Lawrence of Arabia goofs

As Lawrence reaches the Suez Canal, the ship that comes into view is a Blue Funnel Line vessel from the late 1950s.

The aeroplanes employed in the raid were de Havilland Tiger Moths. They did not enter production until late 1929–early 1930.

When Allenby and Lawrence enter the officers' bar in Cairo, immediately after Allenby asks "Shall we go outside?", a bright yellow American school bus can briefly be seen driving past the distant window in the centre-right area of the frame.

In an interview with Faisal, Jackson Bentley refers to "certain influential men" in the United States who are said to want their country to enter the First World War. However, this conversation takes place after the fall of Aqaba in July 1917 — by that time the United States had already been at war for several months.

A vapour trail stretches across the sky above Damascus while Allenby discusses the Arab Council from his balcony.

After Lawrence's memorial service, the view of the front façade of St Paul's Cathedral shows the left-hand clock face (the north) missing. It had in fact been destroyed during the Second World War, which did not commence until four years after T.E. Lawrence died.

In the scene at the well when Lawrence and Ali first meet, Ali uses the waterskin belonging to the man he has just killed to haul up some water, fill Lawrence's cup and drink from it. He then lets the waterskin fall; it clearly drops behind the well and a faint splash on the ground is audible, but that is immediately followed by a much louder dubbed sound as if the waterskin had struck the bottom of the well.

General Sir Edmund Allenby (promoted to Field Marshal in 1919) is characterised in the film as cynical, manipulative, obstructive and dismissive of Lawrence and his Arab allies, and is depicted as coming into conflict with them on several occasions. However, considerable evidence suggests that Allenby and Lawrence worked well together and maintained a cordial relationship that lasted into the post-war period. Allenby even endorsed Lawrence's book, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," while Lawrence recalled him fondly as "great." Allenby also appeared to hold the Arabs serving with him in respect, as shown by his congratulating Prince Faisal on the "great achievement" of his "gallant troops."

When Jackson Bentley hands his business card to Selim the Reciter, the initial of his first name is printed as "G" rather than "J".

Faisal supplies Lawrence with fifty men to seize Aqaba, yet the party is never shown to number more than thirty, even in long shots that encompass the entire group.

While crossing the desert with the prince's fifty men, Lawrence begins to nod off. He is shown looking at his own shadow on the camel's right side, but in the following shot the shadow lies directly beneath the animal.

During the opening titles the motorbike is captured in an overhead shot standing on concrete, yet in the subsequent close-up, when it is started, it is standing on gravel.

After Lawrence sustains a wound to his shoulder, the bloodstain alternately appears and vanishes between shots as he marches along the roof of the train.

As Lawrence shows off his new Arab attire, the shadows are long at first, but in the following shot they are suddenly much shorter.

In two successive shots of Bentley walking past the fountain in Jerusalem, the shadows differ markedly.

When Gasim crosses the sun's anvil after tumbling from his camel, he is depicted walking towards the rising sun, yet in the subsequent shot his shadow is cast to his right.

As Lawrence nears the camp with Daud and Majid, the sun has just begun to set, yet it remains broad daylight when Ali and the others hurry forward to welcome them.

As they rush towards the wounded Farraj, the sand still bears footprints from an earlier take.

After falling from his camel, Gasim walks across the sun's anvil and begins to drop various items. During a reverse tracking shot, the dolly tracks are clearly visible in the sand.

The party of fifty are travelling north-west across the Nefud towards Aqaba; yet when Gasim follows on foot he walks to the left of the rising sun, which is the opposite direction.

When Lawrence is being escorted across the desert to Faisal's camp, his Bedu guide offers to share his food. Lawrence hesitates but is keen to demonstrate that, unlike many other British officers, he is at one with the desert people. He reaches into the guide's offered dish and takes a morsel — with his left hand — and then does so a second time. The Bedu gives no sign of being offended, yet he ought to: among the desert Bedouin tribes, who eat with their hands, the left hand is kept away from the food because it is used for cleansing after defecation. It is possible the guide was observing another Bedouin custom — warm hospitality and lavish generosity to strangers — and was too polite to point out the faux pas (he would probably have known that many outsiders are unaware of the taboo), but it is more likely that Lawrence simply made an honest mistake. Peter O'Toole was left-handed, and although he takes great pains throughout the rest of the film to perform actions with his right hand (T.E. Lawrence was right-handed), this was probably a brief lapse that went unnoticed or unmentioned.

Throughout the film T.E. Lawrence is shown carrying a British Webley Mk. VI revolver. Although it was the standard-issue sidearm for British officers at the time, the real-life T.E. Lawrence had two Colt M1911 pistols sent to him in 1914 when a friend was travelling in the US and British pistols were scarce because of the war effort. The M1911s served as Lawrence’s personal sidearms throughout his campaigns. In a letter to his brother he wrote: "The Colt is a lovely pistol. The more I examine it the more I like it. There is a vast gulf between it and the ordinary revolver."

In the film, Lawrence's fatal motorbike ride is depicted as beginning at a rural dwelling. In fact, he was returning home after setting off from a nearby army base.

Around 15 minutes into the film, Lawrence and Tafas are resting at night-time. The sequence was shot in daylight using filters. It concludes with a fleeting shot of the moon. The moon's upper half appears lit, a condition that can only occur when the sun is high in the sky.

In the film, Prince Feisal is depicted as noticeably older than T. E. Lawrence (Alec Guinness, who played Feisal, was 20 years older than Peter O'Toole). In truth they were contemporaries — Feisal was only about three years Lawrence’s senior, being around 31–32 during the Arab Revolt.

On one of the many DVD editions of this film, during the interval, the on-screen title displays "ENTER'E ACTE" — a French phrase that should actually be spelt either "entre acte" or "entr'acte"

The motorbike shown at the opening and closing of the film is a Brough Superior SS100. This marque was regarded as the Rolls‑Royce of motorcycles, with much of each machine built by hand. Its price was roughly equivalent to a year's salary for the average middle‑class Briton. Despite that, T. E. Lawrence managed to acquire eight of them.

The bike depicted in the film does not match the actual machine Lawrence rode. The last of the eight — a twin‑exhaust model — had been ordered and was still being completed at the time of Lawrence's death. The motorcycle on screen approximately corresponds to that eighth bike, which he never received. In addition, the twin exhausts are straight rather than flared.

The Hejaz Railway line that Lawrence and the Arabs attacked was a narrow-gauge line of 1,050 millimetres. When the train is blown off the rails, the locomotive lying on its side clearly reveals a broad-gauge design, much wider than 1,050 millimetres.

In the cast list, Prince Faisal ([ref=nm0000027]) is credited as Prince Feisal.

A number of entries on the trivia page raise the matter of the Turkish Bey's alleged homosexual rape of the imprisoned Lawrence. Setting aside whether it actually happened or was intended to be suggested in the film, the real error is to assume that homosexuality was involved. Men may rape other men as a demonstration of power and intimidation without being homosexual, particularly in wartime.

When Lawrence hands Auda the promissory note, he writes from right to left. Many viewers have taken this to mean the film was played backwards, but he is simply writing in Arabic, which is read right to left. When he signs his name at the bottom, he does so from left to right.

Ali tells Lawrence that Aqaba cannot be reached by land. Although he insists it cannot be done, Ali knows the precise route, how long it will take, where the watering-holes are and other hazards en route. This particular knowledge implies the crossing has been carried out before and is possible, albeit difficult, despite Ali's protests.

In the opening scene he is riding a motorbike at high speed, but his hair remains in place instead of being blown back as one would expect.

When Gasim shoots one of Auda Abu Tayi's tribesmen in their camp near Aqaba, and Lawrence fires six rounds into Gasim, the Turkish troops at Aqaba carry out no inquiry into the seven shots nor do they take any defensive action. Even a mile or two away, with a rocky ridge separating them, the outer guard posts would have heard the shots in the still night air and raised the alarm.

When Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi first meet near Auda's well, Auda fires a revolver to summon his son. Although they are on the far side of a rocky knoll from the well, they are plainly close enough that Ali's men would have heard the shot and rushed across to check on Lawrence, whom they know to be unarmed.

With regard to the shift in the shadow's placement during the "drifting" sequence, this frame reads as an apparent evening or dusk moment, yet the shadow falls almost directly beneath the camel, exposing it as a "day-for-night" shot and thus suggesting it was actually filmed around midday.

When Lawrence first encounters Ali, Ali shoots Hazim. In the initial frame there is no visible blood from the gunshot, but in the next frame a small patch of blood appears on his head. In reality, the wound caused by Ali’s bullet would likely have produced some bleeding.

After Lawrence meets General Allenby following the capture of Acaba, they make their way down to the officer's bar. At that moment Allenby states that he is present at Major Lawrence's invitation. As they turn to step into the courtyard, a yellow school bus is visible through the far doorway, travelling along the road.

A green lorry that pulls up amid a throng of people (at around 191 minutes into the film) bears the inscription "T. Mikopolous & Son"; the Greek name suffix is actually spelt "poulos".

In the Lawrence's memorial scene in London, while a news reporter interviews Allenby and Bentley, a female extra repeatedly appears in the background.

As people leave following the memorial service for Lawrence, a reporter interviews General Allenby and Jackson Bentley. In both scenes a female extra in a brown coat can be seen approaching the two men from the background.