Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsUnmatched
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 August 2016
What can be said about this landmark piece of cinema that hasn't already been said? David Lean's masterpiece among a peerless body of work is presented here in a stunning remastered 1080p transfer, with a suitably beefed-up DTS-HD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This is probably as close as home viewers are going to get to Lean's original vision of the audacious British officer who united Arabia's disparate tribes to fight off the invading Turks during World War I. Seriously, this film looks better than any 50+ year-old film should look, with a warm film grain, bright, colourful highlights and satisfyingly deep blacks. Add career-best performances from Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif and you have one of the greatest screen epics ever made.
Audio options are the original English track and a Spanish dub, while the subtitles are in English, Hindi and Spanish. Unsurprisingly for a movie with a running time of nearly four hours, the majority of the bonus features are bundled on a second blu ray disc. A must for lovers of the movie, these include an hour-long 'making of' documentary, featuring archive interviews with some of the key players involved in the film, including David Lean himself, a wonderful 20-minute featurette from 2009 with Peter O'Toole reminiscing over the film's production, and a short segment with Steven Spielberg, who declares Lawrence of Arabia to be his favourite film of all time. Can't argue with that. Essential.
