One of the world's finest films

Rating: 10/10 (2 November 2000)

The combination of David Lean's epic directing and Einsensteinian editing, Maurice Jarre's landmark score and Peter O'Toole's distant, unnervingly maddening portrayal of this unusual hero for British, French, Arabs and Jews alike, has made it the classic we all know. Lean like Hitchcock was one of the few directors in this period to be able to combine the best of Hollywood and their British roots and be highly successful. Fortunately this seems to be improving for the future. A healthy respect of modern American Filmmakers or European film is beginning to open the door wide for all the rest of the world. Thanks to this, the likes of Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Petersen, Luc Besson etc are now having an impact on world cinema through Hollywood funded projects. Pity a DVD of this epic still doesn't exist.