Good

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2014)

Upon its release, Lawrence of Arabia was a huge critical and financial success and it remains popular among viewers and critics alike. The film's visuals, score, screenplay and performance by Peter O'Toole have all been common points of acclaim; the film as a whole is widely considered one of the greatest ever made. Additionally, its visual style has influenced many directors, including George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, and Steven Spielberg, who called the film a "miracle".
The film is regarded as a masterpiece of world cinema and is ranked highly on many lists of the best films ever made. The American Film Institute ranked the film 5th in its original and 7th in its updated list of the greatest films and first in its list of the greatest films of the "epic" genre. In 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 1999 the film placed third in a BFI poll of the best British films and in 2001 the magazine Total Film called it "as shockingly beautiful and hugely intelligent as any film ever made" and "faultless". It has ranked in the top ten films of all time in a Sight and Sound directors' poll. Additionally, O'Toole's performance is often considered one of the greatest in all of cinema, topping lists from both Entertainment Weekly and Premiere. T. E. Lawrence, portrayed by O'Toole, was selected as the tenth-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.
In addition, Lawrence of Arabia is currently one of the highest-rated films on Metacritic; it holds a perfect 100/100 rating, indicating "universal acclaim," based on seven reviews. However, some critics — notably Bosley Crowther and Andrew Sarris — have criticised the film for an indefinite portrayal of Lawrence and lack of depth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_%28film%29#Reception