|
Rated: PG
Starring: Peter O'Toole, et al.
Director: David Lean Review
There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of
Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better
way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it
projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside,
David Lean's masterful "desert classic" is still enjoyable on the small
screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (If your only option is
to view a "pan & scan" version, it's best not to bother; this is a film
for which the widescreen format is utterly mandatory.) Peter O'Toole gives
a star-making performance as T.E. Lawrence, the eccentric British officer
who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during World War
I. Lean orchestrates sweeping battle sequences and breathtaking action,
but the film is really about the adventures and trials that transform
Lawrence into a legendary man of the desert. Lean traces this
transformation on a vast canvas of awesome physicality; no other movie has
captured the expanse of the desert with such scope and grandeur. Equally
important is the psychology of Lawrence, who remains an enigma even as we
grasp his identification with the desert. Perhaps the greatest triumph of
this landmark film is that Lean has conveyed the romance, danger, and
allure of the desert with such physical and emotional power. It's a film
about a man who leads one life but is irresistibly drawn to another, where
his greatness and mystery are allowed to flourish in equal measure. --Jeff
Shannon ----------- This vast movie is
spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing
in as intermission music for the first track of the second disc. 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: 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 the
second disc Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favorite director
and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and
as a filmmaker (he says he rewatches 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,
especially the documentary, are good, but the breathtaking quality of both
anamorphic picture and digital sound is what makes this DVD package a
triumph. --Mark Walker
 |
