.
