Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780767898805
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 076789880X
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2002-08-27
Running Time: 218
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1962

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Avoid Like The Plague
Comment: Despite the sticker hailing "all new digital restoration" this edition is no different from previous offerings- all the edge enhancement is stilll there. Stick with the superbit version

Customer Rating:

Summary: Perfect service and delivery.
Comment: I think the DVD stands on its own merit. This review is for the service and delivery, and for this I score top marks. It arrived quickly and in perfect condition. It doesn't get any better than that.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Lawrence of Arabia (single disc)--Fantastic DVD transfer
Comment: My review is limited to the quality of the DVD transfer of the single disc version of "Lawrence of Arabia". There are other editions of this film (special editions, etc.) but the single disc is a real bargain. The remastering of this film as presented in the single disc version is simply fantastic. Viewed on my 46-inch LCD high definition TV (via a Toshiba HD DVD player), the picture and sound are stunning! The picture is sharp and clear and the colors are rich and accurate. If your main interest is the film itself (and you can do without all of the extra features found on other DVD editions of this movie)---then the single disc version is a real bargain for this masterpiece.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A repackaging, but a very nice one. . .
Comment: Sony has reissued their previous 2-DVD edition of David Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in a new package. No new material, but a lower list price, so it's within the reach of most fans of epic storytelling. Also check out Lean's BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, given the same treatment. Two fine, fine films, deserving of the double dip.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Beautiful myth-making film on T.E. Lawrence
Comment: The acting, music and cinematography of Lawrence of Arabia is absolutely brilliant. It's little wonder it was an award-winning film and remains a huge favourite. Unfortunately scriptwriters and directors sometimes take the liberty to distort historical accuracy for the sake of telling an adventurous tale about extraordinary people.

Such is the case with Lawrence of Arabia. While the film does indeed follow the exploits of T.E. Lawrence in the Middle East during WWI, it must be noted that some characters are merely composites or fictional players used to create a story. Geographical details and events are contrived and sacrificed for the sake of storytelling. Even his brother, A.W. Lawrence on viewing the film in 1962 said, "I should not have recognised my brother."

Case in point, the words and actions of characters Dryden, Colonel Brighton, Sherif Ali and Jackson Bentley (not altogether Lowell Thomas) are constrained neither by historical fact nor specific plausibility; they are mere poetic license for screen writer Bolt's narrative more than anything else.

The film suggests Lawrence was an oddity, exploited by the British and Emir Feisal for their political ends. In reality Lawrence was not the unwitting tool portrayed in the film. He had been closely involved in these issues as early as 1915. He probably had a more salient view than Allenby of British-Indian, French and Arab political objectives. In actual fact, Lawrence was a key adviser to Feisal, both during the Arab Revolt and at the Paris Peace Conference. Lawrence also devised a map of the Middle East demarcating separate countries for Armenians and the peoples of present-day Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia in another state, based on tribal patterns and commercial routes; the map is presently on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Another mistaken point in the film is that when Arab tribesmen went home with their spoils of war, Lawrence's Revolt afterwards operated under smaller Arab forces. This is not so. As the Revolt spread north, it took on tribal forces previously unused. The Hauran forces long known to be available, and finally called out in the last stages of the campaign, increased the Arab army to a far larger size.

The film also projects the Arab Revolt as an meaningless victory. On the contrary, it had significant impact. The French and British Imperial Government in India feared its consequences would fan the flame of independence movements in the Middle East and elsewhere. With the British endorsement of the Revolt, it ushered in the respectability of nationalist rebellion and undermined imperialism, which Communists and President Wilson in his Fourteen Points had already addressed. Without the success of the Revolt and Britain's support for Hussein's cause, transition from Turkish Ottoman rule to the French and British Mandates in Syria and Iraq would probably not have been as smooth. Without the Revolt -- and Lawrence's involvement in it -- Arab acquisition of self-government in these countries would have quite possibly taken longer than it did.

Even the inference that Lawrence was homosexual is baseless. Those who knew him well have stated adamantly that he was not. In T. E. Lawrence: The Selected Letters to a homosexual man, Lawrence wrote that he did not find homosexuality morally wrong, yet he did find it distasteful.

As for the Ottoman commander (played by Jose Ferrer) whom Lawrence accused of whipping and sodomising him in Deraa, the Bey went on to lead a blameless post-war life without a trace of scandal. Modern biographers have also questioned whether the incident actually occurred. Firstly, there's a problem with the chronology of Lawrence's account, whose subsequent sex-life after Deraa revolved around male flagellation or masochism and a rigid programme of physical rehabilitation. Secondly, Lawrence's own statements and actions concerning the incident have contributed to the confusion; while he mentions it in Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph he removed a page from his war diary covering the event in question.

Despite the many, many historical falsehoods about Lawrence and the events surrounding his campaign in the Middle East portrayed in Lawrence of Arabia, I still love David Lean's film for its epic grandeur, Maurice Jarre's sweeping score and Peter O'Toole's superb performance. I suppose had it not been for these factors, I and many viewers would probably never have been introduced to Lawrence, let alone be interested in him or the Middle East. Having said that, I rate the film five stars for artistic merit; however, for its historical content, I give it 1 star. Sorry, facts cannot be rewritten.

As for the quality of the one disc DVD, which this review is based on, the wide screen format is sufficient for projecting the breathtaking panorama of the desert. The price is ideal too. If you want to wait and see more depth and clarity, I would imagine a Blu-Ray DVD would be the disc to get in the future.

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Editorial Reviews:

There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside, David Lean's masterful "desert classic" is still enjoyable on the small screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (If your only option is to view a "pan & scan" version, it's best not to bother; this is a film for which the widescreen format is utterly mandatory.) Peter O'Toole gives a star-making performance as T.E. Lawrence, the eccentric British officer who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during World War I. Lean orchestrates sweeping battle sequences and breathtaking action, but the film is really about the adventures and trials that transform Lawrence into a legendary man of the desert. Lean traces this transformation on a vast canvas of awesome physicality; no other movie has captured the expanse of the desert with such scope and grandeur. Equally important is the psychology of Lawrence, who remains an enigma even as we grasp his identification with the desert. Perhaps the greatest triumph of this landmark film is that Lean has conveyed the romance, danger, and allure of the desert with such physical and emotional power. It's a film about a man who leads one life but is irresistibly drawn to another, where his greatness and mystery are allowed to flourish in equal measure. --Jeff Shannon