They don’t make them like this anymore.

It is an oft-repeated and tired saying that glorifies the past and belittles the achievements of the present yet, in the case of David Lean’s sweeping, Lawrence of Arabia, it is entirely true. Whilst epic films are still produced today few can match the scale, artistry and majesty of this larger than life tale of a narcissistic British army officer and his conflicted loyalties during the Arab Revolt. At just shy of four hours, Lean takes the audience on a grand journey that manages to juggle the personal travails and wider issues of an entire nation.

What makes this stand above nearly every other epic is that the film perfectly balances these small…

Today was the day...

...that I finally conquered Lawrence of Arabia.

I'm only 51 years late to the party. How did I manage to miss out on this golden gem of cinema? Well, I honestly couldn't tell you. I've been swept away by other great films throughout the years, I have always been short of time and my backlog grows and grows with every day. It's sad that a monumental film like this got pushed so far back but my mindset was always "I'll watch that soon. I HAVE to watch that soon."

Repeat that for a few years and you get why I'm only just now seeing Lawrence of Arabia here in May of 2013. But I'm glad I…

One of the grandest epics ever produced on film celluloid, Lawrence of Arabia isn't just a film but a journey of a man's life & his love for a nation, and even with its nearly 4 hours of runtime, it manages to keep the viewers completely glued to their seats, thanks to the sheer magic of David Lean's stellar direction, breathtaking cinematography, stunning production design, spectacular score & Peter O'Toole's dominating performance.

Set during the First World War, Lawrence of Arabia follows the life of a controversial British figure named T. E. Lawrence and covers his experiences in the Arab Peninsula where he was sent to investigate the progress of Arab revolt against the Turks but later leads them in winning their…

Something about my parents' massive television renders everything so crystal clear. I assume it's one of those high def formats that I can't keep rack of, 1080p Blu-ray with 10K megapixels and a 3D surround sound and dreamatorium, that sort of thing. I've no idea. The television is bigger than your apartment. It's disgusting, but holy fuck, it makes bad movies look good and good movies look great and movies like this look like... your preferred cliche of what looks good. The depth you get, the visual depth, the clear, clean colors, the details you pick out, it's too real, so vivid that it breaks down your suspension of disbelief, because it shows the edges of the sets when there…

This film is Based on of the life of T. E. Lawrence who was most famous for leading armies of Arabian tribes in military campaigns going against the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The film was directed by renowned filmaker David Lean and Peter O'Toole starred as Lawrence in one of the greatest performances I've ever seen in a film and I'll go into more detail with that soon. So it was beautifully shot in 70mm with such care and precision, Freddie Young's cinematography is beautiful the look of the sun and the desert in the film is just incredible creating a constant hypnotic feeling.

Some amazing shots will stick with you forever especially a match cut involving a…

“Nothing is written.”

I used to HATE this movie. But I started to realize the reason I hated it was because I was forced to watch it on a 30 inch tv in broad daylight in a really loud house. I was kind of set up for failure. Every time someone asked me what I thought about it, I would say something along the lines of “4 hours of sand.”

BUT, I watched it in much better conditions this time, (It’s amazing how good the 4k restoration of this looks by the way) and I can finally say that this movie is absolutely incredible. It’s evident how much passion was put into this film, especially the direction and all of…

Hi everybody, after I watched „Doctor Zhivago“, now I finished this all time classic. And right from the start that this movie only gets 9 from 10 is a personal decision and there is nothing bad about the film, it’s just not my type of topic. The movie tells the story of an English soldier who unite all the Arabian tribes to fight against the Turks in the First World War. 

David Lean shows once again that he is the father of epic cinema. Technically the film is flawless. The cinematography  seems still so modern, you really can believe the movie was shot last year and not over 50 years ago together with the brilliant editing, which gives you the…

"For some men, nothing is written unless they write it."

Lawrence of Arabia is a massive, sprawling epic of a movie. You've heard of it before and you know that it's big, but it's impossible to overstate just how gigantic it really is. There's a shot in which a large number of camels appear on screen all at once, and they're each about the size of an ant. I watched this on my 40" HDTV and I could tell there was still a huge abundance of detail I was missing out on. I'm going to run out of synonyms for the word "big" pretty quickly, so just take my word for it. This movie is big. Big big.

But sheer…

Since it's so long and there's very little chance I'll see it again, here's 2 shitty reviews instead of the usual 1.

Review #1

"Look! A pillar of fire!"
"No Lord. Dust."
"Hehehehehe"

If the movie took a less objective perspective and felt more personal, the score would be higher. A 4 hour movie without any real emotional attachment is kinda hard to sit through I'm not gonna lie. I suppose in 4 hours it would have to choose a path and it chose scale over personality. It's still a powerful story of a man who's ego won't allow him to quit the very thing that's destrying him. His superiors feed his ego and savior complex between his missions, and…

"With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me, it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable."

A few words in defence of the oft-maligned second half of Lawrence of Arabia.

Yes, the 1st act is stirring, visually eloquent, ravishingly romantic. Irresistible. It is the seeding and flowering of a myth.

What makes the 2nd act so magnificent is how completely it tears that mythology apart, root and stem. The narrative loses its centre, shifting from Lawrence himself to the men who see him, use him, and, most tragically, love him. Yes, it becomes dizzying, scattered - but this is a film about a fractured soul, and incompatible politics.

Lawrence attempts to be both…

I know I see a good film when I smile at the end but I know I see an amazing film when I have to sit down and process it, that’s what I have to say first off about Lawrence of Arabia. Based on a true story, the film follows British lieutenant T.E. Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole) who is sent to Arabia due to his knowledge of native Bedouin Tribes to be a liaison for Prince Faisal (played by Alec Guinness), but with the help of native Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) and his soldiers, Lawrence rebelled against his officers' commands and striked out to battle, becoming a god like figure to the people of Arabia but as his journey…