Lawrence of Arabia DVD Review

Not Very Lean

Movie and DVD Review

Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia is not the first two-disc DVD set I have bought for my collection; it is, however, the first two-disc set on which the movie takes up both discs. David Lean's 1962 epic is nearly four hours long (so not very lean says you), but it is still a lovingly crafted, brilliantly acted masterpiece.

The story is basically a biopic. It details the life of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), a British army officer stationed in the Middle East during World War I. He doesn't fit in with the army brass, so he requests an assignment in the desert assessing the Arab chances of staging a successful uprising against the Turks. Lawrence likes the desert, and seemingly has a slightly sadomasochistic side, because he soon earns a reputation of being able to withstand hardships. He leads a raid on a Turkish controlled town called Aqaba, crossing the hellish Nefud desert in the process. From this his legend grows, until he is in danger of being swallowed by his own ego. Lawrence, it seems, thought of himself as a deity who would shine his love upon the Arab people, giving them control of their native lands as a thank you for their help during the war. The only problem is that the choice may not be his to make. There's a lot going on besides that, but if the summary goes on any longer, there will be no room left for a review.

The seventeen month-long shoot was made even more arduous by O'Toole's constant flatulence.

Lawrence of Arabia was David Lean's follow up to the hugely successful (and long) Bridge on the River Kwai. Lean was on a roll; Kwai had made over nine times its three million budget and the film walked away with a slew of Oscars. Lean secured a budget five times as large and set about making his desert epic.

Filming was notoriously long and arduous. Principal photography lasted for over a year; there were a number of reasons for this, but perhaps the most interesting offered on the DVD is that if a desert scene needed to be reshot, all visible sand which had been stepped on needed to be raked smooth. Now, with that in mind, go and watch the film again (or for the first time), counting every time there is a wide shot of a character walking across endless desert, and marvel at how mind-bogglingly frustrating filming must have been.

Lean really hit the spot here. This is a jaw-droppingly, drool-drawingly gorgeous film, and it's easy to see why directors like Steven Spielberg rave about it. Surprisingly the plot stays on message and rarely tapers off throughout the mammoth runtime, and even though I could make cuts to the film's massive girth, I would rather not.

Peter O'Toole deserved the Oscar for Lawrence. He lost out to Gregory Peck, who got the golden man for To Kill a Mockingbird. It was the first of currently eight losses for the eternal runner up, a record of the wrong kind. Omar Sharif built a career on the back of this film, and deserves a mention in a review rapidly running out of room. His character embodies all of the contradictions of Arab society and, in continually jousting with O'Toole, helps to create a welcome sense of sustained tension throughout what could have been a whole heap of dead screen time.

The two discs of the DVD lack an audio commentary, but atone somewhat with a detailed making of.

Even though I walked away feeling as though I had lived - never mind watched - Lawrence's life, I can't help but recommend this sprawling, immense, but ultimately inspired epic. And we might all get a chance to see it soon, because Lawrence is a perennial Christmas favourite; but don't have your turkey beforehand or you won't last five minutes.

Movie: 8.5/10

Extras: 7/10