Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. --Gary S Dalkin
On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. Thanks are due to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg who supervised (and financed) the restoration of the picture in 1989; on disc two Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favourite director, and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and as a filmmaker (he regularly re-watches the movie before starting any new project). Other features include an excellent and exhaustive "making-of" documentary with contributions from surviving cast and crew (an avuncular Omar Sharif is particularly entertaining as he reminisces about meeting the hawk-like Lean for the first time), some contemporary featurettes designed to promote the movie and a DVD-ROM facility. The extra features are good--especially the documentary--but the breathtaking quality of both anamorphic picture and digital sound are what make this DVD package a triumph. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
fantastic timeless entertainment.......2008-01-04
Cant think of many (if any) movies that can make the desert a nice place to be, but the sunrise shots really caught my eye and certainly appealed to me. yes its an old film, of which I am actually glad they kept the intermission in the dvd release for the reason of listening to glorious piece of music that identifies the film instantly. This film certainly deserved the praise its received. timeless entertainment for the family.
A LONG EPIC THAT DESERVES TO BE SEEN BY EVERYBODY.......2007-12-11
David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" is one of the few films that legitimately deserves to be called great... It appears on virtually all "ten best" lists and reveals deeper layers of meaning with repeated viewings...
Lean, a man devoted to the art, gives "Lawrence of Arabia" its spectacular values... He unifies the sand and the sun to flame out the silver screen... Maurice Jarre's terrific music escorts the appearance and disappearance of the sun below the horizon in the sleepy desert...
"Lawrence of Arabia" is a prodigious labor, a masterful mixture of fact and artistry, a masterpiece of intimate moment and spectacular largesse, a film that literally excites the senses... In a visual sense, Lean combines a sure sense of place with an approach to the action that he borrows from an unlikely source--John Ford... Lean turns his vast desert canvas into another Monument Valley, and when his Bedouins ride across it, they are not far removed from Ford's cavalry... In many of the early scenes, the stately gait of the camel's walk gives the film a slower pace, and this is precisely what Lean is trying to achieve... Lean even manages to surpass Ford with his understanding of the relationship between his characters and the landscape; how the desert changes those who go into it...
The film is the story of a solitary adventurer who always knew he was different, but in Arabia he discovers that his proportions are heroic... Perhaps this is the secret of Lawrence of the legends -- that at the bottom of all the violent action is a protagonist about whom one cares... A puzzling personality whom one glimpses but never fully understands... Throuhout the picture one has a sense of a man discovering his own unique dimensions...
Lawrence's mission, largely his own creation, is to unite the feuding Bedouin tribes under the leadership of Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness), and to keep the British politicians, as personified by Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains), from putting the Arabs under their colonial thumb after World War I is over... It is accomplished through a semi-episodic series of battles and raids where Lawrence is sometimes accompanied by Ali (Omar Sharif) and Sheik Auda (Anthony Quinn), and equally difficult bureaucratic struggles he faces with Gen. Allenby (Jack Hawkins).
All the conventional elements of the genre are at peaks of excellence here: The stretch desert with its white golden sands; peril, anywhere and everywhere; danger-for Lawrence of Arabia is a film about guerrilla warfare; prowess-Lawrence crosses Sinai on foot; physical torture-Lawrence in the hands of the Turkish bey; impossible mission- Lawrence takes the seaport of Jordan from behind; ruthlessness-Lawrence shouting 'take no prisoners' leading his men to put to death a Turkish column...
Every component is here, everything one needs for a great adventure film, many spectacular sequences, each of them so perfect: Lean cuts to the sun again and again, turning it into a character; the scene in Feisal's tent when Lawrence first talks with the king; Lawrence striding on top of a captured train, parading before rows of cheering Arabs; the scene between Lawrence and Ferrer illuminating Lawrence's strange perversity, a mixture of masochism and repressed homosexuality; the scene when a Beduin prince appears on his camel, an exceedingly long take in which a strange figure is first resolved out of waves of heat and then, as he approaches, becomes a frightening threat to Lawrence's escort at the desert well...
The photography, the script and the acting are so superb that "Lawrence of Arabia" becomes a lavish epic winner of 7 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Directing, Color, Cinematography, Sound, Muscial Score and Film Editing...
Portrays Lawrence well, but its a really boring film :(.......2007-10-24
Ok, before people start having a go at me i thought it was made well and stuff. But the film is far to dragged out (so dragged out that there is and interval in the middle). The film was also really really boring and uninteresting.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. --Gary S Dalkin
On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. Thanks are due to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg who supervised (and financed) the restoration of the picture in 1989; on disc two Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favourite director, and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and as a filmmaker (he regularly re-watches the movie before starting any new project). Other features include an excellent and exhaustive "making-of" documentary with contributions from surviving cast and crew (an avuncular Omar Sharif is particularly entertaining as he reminisces about meeting the hawk-like Lean for the first time), some contemporary featurettes designed to promote the movie and a DVD-ROM facility. The extra features are good--especially the documentary--but the breathtaking quality of both anamorphic picture and digital sound are what make this DVD package a triumph. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
A lavish spectacle with depth...........2007-12-08
Perhaps David Leans finest ever creation. This is my all time favourite film.
Its somewhat historically defective but films are about more than just history they at times reflect a myth and sometimes even create a few of their own. Laurence of Arabia caputures perfectly the engigma that is Laurence. Like Lawrence himself this film has gone in and out of vogue - once seen as a story of a great man of Empire, later as a villain of imperialism the film is actually neutral and allows you to draw your own conclusions about Laurnece without making any crass, hysterical or self righteous observations.
Its one of the few all star cast films that actually work thanks to the fantasticly strong direction and incredible editing of one of the finest ever filmmakers. Some people object to David Leans style as overly clinical. What they are really criticsing is his near flawless cinemetic technique. Watch closely the scene between Fiesal and Bentley. There are dozens of cuts, camera movements and focus pulls yet when you watch the scene its seamless - brilliance that never draws attention to itself is Leans style. The film is simply HUGE in scope with a top flight cast who are superbly equipped with a brilliant script and simply breathtaking locations. Its a drama that spans almostb 4 hours yet never wearies you. The film takes you through a gamut of emotions: Comedy at the stiffness of the generals, betrayal by the diplomats, pity for some of the characters and the gut wrenching scenes of savagery in the attack on the retreating turks when Laurence finds the savage that lurks under the veneer of civilisation.
Theres no heavy handed anti-war message, nor a glofification of it. Theres no uplifing message at the end - simply a cipher.
Its a beautiful, thrilling, compelling picee of cinema that is as deep as its wide, an adventure with both thought and poise and in which every single frame is no less than a masterpiece. Enjoy !
"THE" DAVID LEAN to own... truly a masterpiece..........2007-10-18
HATS OFF!
As good as it ever will get... that is why it is a classic and no remake ever posible!... excellent and powerful soundtrack... but esentially a wonderful film... never the desert has been so majestically filmed (and I know what I am talking about as I did my compulsory military service in the spanish (then) SAHARA... 13 months of my life there... and NO REGRETS... it is unforgiven territory but hauntingly beautiful).
For my taste one of those magic casts of actors where everyone excels in his rol... even if Peter O'Toole overacts a bit (in my humble opinion) IT IS TO THE POINT because one can imagine the real Lawrence as a bit of a puzzle... so it goes well in character...
Now, as for being the definitive "epic"... I am not so sure... I still prefer ZULU for instance... I guess it is not exactly "AN EPIC"... A GREAT SPECTACLE is a better definition...
PERFECTION IS SELDOM ACHIEVED IN MOVIES... WELL HERE YOU HAVE IT.
Highly recommended.
ADB
Epic classic.......2007-10-13
One of the top classic epic films ever made and my most personal favourite. If you've somehow managed to miss it until now, see it now!
Very well presented in The Reel Collection. Sturdy box containing what seems a miniature of a film reel tin (of course) with 2 discs separated by a pad. The tin is protected by a black pad with a velvety covering, backed by cardboard. This lifts up to reveal 4 cards with stills from the film and interesting information on the backs, about Lawrence himself and making of the film.
Wonderful film, excellent presentation, I thoroughly recommend it.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
One of the best epics ever made.......2007-04-16
This film is a superb example of David Leans talents. Lean never lets the audience get bored (even though the film is almost four hours long). The acting is splendid and the cinematography beautiful. Basicly I'm saying, if you don't have this film, get it.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. --Gary S Dalkin
On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. Thanks are due to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg who supervised (and financed) the restoration of the picture in 1989; on disc two Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favourite director, and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and as a filmmaker (he regularly re-watches the movie before starting any new project). Other features include an excellent and exhaustive "making-of" documentary with contributions from surviving cast and crew (an avuncular Omar Sharif is particularly entertaining as he reminisces about meeting the hawk-like Lean for the first time), some contemporary featurettes designed to promote the movie and a DVD-ROM facility. The extra features are good--especially the documentary--but the breathtaking quality of both anamorphic picture and digital sound are what make this DVD package a triumph. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
fantastic timeless entertainment.......2008-01-04
Cant think of many (if any) movies that can make the desert a nice place to be, but the sunrise shots really caught my eye and certainly appealed to me. yes its an old film, of which I am actually glad they kept the intermission in the dvd release for the reason of listening to glorious piece of music that identifies the film instantly. This film certainly deserved the praise its received. timeless entertainment for the family.
A LONG EPIC THAT DESERVES TO BE SEEN BY EVERYBODY.......2007-12-11
David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" is one of the few films that legitimately deserves to be called great... It appears on virtually all "ten best" lists and reveals deeper layers of meaning with repeated viewings...
Lean, a man devoted to the art, gives "Lawrence of Arabia" its spectacular values... He unifies the sand and the sun to flame out the silver screen... Maurice Jarre's terrific music escorts the appearance and disappearance of the sun below the horizon in the sleepy desert...
"Lawrence of Arabia" is a prodigious labor, a masterful mixture of fact and artistry, a masterpiece of intimate moment and spectacular largesse, a film that literally excites the senses... In a visual sense, Lean combines a sure sense of place with an approach to the action that he borrows from an unlikely source--John Ford... Lean turns his vast desert canvas into another Monument Valley, and when his Bedouins ride across it, they are not far removed from Ford's cavalry... In many of the early scenes, the stately gait of the camel's walk gives the film a slower pace, and this is precisely what Lean is trying to achieve... Lean even manages to surpass Ford with his understanding of the relationship between his characters and the landscape; how the desert changes those who go into it...
The film is the story of a solitary adventurer who always knew he was different, but in Arabia he discovers that his proportions are heroic... Perhaps this is the secret of Lawrence of the legends -- that at the bottom of all the violent action is a protagonist about whom one cares... A puzzling personality whom one glimpses but never fully understands... Throuhout the picture one has a sense of a man discovering his own unique dimensions...
Lawrence's mission, largely his own creation, is to unite the feuding Bedouin tribes under the leadership of Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness), and to keep the British politicians, as personified by Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains), from putting the Arabs under their colonial thumb after World War I is over... It is accomplished through a semi-episodic series of battles and raids where Lawrence is sometimes accompanied by Ali (Omar Sharif) and Sheik Auda (Anthony Quinn), and equally difficult bureaucratic struggles he faces with Gen. Allenby (Jack Hawkins).
All the conventional elements of the genre are at peaks of excellence here: The stretch desert with its white golden sands; peril, anywhere and everywhere; danger-for Lawrence of Arabia is a film about guerrilla warfare; prowess-Lawrence crosses Sinai on foot; physical torture-Lawrence in the hands of the Turkish bey; impossible mission- Lawrence takes the seaport of Jordan from behind; ruthlessness-Lawrence shouting 'take no prisoners' leading his men to put to death a Turkish column...
Every component is here, everything one needs for a great adventure film, many spectacular sequences, each of them so perfect: Lean cuts to the sun again and again, turning it into a character; the scene in Feisal's tent when Lawrence first talks with the king; Lawrence striding on top of a captured train, parading before rows of cheering Arabs; the scene between Lawrence and Ferrer illuminating Lawrence's strange perversity, a mixture of masochism and repressed homosexuality; the scene when a Beduin prince appears on his camel, an exceedingly long take in which a strange figure is first resolved out of waves of heat and then, as he approaches, becomes a frightening threat to Lawrence's escort at the desert well...
The photography, the script and the acting are so superb that "Lawrence of Arabia" becomes a lavish epic winner of 7 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Directing, Color, Cinematography, Sound, Muscial Score and Film Editing...
Portrays Lawrence well, but its a really boring film :(.......2007-10-24
Ok, before people start having a go at me i thought it was made well and stuff. But the film is far to dragged out (so dragged out that there is and interval in the middle). The film was also really really boring and uninteresting.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. --Gary S Dalkin
On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. Thanks are due to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg who supervised (and financed) the restoration of the picture in 1989; on disc two Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favourite director, and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and as a filmmaker (he regularly re-watches the movie before starting any new project). Other features include an excellent and exhaustive "making-of" documentary with contributions from surviving cast and crew (an avuncular Omar Sharif is particularly entertaining as he reminisces about meeting the hawk-like Lean for the first time), some contemporary featurettes designed to promote the movie and a DVD-ROM facility. The extra features are good--especially the documentary--but the breathtaking quality of both anamorphic picture and digital sound are what make this DVD package a triumph. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
fantastic timeless entertainment.......2008-01-04
Cant think of many (if any) movies that can make the desert a nice place to be, but the sunrise shots really caught my eye and certainly appealed to me. yes its an old film, of which I am actually glad they kept the intermission in the dvd release for the reason of listening to glorious piece of music that identifies the film instantly. This film certainly deserved the praise its received. timeless entertainment for the family.
A LONG EPIC THAT DESERVES TO BE SEEN BY EVERYBODY.......2007-12-11
David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" is one of the few films that legitimately deserves to be called great... It appears on virtually all "ten best" lists and reveals deeper layers of meaning with repeated viewings...
Lean, a man devoted to the art, gives "Lawrence of Arabia" its spectacular values... He unifies the sand and the sun to flame out the silver screen... Maurice Jarre's terrific music escorts the appearance and disappearance of the sun below the horizon in the sleepy desert...
"Lawrence of Arabia" is a prodigious labor, a masterful mixture of fact and artistry, a masterpiece of intimate moment and spectacular largesse, a film that literally excites the senses... In a visual sense, Lean combines a sure sense of place with an approach to the action that he borrows from an unlikely source--John Ford... Lean turns his vast desert canvas into another Monument Valley, and when his Bedouins ride across it, they are not far removed from Ford's cavalry... In many of the early scenes, the stately gait of the camel's walk gives the film a slower pace, and this is precisely what Lean is trying to achieve... Lean even manages to surpass Ford with his understanding of the relationship between his characters and the landscape; how the desert changes those who go into it...
The film is the story of a solitary adventurer who always knew he was different, but in Arabia he discovers that his proportions are heroic... Perhaps this is the secret of Lawrence of the legends -- that at the bottom of all the violent action is a protagonist about whom one cares... A puzzling personality whom one glimpses but never fully understands... Throuhout the picture one has a sense of a man discovering his own unique dimensions...
Lawrence's mission, largely his own creation, is to unite the feuding Bedouin tribes under the leadership of Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness), and to keep the British politicians, as personified by Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains), from putting the Arabs under their colonial thumb after World War I is over... It is accomplished through a semi-episodic series of battles and raids where Lawrence is sometimes accompanied by Ali (Omar Sharif) and Sheik Auda (Anthony Quinn), and equally difficult bureaucratic struggles he faces with Gen. Allenby (Jack Hawkins).
All the conventional elements of the genre are at peaks of excellence here: The stretch desert with its white golden sands; peril, anywhere and everywhere; danger-for Lawrence of Arabia is a film about guerrilla warfare; prowess-Lawrence crosses Sinai on foot; physical torture-Lawrence in the hands of the Turkish bey; impossible mission- Lawrence takes the seaport of Jordan from behind; ruthlessness-Lawrence shouting 'take no prisoners' leading his men to put to death a Turkish column...
Every component is here, everything one needs for a great adventure film, many spectacular sequences, each of them so perfect: Lean cuts to the sun again and again, turning it into a character; the scene in Feisal's tent when Lawrence first talks with the king; Lawrence striding on top of a captured train, parading before rows of cheering Arabs; the scene between Lawrence and Ferrer illuminating Lawrence's strange perversity, a mixture of masochism and repressed homosexuality; the scene when a Beduin prince appears on his camel, an exceedingly long take in which a strange figure is first resolved out of waves of heat and then, as he approaches, becomes a frightening threat to Lawrence's escort at the desert well...
The photography, the script and the acting are so superb that "Lawrence of Arabia" becomes a lavish epic winner of 7 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Directing, Color, Cinematography, Sound, Muscial Score and Film Editing...
Portrays Lawrence well, but its a really boring film :(.......2007-10-24
Ok, before people start having a go at me i thought it was made well and stuff. But the film is far to dragged out (so dragged out that there is and interval in the middle). The film was also really really boring and uninteresting.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. --Gary S Dalkin
On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. Thanks are due to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg who supervised (and financed) the restoration of the picture in 1989; on disc two Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favourite director, and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and as a filmmaker (he regularly re-watches the movie before starting any new project). Other features include an excellent and exhaustive "making-of" documentary with contributions from surviving cast and crew (an avuncular Omar Sharif is particularly entertaining as he reminisces about meeting the hawk-like Lean for the first time), some contemporary featurettes designed to promote the movie and a DVD-ROM facility. The extra features are good--especially the documentary--but the breathtaking quality of both anamorphic picture and digital sound are what make this DVD package a triumph. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
fantastic timeless entertainment.......2008-01-04
Cant think of many (if any) movies that can make the desert a nice place to be, but the sunrise shots really caught my eye and certainly appealed to me. yes its an old film, of which I am actually glad they kept the intermission in the dvd release for the reason of listening to glorious piece of music that identifies the film instantly. This film certainly deserved the praise its received. timeless entertainment for the family.
A LONG EPIC THAT DESERVES TO BE SEEN BY EVERYBODY.......2007-12-11
David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" is one of the few films that legitimately deserves to be called great... It appears on virtually all "ten best" lists and reveals deeper layers of meaning with repeated viewings...
Lean, a man devoted to the art, gives "Lawrence of Arabia" its spectacular values... He unifies the sand and the sun to flame out the silver screen... Maurice Jarre's terrific music escorts the appearance and disappearance of the sun below the horizon in the sleepy desert...
"Lawrence of Arabia" is a prodigious labor, a masterful mixture of fact and artistry, a masterpiece of intimate moment and spectacular largesse, a film that literally excites the senses... In a visual sense, Lean combines a sure sense of place with an approach to the action that he borrows from an unlikely source--John Ford... Lean turns his vast desert canvas into another Monument Valley, and when his Bedouins ride across it, they are not far removed from Ford's cavalry... In many of the early scenes, the stately gait of the camel's walk gives the film a slower pace, and this is precisely what Lean is trying to achieve... Lean even manages to surpass Ford with his understanding of the relationship between his characters and the landscape; how the desert changes those who go into it...
The film is the story of a solitary adventurer who always knew he was different, but in Arabia he discovers that his proportions are heroic... Perhaps this is the secret of Lawrence of the legends -- that at the bottom of all the violent action is a protagonist about whom one cares... A puzzling personality whom one glimpses but never fully understands... Throuhout the picture one has a sense of a man discovering his own unique dimensions...
Lawrence's mission, largely his own creation, is to unite the feuding Bedouin tribes under the leadership of Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness), and to keep the British politicians, as personified by Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains), from putting the Arabs under their colonial thumb after World War I is over... It is accomplished through a semi-episodic series of battles and raids where Lawrence is sometimes accompanied by Ali (Omar Sharif) and Sheik Auda (Anthony Quinn), and equally difficult bureaucratic struggles he faces with Gen. Allenby (Jack Hawkins).
All the conventional elements of the genre are at peaks of excellence here: The stretch desert with its white golden sands; peril, anywhere and everywhere; danger-for Lawrence of Arabia is a film about guerrilla warfare; prowess-Lawrence crosses Sinai on foot; physical torture-Lawrence in the hands of the Turkish bey; impossible mission- Lawrence takes the seaport of Jordan from behind; ruthlessness-Lawrence shouting 'take no prisoners' leading his men to put to death a Turkish column...
Every component is here, everything one needs for a great adventure film, many spectacular sequences, each of them so perfect: Lean cuts to the sun again and again, turning it into a character; the scene in Feisal's tent when Lawrence first talks with the king; Lawrence striding on top of a captured train, parading before rows of cheering Arabs; the scene between Lawrence and Ferrer illuminating Lawrence's strange perversity, a mixture of masochism and repressed homosexuality; the scene when a Beduin prince appears on his camel, an exceedingly long take in which a strange figure is first resolved out of waves of heat and then, as he approaches, becomes a frightening threat to Lawrence's escort at the desert well...
The photography, the script and the acting are so superb that "Lawrence of Arabia" becomes a lavish epic winner of 7 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Directing, Color, Cinematography, Sound, Muscial Score and Film Editing...
Portrays Lawrence well, but its a really boring film :(.......2007-10-24
Ok, before people start having a go at me i thought it was made well and stuff. But the film is far to dragged out (so dragged out that there is and interval in the middle). The film was also really really boring and uninteresting.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
Customer Reviews:
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
Truimphant.......2004-02-13
Such a wonderful film, I strongly recommend it to anyone, anywhere. I was about to write a long review, but I saw that the description gave it what I believed. The film is a brilliant one, and this special edition is fabulous. A towering picture.
Customer Reviews:
and there's more!!!........................2007-07-15
An all time classic and more of course & a long film yes but just Brilliant!!.
If you enjoyed watching this film and find yourself watching it over and over again then you MUST see Ralph Fiennes in the sequel to this film called "A Dangerous Man - Lawrence After Arabia" on VHS. A rare and hard film to get a hold of but worth every penny.
DVD:
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- Midnight Lace [1960]
- Murder, She Said (1961)
- Night And Fog [1955]
- On Moonlight Bay [1951]
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