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By
NICK ZEGARAC
David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" ranks among a handful of truly outstanding, thoroughly deserving Academy Award winning classics. The film has an epic sweep that is both grand and brilliantly conceived, if fictional in its account of the life of T.E. Lawrence. The plot follows Lawrence from his modest beginnings as a somewhat backward and generally bored British officer working in a map room in Cairo. He is plucked from obscurity by Allenbee (Claude Raines) and given the opportunity of a lifetime as special envoy to the Arab Prince Fisel (Alec Guinness). However, after invading and conquering Damascus, Lawrence's rise as a cult figure begins to swell his own pride and ego, which gradually leads to his own demise.
In his debut film appearance, Peter O'Toole delivers a tour de force as the introspective, self-appointed master of all he oversees. Omar Shariff is masterful and commanding as Sheriff Ali. Ali's initial skepticism toward Lawrence dissolves into a friendship that is both weakened and galvanized through the passage of time. Evergreen chameleon, Alec Guinness is marvelous as Prince Fisel.
Shortly after the film's world premiere, all prints were cut down in order to accommodate more viewings. David Lean never approved of these cuts but was given the opportunity to revisit "Lawrence of Arabia" some thirty years later and restore all of the missing footage. The absence of certain audio portions meant that surviving principle cast members were called back in to re-record their lines. The net results of this restoration work were then considered cutting edge.
But about the DVDs: "Lawrence of Arabia" was previously presented in a handsome double disc set from Columbia Tristar, then as a single disc, and now, in a supposedly remastered Superbit edition. Film restorer, Robert A. Harris has color corrected the original restoration negative that he previously worked on. The results are a much smoother, more vibrant print with richer, deeper colors that do justice to the film's rich texture and starkly beautiful surroundings. Unfortunately, Columbia (after promising they would remove it) has left in all the edge enhancement that was present on the previous DVD transfers. Fine details shimmer excessively in certain scenes. Much of the latter half of the film is plagued by halo effects and a considerable amount of pixelization. These effects are terribly distracting. Despite Superbit's claim to offer the best picture quality available to the home consumer -- this disc simply does not hold up! Also, the break in the film does not come at the intermission, where one might expect it. While the Superbit doctrine claims that this has been done in order to preserve the integrity of the image quality, it is difficult to take that claim serious when DVD transfers like "Hello Dolly!" have managed to fit their entire 144 min. running time onto a single sided disc with no traces of edge enhancement or shimmering included! The audio has been further cleaned up and, for the most part, sounds wonderful.
There are no extras on the Superbit edition. The 2-disc special edition includes an audio commentary, an extensive making of documentary, several featurettes and theatrical trailers made at the time the film was being conceived. |
