Lawrence of Arabia (Limited Edition) (1962)

Chicago Sun-Times
"...What a bold, mad act of genius it was, to make LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, or even think that it could be made....It is a spare movie in clean, uncluttered lines..." 09/02/2001 p.4

Entertainment Weekly
"...It's pretty damned good..." 04/06/2001 p.95

Total Film
"...With grand, sweeping desertscapes, huge battles and Robert Bolt's Oscar-winning dialogue, this is as shockingly beautiful and hugely intelligent as any film ever made..." 05/01/2000 p.102

Boxoffice Magazine 10 of 10
In any list of the great adventure films of all time, the Sam Spiegel-David Lean production of Lawrence of Arabia must stand near the top. In the power, sweep and realism of its story dealing with the legendary war hero, the picture has rarely been equalled. Add to this, the brilliance of its acting, most particularly by... Peter O'Toole, the excellence of David Lean's direction and...the breathtakingly beautiful outdoors photography of the Sahara Desert locations and the film becomes a "must" for every discerning moviegoer. In all, Lawrence of Arabia is a cinematic triumph. - Frank Leyendecker
 
Movie Reviews UK 10 of 10
The utterly spell-binding biography of a WWI hero, Lawrence of Arabia comes close to perfection in the realms of cinematography, score, script and performances. - Damian Cannon
 
ReelViews 10 of 10
The historical epic has been a staple of the motion picture industry since the silent era. Over the years, it has evolved to mesh with the times and meet audiences' expectations. Viewers in the 1910s got D.W. Griffith's racist Birth of a Nation, while movie-goers in the 2000s were poleaxed by the trite but visually impressive Pearl Harbor. In between lie the best of the epics, and, while it's impossible to single out one as being at the inarguable top of the heap, David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia is certainly a contender for the position. Riveting from beginning to end, featuring stellar performances, amazing cinematography, and a story without a trace of fat, the film does everything an epic is supposed to do - and more...For David Lean, widely regarded as one of the masters of epic filmmaking, Lawrence of Arabia represented the most ambitious undertaking of a fruitful career. Restored to its full length in 1989, the version available today shows the story as Lean intended it to be seen - provided the viewer is able to see it projected, not compressed onto a TV screen. While it's true that Lawrence of Arabia still works on the small screen, it is robbed of one of the most important aspect of any motion picture spectacle - the awe factor. When that is present, this becomes an event - something that even the most restless viewer will become lost in. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
What a bold, mad act of genius it was to make "Lawrence of Arabia," or even think that it could be made. In the words 27 years later of one of its stars, Omar Sharif: "If you are the man with the money and somebody comes to you and says he wants to make a film that's four hours long, with no stars, and no women, and no love story, and not much action either, and he wants to spend a huge amount of money to go film it in the desert, what would you say?" The impulse to make this movie was based, above all, on imagination. The story of "Lawrence" is not founded on violent battle scenes or cheap melodrama, but on David Lean's ability to imagine what it would look like to see a speck appear on the horizon of the desert and slowly grow into a human being. He had to know how that would feel, before he could convince himself that the project had a chance of being successful..."Lawrence of Arabia" was one of the last films to be photographed in 70mm (as opposed to being blown up to 70 from a 35mm negative). It is a great experience to see it in 1989 as Lean intended it in 1962 - and also a humbling one, to realize how the motion picture industry is losing the vision to make epic films like this and settling for safe narrative formulas instead. - Roger Ebert