FAQ for
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) More at IMDb Pro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

In the film's original release, Robert Bolt was the only listed screenwriter, even though Michael Wilson had worked on the script longer than Bolt (seventeen months to Bolt's fourteen). Wilson was denied a screen credit, which he and Carl Foreman had on Bridge on the River Kwai. This was because Wilson had been "blacklisted" as a Communist sympathizer by HUAC in the early '50s. Sam Spiegel forced Wilson to sign a document disavowing all of his Communist ties. Wilson refused, and after Bolt took over the project, he became the sole credited writer. Wilson appealed for credit to Bolt, but Bolt was unsympathetic. Bolt and David Lean were instrumental in blocking Wilson's credit when the film was restored in 1989, and he was not listed on the credits until a video release in the '90s after Lean and Bolt had both died.

Exactly what each writer contributed is a source of contention, but it can be summed up as follows:

Wilson contributed many of the historical inventions of the film: the relationship between Lawrence and Ali, the rescue/execution of Gassim, the Lowell Thomas/Bentley character, for instance. However, Bolt and Wilson's scripts were of a decidedly different focus. Wilson drew a broader analysis of the story's political context, while Bolt focused on Lawrence himself. And by Wilson's own admission, over 90% of the dialogue was Bolt's.

For more info, see "Who Wrote Lawrence of Arabia?" by Joel Hodson: http://www.davidlean.com/articles/who_wrote.html