An excellent movie that needs to be seen several times in a row.

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2005)

Is there a better reason why you should watch this movie than being an admirer of classic films and having a great interest in good war movies? Sure, there are plenty, but I didn't know them before I watched this movie. In fact, I didn't know all that much about it except for the fact that it was made in the sixties and situated in Arabia during WWI. I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but I didn't even know that it was made by the same director who made the excellent "The Bridge on the River Kwai".
T. E. Lawrence is a lieutenant in the British Army in North Africa during World War One. He doesn't like his current assignment (coloring maps) at all and is thrilled when he is offered a job as an observer with Prince Feisal, the leader of an Arab tribal army. From that moment on his life takes an unforeseen twist as he becomes one of the greatest leaders of the Arabian revolution against the Turks.
Watching this movie is a journey back in time. Not only because the story is situated about 90 years ago, but also because this is a movie from a time period in which they still knew how to make epic movies without too many special things around it. They didn't have computers to enhance all their images, but had to rely on excellent acting, a great story and what nature provided them with. And all these things are amazing in this movie. Take for instance the acting by Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn,... who are all excellent. Not that I expected anything less from such a cast, but sometimes you can end up very disappointed when you have very high expectations, but that's certainly not the case this time. What I also liked a lot were the magnificent landscapes which seemed to be accentuated by the terrific music by Maurice Jarre. Those landscapes wouldn't have looked that great if they hadn't been shot well of course, but it's clear that the entire crew knew what it was doing.
I could go on for hours about this movie, but that would bring us too far. All I still want to say about it is that I'm convinced that this movie can no longer be made. Not only aren't there enough great and magnificent actors to play the many different roles, the makers would probably add a lot of computer animated graphics to it, spoiling the purity of the entire film by adding a fake sand storm or something like that. No, this is a movie the way they made them in the old days with some very fine acting, a good story, some nice music,... I give this movie at least an 8.5/10. If I ever get the chance to see it on DVD, instead of watching a badly taped television version, this rating will probably go up. But despite that 'problem', I can assure you that I'm already a fan and an admirer of this magnificent epic movie.