Lawrence of Arabia - Blu-ray Review

Details: By Loron Hays; 20 November 2012

{2jtab: Movie Review}

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Hollywood simply does not (and cannot afford to) make films as powerfully epic as David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. The Best Picture winner of 1962 - rather expensively shot on location in Jordan, Morocco, the Sierra Nevada mountains, and in Spain - is a masterfully crafted film that is both literate and adventurous. It is also the film that defined actor Peter O’Toole’s career in all of his 6-foot 2-inch glory with its heroically complicated treatment of the man responsible for the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule in the early Twentieth century. This is a real stunner of a film that, now remastered and restored from an all-new master print in glorious high-definition, stands the test of time.

The intimate story of T. E. Lawrence (O'Toole) begins with the motorcycle accident that takes his life. From his funeral service, we are given brief and conflicting looks at the man as those gathered for his memorial recollect their time with him. And then, the misfit British Army lieutenant is brought to life by O’Toole’s commanding performance as he is sent by Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains) of the Arab Bureau to assess Prince Faisal’s (Alec Guinness) revolt against the Turks. The 222-minute film (including a symphonic overture, intermission, and exit music) is a complex poem of sound and vision.

With a sort of (Charles) Dickensonian attention to detail, scriptwriters Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson and Lean, ratchet up the vulnerabilities and showcase the riddle that was World War I’s Lawrence. The minute details they add only add to the punctuated script only adds to the portrait created by the historical backdrop of the many exotic locations. And of its cast - a spreadsheet that includes Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins, José Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, and several hundred camels – one can only sing the highest of praises in their on-screen efforts as they go toe-to-toe with an enigmatic egotist.

Lean’s adventure-minded prowess is easily one of the greatest thrills to recognize behind the scenes. The erotic brutalism perhaps missing for long stretches in one of his other classics, The Bridge over the River Kwai, is captured here tenfold. Due to his heavy involvement in the writing stages of the film, the screenplay reads as a classic instruction manual and he follows it to a “T”. The result is perfection. There are enough famous edits in this film - match flame to desert sunrise and the first appearance of Sharif as a distant speck in a mirage - to have the entire film canonized as sheer genius and be the sole source of study for many a film student. How badass is that?!

Lean and cinematographer F.A. Young, who had to clean the sand out of all the cameras on a continual basis, threw everything at the screen (including its 70mm wide-scoped look) and assembled – with the help of editor Anne V. Coates – a film that we are, fifty years later, still raving about as pure perfection and joy. Lawrence of Arabia is filled with rip-snorting adventure it takes the time to actually earn and, in a complete shift of gears, has enough moments of true comedy and sheer mystery in it to be considered a historical drama.

As far as the 2012 restoration goes, the iconic film has simply never looked better. Restoration experts, Robert A Harris and Jim Painten, found the original negative and added the 35 minutes trimmed by distributors throughout the years. Then, using the 1988 restoration most of us lost our minds to, they created, after checking each of its 320,000 frames for damage, a brand new 4K digital version that can replicate the visual demands from a 70mm print. The resulting image was so precise that they had to hire someone to actually clean up the fingerprints finally noticeable in the print. The actual restoration spanned a longer number of months than the actual filming of the movie did. It’s that detailed. And the results are well worth your money.

Lawrence of Arabia is the quintessential motion picture epic of all time and this is the version to watch again for the very first time.

{2jtab: Film Details}

MPAA Rating: PG.
Runtime: 227 mins.
Director: David Lean
Writer: Robert Bolt
Cast: Peter O'Toole; Alec Guiness; Anthony Quinn; Jack Hawkins; Omar Shariff
Genre: Adventure | War | Drama
Tagline: A Mighty Motion Picture Of Action And Adventure!
Memorable Movie Quote: "Thy mother mated with a scorpion."
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Home Video Distributor: Sony Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: December 16, 1962
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: November 13, 2012

Synopsis: An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a motorcycle accident in London at the age of 47, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and--for two years--leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

Lawrence of Arabia - Blu-ray Review

Component Grades
Movie		Blu-ray Disc


Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - November 13, 2012
Screen Formats: 2.20:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Japanese, Arabic, Dutch
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1; Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (2 BDs); UV digital copy; Bonus View (PiP)
Region Encoding: Region-free

The wait is finally over. The sheer amount of labor that went into this 8K scan/4K intermediate restoration has paid off. It is a beautiful restoration that, with the right equipment, will simply steal your soul and never give it back. The dazzling AVC encode of Sony’s Lawrence of Arabia is more beautiful than any paragraph can do justice. The texture to the filmic images is consistent and full of eye-popping intensity. The saturation levels are exquisite and the flesh tones are varied from face to face. There is a healthy layer of grain – this is a sandy shoot if you’ll remember – but never once is the grain layer overdone. Trust me, the visuals are so striking with this new transfer that there are bound to be items and details brought to the surface that you’ve simply never seen before. This is a mighty and thunderous release from Sony and every bit alive with revelation and high-definition new age spirituality. Culled from the 70mm print, impeccable DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is a walloping solid track that embraces the surround aspects of the mix with punctuated depth and sonic believability. Your eyes and your ears will be amazed by this transfer. This is perfection.

Supplements:

Commentary:

While there is no commentary recorded for this release, the title does come with a picture-in-graphic feature length track that covers the making of a landmark cinematic achievement and delves into the real life of T.E. Lawrence. Here viewers can learn about the customs and rituals of desert societies and read passages from T.E. Lawrence's book.

Special Features:

The two-disc package offers most of its supplementals on disc two. While not as complex and as meaty as the four-disc version, the overall release is a wonderful look at the making of a classic film. It begins with O’Toole discussing, for about 20 minutes, how he originally landed the role and what he did to prepare for it. He also discusses what it was like NOT winning the Oscar for Best Actor that year. Then, we get an hour long look at the making of the picture. It’s a good documentary that features a great deal of David Lean for those hungry for more. Next up, Spielberg – heavily involved in the original restoration of the picture – waxes poetically about the film and its influences. The many camels get their own featurette in a vintage piece as does shooting in the desert. Another vintage piece highlights the locations of the shoot. And, from 1970, comes another making of remembrance from cast and crew. A brief look at the NYC premiere of the film and its many advertising campaigns rounds out the collection. Overall, while it can’t compete with the more exhaustive 4-disc set, this two-disc collection has a decent amount of supplemental material for this historical release to be the preferred one to own for those who wish to celebrate the film and its release on blu-ray only.