impressive

Rating: 10/10 (16 April 2004)

This David Lean epic is often classed as a movie for the boys' but it has a lot to offer a mixed audience  topping his other lengthy work such as Dr Zhivago' and A Passage to India' this biopic of TE Lawrence took a gamble in casting the then relatively unknown (and extremely striking) Peter O'Toole in the lead role alongside Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Jose Ferrer, and Anthony Quinn. I think I am right in saying there are no women to be seen anywhere in the three hours plus of this film  it is to Lean's credit that the viewer doesn't necessarily notice this.
Remembered for its strong visuals  the mirage scene in which Sharif appears from the desert mist, for one; the scene when Lawrence returns in Arab garb and is cheered by his army colleagues as a hero, for another  and stirring musical score (certainly among the greatest ever written)  this film doesn't shrink from presenting Lawrence as a rounded character with human failings like everyone else. The longer cut released in the last few years underlines this complexity even more; and it still remains probably the best performance ever achieved by O'Toole.
You do however still wonder what a version starring Dirk Bogarde would have been like (an abortive attempt some year before this version fell by the wayside).