Columbia
Tristar Home Video
Length: 218 mins.
Rated: The film is
‘PG’ but some of the extras have made the DVD ‘12’
Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
· !:2.20
Languages: English, German, Spanish
Subtitles: English,
Spanish, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hindi, Danish, Arabic, Bulgarian,
Swedish, Finish, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Greek, Hebrew.
Extras: Making Of Documentary
4 Original Featurettes Newsreel
Footage Conversation with Steven Spielberg Trailers and much more
Cast (in credits order)
Peter O'Toole.... T.E. Lawrence
Alec Guinness.... Prince Feisal
Anthony Quinn.... Auda abu Tayi
Jack Hawkins.... General Allenby
Omar Sharif.... Sherif Ali Ibn El Kharish
José Ferrer.... Turkish Bey (as Jose Ferrer)
Anthony Quayle.... Colonel Harry Brighton
Claude Rains.... Mr. Dryden
Arthur Kennedy.... Jackson Bentley
Donald Wolfit.... General Murray
I.S. Johar.... Gasim
Gamil Ratib.... Majid
Michel Ray.... Farraj
John Dimech.... Daud
Zia Mohyeddin.... Tafas
Howard Marion-Crawford.... Medical Officer (as Howard Marion Crawford)
Jack Gwillim.... Club Secretary
Hugh Miller .... R.A.M.C. Colonel
Directed by…David Lean
Writing credits (WGA)
T.E. Lawrence (writings)
Robert Bolt…(screenplay) and Michael Wilson (screenplay) originally uncredited
Produced by
Robert A. Harris.... producer: 1989 reconstruction and restoration
Sam Spiegel .... producer
Original Music by…Maurice Jarre
Cinematography by…Freddie Young (as F.A. Young)
Film Editing by…Anne V. Coates
Casting by…Maude Spector
Production Design by…John Box
Art Direction by…John Stoll
Costume Design by…Phyllis Dalton
Sound Department
Richard L. Anderson.... sound consultant (1989 reconstruction and restoration)
John Cox .... sound dubbing
Paddy Cunningham .... sound recordist
Gregg Landaker.... sound re-recording mixer 1989 reconstruction and restoration
Winston Ryder .... sound editor
Other crew
Adrian Boult.... conductor (as Sir
Adrian Boult)
Anne V. Coates .... editorial consultant 1989 reconstruction and restoration
David Lean.... special thanks (1989 reconstruction and restoration) (as Sir
David Lean)
When David Lean’s 1962 epic "Lawrence of Arabia" first
appeared in cinemas, it was hailed as an evolutionary leap in large-scale
filmmaking and storytelling. When it was released again in 1989 after an
extensive restoration, it sparked new awareness in preserving our continually
tenuous film heritage. When it migrated to the early home video industry, the
letterboxing of director David Lean’s astounding widescreen vistas provided a
flashpoint against the standard practice of pan’n’scan of carefully composed
film images. Finally, its early availability on laserdisc exalted the title as
one befitting the best possible technological presentation.
Close to its fortieth anniversary,
“Lawrence” finally made its digital debut.
Columbia Tri-Star’s superb two-disc DVD boasts an impressive amount of
supplementary material including three newly produced documentaries, charting
the film’s production and famous restoration to a ‘chat’ with director
Steven Spielberg about his impressions of the film and the film’s impression
on him. Interviews, DVD-ROM extras, and an excellent transfer and Dolby 5.1
soundtrack explain why "Lawrence"
belongs in any DVD collector’s library.
The film dramatizes T. E. Lawrence’s unification of various Arab
factions
during World War I. The film starts as Lawrence (Peter O’Toole’s in
his first film), a lowly British office on assignment in Arabia, receives
appointment as a "military
observer" to Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness), who is waging war with the
Turkish Empire. At first, Feisal responds to Lawrence’s knowledge of the
terrain and the culture, something that his superior Colonel Brighton (Anthony
Quayle), also dispatched to counsel Feisal, does not possess. Distrust from
Feisal’s aide Ali Kharish (Omar
Sharif, in his first western film) turns to admiration when Lawrence engineers
an attack that weakens the Turkish hold on the waterfront city of Aqaba and
paves the way for other Bedouin tribes to band together. Lawrence’s larger
than life vision of himself and his destiny transforms him into ‘El Aurens’
among the guerrilla warriors who serve with him. As the legend of El Aurens
grows within Arabia and England, he slowly must come to grips with the destiny
he has created for himself.
“Lawrence of Arabia” is another
of those films that has been written about and discussed ever since its release.
The film was successful as a 70mm Road Show in 1962 so a lot of people
have seen the film as it was created, however, a lot more have only seen the
appalling TV versions, and therefore wonder why the panorama of the film is
talked about with such awe.
Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson
(Michael Wilson finally gets a screen credit on the DVD – his name was not
used as a hangover from the McCarthy which-hunts) adapted Lawrence’s own
writings, and Peter O’Toole’s enigmatic debut performance, flaunt the
convention of previous epic portrayals. The great gift of ‘Lawrence’ to
world cinema was that the film was as much “an interior epic about the inner
turmoil of a hero, as how his intervention stirred a nation to martial and
political action”, as Martin Scorsese said.
The two set DVD divides the film: Disc 1 contains the film, including Overture,
up to the Intermission with no special features. Disc 2 contains the remainder
of the film with Entr’Acte and Exit Music as well as containing the numerous
special features. I’ve no problem
with films with an intermission being spread over two discs, that way you get
the best possible picture, and, you can go make a cup of coffee without pressing
the pause button. Both discs
have fully animated menus.
Any representation of ‘Lawrence’ on video begins and ends with how
the
visual landscapes, as painted by David Lean and cinematographer Freddie
Young, transmit with reduced resolution. Considered one of the crown jewels of
the Columbia film library, I can only expect that they will eventually repackage
it as a ‘Superbit’ version of the film. Perhaps other DVD players or TVs may
not be quite so kind but certainly on my 32" TV ‘Lawrence’ is
spectacular and the 1:2.20 anamorphic video just explodes with detail.
Benefiting from the restoration, the source elements are pristine with no
speckles or blemishes. Deep
black levels allow for balanced contrast at all times during the film. Detail
loss is minimal, even when the narrative swings from night to blazing sunlight
in an instant.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack sounds even better than the original
theatrical presentation. The discrete audio creates a total sound field, helped
by Maurice Jarre’s stirring score. The sound effects mix adds some nice
touches. Sound effects and dialogue
integrate very well.
Of the three original
featurettes’ on the DVD the first is an hour-long examination of the film from
practically every conceivable angle. Titled "The Making of ‘Lawrence of
Arabia’", the documentary manages to include just about all the creative
personnel from the film to provide some perspective on the making of the film,
as well as the restoration. Interviews
from 1989 offer sound bites from David Lean and Peter O’Toole while new video
interviews yield reminiscences from Omar Sharif, editor Anne V. Coates, art
director John Box, film historian Adrian Turner, costume designer Phyllis Dalton
and assistant director Roy Stevens. Interspersed with letterboxed clips and a
generous helping of behind the scenes footage, the documentary discusses how the
film came into being, the difficulties of capturing the desert on film, the slow
erosion of the film’s running time over the years and its eventual rebirth.
Some of the insights are well known: how Albert Finney had won the part and then
backed out or that they had to refrigerate the cameras so the film wouldn’t
melt and ruin the mechanisms, and some not so well known, such as, according to
Sharif, Guinness adopted Sharif’s actual speech patterns for his Feisal or
that Alexander Korda had been approached by Lean to do a film biography of
Lawrence. While covering almost thirty years between the filming and the
restoration, the documentary is briskly paced for a collection of talking head
shots.
Next is ‘A Conversation with Steven Spielberg’. The eight-minute
reminiscence crosscuts Spielberg’s thoughts and recollections of the film with
specific scene references and backstage footage of Lean. The third, newly
produced featurette isn’t so much a documentary as a narrated journey through
the advertising materials for the film. Labelled ‘Advertising Campaigns’,
the section tours the various posters, stills and souvenir books created to sell
or market ‘Lawrence’ set to narration and music. The voice over is
informative, explaining how different visual elements were employed during the
film’s release over the years and how changes were made or scrapped when it
came to the film released internationally. Definitely a change from the stodgy,
frame flipping of most DVDs.
A booklet within the two-disc box reprints the copy from the original 1962
souvenir program. Primarily focused on the historical Lawrence and how his life
and writings translated to film, the program reads more like a history book than
a throwaway programme.
Finally the disc’s DVD-ROM features (for those who have a DVD-ROM drive).
The disc offers historical photographs of Arabia, a "Journey with
Lawrence: an Interactive Map of the Middle East".
Its taken me a couple of years to bother to write a review of “Lawrence of
Arabia” – after all if you regard yourself as a film buff then you should
have copy
Return to DVD List
review 3 Jan 2003