Watch it for the last 89 minutes

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2007)

The DVD I watched of this movie was divided into two parts: the first 132 minutes before the intermission and the last 89 minutes after the intermission. I watched the first part one night and the next part the following morning. My reaction? To tell the truth, I was sort of dreading those 89 minutes before I actually sat down to watch them. The first part of the movie had some good parts, but was so incredibly slow that I could hardly stand it. Take, for example, the scene where Lawrence meets Sheriff Ali. We see Ali as a dot in the distance--perhaps 1000 feet away. Guess what happens? The camera stays trained on Ali for all 1000 of those feet, not once cutting away. It takes 2 minutes for that man to ride up to Lawrence on his camel. Believe me, there are many other scenes like this in the first part. It is torture. The first part could have been shortened by at least 45 minutes, if not an hour.
But, for some reason, the director decided to be more sensible with part two. The battle scenes became better, the pace a lot quicker, the characterization a lot more skillful, the emotional impact a lot stronger, etc. Those 89 minutes are what made the movie--all 221 minutes of it.
If you want to watch this movie, I'm sorry that you're stuck with the first 132 minutes. But you'll consider it at least somewhat worth it once you get past the intermission.