Product Description

Director David Lean follows the heroic true-life odyssey of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in this dramatic portrait of the famed British officer's journey to the Middle East. Assigned to Arabia during World War I, Lawrence courageously unites the warring Arab factions into a strong guerrilla front and leads them to brilliant victories in treacherous desert battlefields where they eventually defeat the ruling Turkish Empire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15985 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2001-04-03
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Limited Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .50 pounds
• Running time: 217 minutes

Amazon.com
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

DVD features
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

Customer Reviews

Warning, but it's still a great movie.
A great movie. One of the all time best. We all know that! Even all the Ebert wannabees that clog these pgs know that.

This 'Collector's Ed' has the intermission 20 mins into the second disc! I realize there are tech reasons for this. I think so anyway. It's still a pain. If only the intermission was at the end of the first disc. Perhaps in the near future they can put the whole movie onto one disc. Transfer is pretty good to my non-techie eyes.

It SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
In the product description is said it has subtitles in spanish, due to the fact that my dad only speaks spanish I thought it would be a great gift for him and make him remember his days of youth, but its just a BIG LIE!!! the movie only has 2 languages: English and French.
Now why didn't we returned it? We are too far away to start a process like that and my dad was too excited to take a look at the description that he just peeled off the wrap.

Lean is a painter
This is the true story of a young British man whose arrogance defies everything and everyone. With the passion of a leader and the heart of a conflicted man, he is a speck in the vast desert, influencing cultures and tribes of the Middle East to unite as nations and of course give advantage to the British Empire. Lawrence Of Arabia is poetry on film, from one incredible scene to another. It defined the modern epic. It has a rare visual artistry and beauty that will never date itself. Lean is a painter and his canvas is the silver screen!