Lawrence of Arabia (Restored Version)

Now we must pay our respects to T.E. Lawrence, known to most of the world as Lawrence of Arabia. But you don't need to visit London or the desert or Arabia to get a sense of T.E. Lawrence -- all you really need is a DVD player or, better still, movie theatre! David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia is simply one of the most extraordinary films ever made on the topic of human armed conflict. This film was released in 1962 and was awarded seven Oscar awards including best Director and Best Picture. The picture begins with Lawrence's senseless and premature death on a motorbike and then moves to his burial at St. Paul's in London. Here a visitor to London will find his tomb along with those of other champions of human liberty -- The Duke of Wellington and Lord Horatio Nelson to name but two. T.E. Lawrence was an Oxford-educated archaeologist (an assistant at the British Museum's excavation of Carchemish on the Euphrates) who was living in the Middle East at the outbreak of the First World War. He joined British intelligence and served in the Arab division. The Allies were frustrated by the appalling slaughter that was taking place in the trenches of the Western front. Millions of lives were lost for the sake of mere yards of territory. The Allies longed to come up with some kind a flanking strategy that could lead to victory. The decrepit Ottoman Empire ("the sick man of Europe") had allied itself with the Central Powers (Austria and Germany). Winston Churchill, who was the head of the Admiralty at the start of the Great War, won support for the Dardanelles campaign which attempted to knock the Turks out of the war. The French and British landings at Gallipoli proved to be a disaster and Churchill was forced to resign. The allies next strategic idea was to help stir up an Arab revolt against the Turks. They needed someone who was fluent in Arabic, who could cultivate and influence the Arabs in aid of Allied strategic objectives. They needed someone who could 'go native'. They found their man...T.E. Lawrence. Lawrence was a not merely a soldier, a master of espionage and a statesman -- he was a gifted poet. He starts his famous Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph: The Complete 1922 Text thus... "Some of the evil of my tale may have been inherent in our circumstances, For years we lived anyhow with one another in the naked desert, under the indifferent heaven. By day the hot sun fermented us; and we were dizzied by the beating wind. At night we were stained by dew, and shamed into pettiness by the innumerable silences of stars. We were a self-centered army without parade or gesture, devoted to freedom, the second of man's creeds, a purpose so ravenous that it devoured all out strength, a hope so transcendent that our earlier ambitions faded in its glare." The film Lawrence of Arabia simply could not be made by today's filmmakers. Steven Spielberg has estimated that his favorite film of all time would cost in the region of $285 million to produce today while the original production cost was $12 million. This film is too well-written, it has no digital special effects, the pacing is sluggish by contemporary standards and it has no love interest (nor a single spoken female line). It does feature a brilliantly costumed cast of thousands which included soldiers from the Royal Jordanian and Royal Moroccan armies. The clean but brutal desert itself is a major character in the film along with Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, Jack Hawkins and Alec Guinness. Lawrence of Arabia was, in a sense, the First World War prequel to David Lean's The Bridge On The River Kwai . It portrays the sacrifice of youth and innocence in the ravenous maw of institutionalized industrial warfare. It chronicles the outward ascent of Lawrence leading the Arabs to glorious victory over the Turks and his inner descent into near-madness and barbarism. The boyish scholarly Lawrence of the film's opening scenes will be corrupted by war and sadistic torture into becoming a bloody-minded warrior who screams out, "No Prisoners!" in his final attack. The tale of Lawrence mirrors one of the Great War's other warrior/writers -- Manfred Von Richthofen. In his book Der Rote Kampflieger, Von Richthofen starts out taking his dog up for joy rides in his plane and ends as a cold-blooded killer of allied pilots before meeting his own untimely end. The film's plot is a coming of age tale set in the Arabian desert. The film is simply a meditation on the transforming power of warfare. The purity of desert sand is mixed with the blood of hot youth. Consider the eloquence and profound truth of Prince Feisal's (Alec Guinness) speech uttered to a retreating Lawrence from the film's conclusion: "We drive bargains. Old men's work. Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men. Courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace. And the vices of peace are the vices of old men. Mistrust and caution. It must be so. What I owe you is beyond evaluation." With so many films out there today that are a pure waste of time, why not take the time to see or revisit Lawrence of Arabia -- a timeless classic film made by a master craftsman with a stellar cast which continues to be reverberate to this day. If you love Lawrence of Arabia, you may also like America Invades: How We've Invaded or been Militarily Involved with almost Every Country on Earth by Kelly / Laycock Italy Invades

This review is for the brand new (as of 2/11/26) 4K release..... let me start by saying that I've owned at least 4 versions of this movie, going back close to 40 years; in addition, I've seen this movie at least 4 times in the theater, this is by far the best version I've yet seen! Just last summer (2005) I saw a rerelease of the film, likely in anticipation of the 4k release in local theaters, it looked great but held ZERO candles to the new 4K release delivered by Amazon today! First off, it goes without saying that this movie is BEYOND a five star film, the real question is.....is this new 4K version worth the money? Answer? Yes, it is! Have you ever imagined watching this movie and picking out the sparkle of a single grain of sand in a magnificent vista? Now you don't have to imagine, the transfer is that good; it is so good I would hazard the term stunning! This is super simple, this is the BEST release of one of the BEST films of all times, if you are a cineaste, this MUST be in your collection.

10 stars would more closely describe the quality of this movie both in content and audio/video content. Close to 4 hours, it held my attention throughout the entire movie. Great cast!

This film begins at T.E. Lawrence’s funeral in 1935 and works backward to the point of his learning to be, first, a map-maker at the beginning of WWI (1914-1918), but acquiring this skill while he was still a student at Oxford. He is now known as an archaeologist, writer, military officer, and diplomat, especially during the Sinai and Palestinian Campaign and Arab Revolt, effectively ending the Ottoman Empire. Like many people who have seen the original 1962 release of Lawrence of Arabia (winner of 7 Academy Awards) in the theaters, I wanted to then re-watch it and other great epic films with important world history themes on DVDs - then the paramount technology (Note that Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg had helped restore a version of the original film for DVD release in 2000). After BluRays had come out, I found and purchased this 50th Anniversary newly-restored 4K version, which also included 3 other discs and other items in special packaging to mark this occasion, to whet my appetite to buy this package. What does this special set contain? I. 8 Things: A 4-disc set (3 film and 1 sound CD) & Other Things: A. Sound Track CD, plus a few new songs B. Disc 1: The newly-restored film an 8K scan/ immediate 4K film restoration, along with “Secrets of Arabia: Picture in Graphs Track” C. Disc 2: Backstories and extras (like Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole finishing filming on different dates, but both racing though the desert and Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where some scenes were shot, and heading for some carousing, courtesy of Sharif in Casablanca! The two became pals for life after this entire experience! Another good one is King Hussein of Jordan, also a pilot, welcoming the planes bringing in the cast and crew to southern Jordan, where most of the desert battle scenes were filmed. This area in real life has been shot in many films, and for those of us who have visited/ lived in Jordan, it is a source of wonder and amazement. D. Disc 3: Anniversary Gift Set Exclusive E. A free, authentic sample of 70 mm film frames, whose packet lists its limited edition # on its front G. An 88-page coffee table book with color photos H. A special 50th Anniversary package, housing all of these items, making this truly a treasure trove of wonderfully-packaged items that owners are proud to show, by placing THIS entire package with items inside on a coffee table! I. The Ultraviolet Download Code (mine was expired, but I would never watch this epic film on anything other than a large-screen HD TV) II. The Exact Quantities of Minutes (Hours) on All Discs, excluding the CD: A. Disc 1, BluRay film: Lawrence of Arabia - 227 minutes (3.78 hours) B. Disc 1, “Secrets of Arabia: Picture in Graphs Track” – 130 minutes (2.16 hours) C. Disc 2 Backstories and related information – 144 minutes (2.40 hours) (TOTAL FILM TIME: 501 minutes (8.35 hours) In a nutshell, what is this film about? Historically, it is about the early 20th century British Empire, with the help of their agent, T.E. Lawrence, loosely following history by uniting the disparate Bedou tribes of Saudi Arabia (Note Anthony Quinn’s stunning portrayal of Auda abu Tayi) to help end the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), ruled by the Turks which had mercilessly and brutally ruled the ME for 623 years (and caused the Armenian Genocide/ Holocaust from 1915-1917). Specifically related to this include the following: the scene on the British HQ balcony in Cairo. In it, the bleeding Lawrence (whose back was severely lashed in Dara’a, Syria by the Turkish Bey [played brilliantly by Jose Ferrer] who took sadistic pleasure in humiliating Lawrence while torturing and possibly sodomizing him) talked to his commander, General Allenby, played by Jack Hawkins, in which Lawrence agrees to go back in country (Syria) and head Allenby’s men to the meeting in Damascus, to supervise and divvy up the goods/ commodities of the ME. Note that Lawrence had problems with slipping back and forth between the British and Arab Bedou cultures in terms of behavior and dress. The scene in Damascus showed this cognitive dissonance, with his being dressed in desert regalia while behaving like a British Officer reading from the ledger the list of things to be divided and meted out by means of a pre-approved British plan for who would get what. The people in the room, throughout this time were in a state of chaos, gave him no respect, and more chaos broke out amongst the attendees. The end result is that the British then got most of Damascus. This activity, in turn, led to the slicing up of the entire ME region, in chessboard fashion, to change the landscape/ boundaries of certain countries to serve the ruling empires at the time (the UK and France) and then to transfer them to the countries that would later rise to have power. The was done very slowly and almost imperceptively, at a snail’s pace, by means of the following international stepping stones of important documents: The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence (1915-1916); The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916); Balfour Declaration (1917); The Treaty of Versailles (1919). All of these pieces of paper seemed to sandwich WWI (The Great War to End All Wars), fought from July 28, 1914 – November 11, 1918, with later documents and plans ready to guide what would be mapped out afterwards. In T.E. Lawrence’s 1922 autobiography, he states that “The Arab Revolt had been made under false pretenses.”….”Had I been honorable, I would have sent my men home.” At least he was being honest even if it was in retrospect. All of these disparate parts combined together later to create a new entity in 1948, with the birth of Israel. Lawrence wouldn’t have known about these long-terms plans, though, – very few people would have. His story was only a small cog in a larger system that would later emerge. Current US high school world history educational curricula doesn’t really cover much of this part of world history then, but UK (and French) curricula would. US audiences, then, would have had much of this important historical background and dialog fly right over their heads, especially for younger students who may see this as an action film instead of one that is historical. In today’s global world, though, Americans, especially those who do much reading and travel, would eventually learn what this piece of history was and the results of this that were birthed around the mid-point of the 20th Century. They would specifically learn what really happened, especially to the Palestinians –even though the Balfour Declaration says that they would be respected and protected as a result of this maneuver. During this time period, how could 1 country be given away in order to birth another? Who let it happen and why? Who rules that country today, and who is paying for it? Have these actions led to a better world for everyone involved today? For viewing this film, there are 3 different sections of activities that could be created and used, to create critical dialog according to the age levels of the viewers: Pre-viewing; Viewing; and Post-Viewing. Educators and others could create these activities and share them online. Would I recommend this 50th Anniversary Set? Yes! For the 8.35 hours of film alone, this set is a bargain. For the knowledge of our world history, this set provides immeasurable resources for learning and understanding about our current world today because ‘this current world’ is a result of the activities portrayed in this film. All of these pieces are a pre-‘Chessboard’ to events that continue to shape our world today, with the victors and the losers of Empire, as Zbigniew Brzezinski later showed in his book on the same topic, The Grand Chessboard (1997).

映像の美しさは逸品ですな！ これで何度でも飽きるまで見られます♫ でも飽きることはないと思います🎶

Se den här för att förstå en värld som inte finns längre.

La surprenante histoire d'un héros de guerre a la personnalité insaisissable.

For this movie, it doesn't matter what I say about this one, it has all already been said. GREAT EPIC

Feature disc 1 of the 4K Blu Ray stopped working after just one play despite the disc looking in perfect condition. Sadly unable to get a replacement.