A film well-deserving of its praise

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2001)

This is a wonderful epic film about the account of T.E. Lawrence. I've always loved Lean's other epics: 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' and 'Doctor Zhivago.' However, this outshines them both. The grand trek across the desert is a masterpiece. For the most dramatic marriage of music and picture to ever come before 'Star Wars' pay attention to Maurice Jarre's best ever score, especially in these sequences.
Maurice Jarre is an unusual example of a composing career. He composed highly original, and well orchestrated masterpieces in the 1960's. Besides 'Lawrence,' he also composed great scores for 'The Train,' 'Doctor Zhivago' among others. Yet, in the '80s he developed this fascination with cheap sounding synth scores. These scores showed only a tiny fraction of what he could do and, unfortunately, most of the time were too distracting for me in the films they are in. Now I realize I am harping on critically acclaimed scores such as 'Witness' and 'Ghost' but I'm sorry, they just don't work well. The suspense scenes work well, but then he does something that is meant to be orchestral, but it's a cheap synth version of it.
Well, enough about that. The point is that there was NO better composer in 1962 than Maurice Jarre, and his own choice and opinion of the direction of music in general led to the biggest decline of quality over a 30-year period for a composer than I can ever remember.
Back to the film: Whether or not you are for or against letterbox (which I am definitely for), you MUST see the widescreen version of this film. Otherwise, you miss the most fascinating desert visuals ever filmed. The cast and acting was superb once I accepted Alec Guinness as an Arabian Prince. The second half lets up quite a bit, but that's saying it goes from about a 12 (out of only 10) down to a 9. I still give it a 10!