With grand, sweeping desertscapes, huge battles and Robert Bolt's Oscar-winning dialogue, this is as shockingly beautiful and hugely intelligent as any film ever made. Making stars of Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, David Lean's account of the life and times of TE Lawrence may take the odd historical liberty here and there but as a movie - - not a textbook - - it's faultless.

DVD Extras:

Making Of Lawrence Of Arabia documentary, a conversation with Steven Spielberg, four featurettes, New York première footage, trailers, promotional history, maps, texts and photos from Lawrence's travels, filmographies of cast and crew, DVD-ROM materials.Lean's movie was designed to have an interval and has a musical overture before each half (the screen goes blank here as the music plays), so for once, putting a film onto two discs doesn't jar. Plus, this is a fine package, crammed with quality extras. The 60-minute documentary interviews the principals involved in the shoot and examines the restoration process that resulted in this 227-minute print (Lean's intended length). The stand-out bonus, though, is the conversation with Spielberg. Gushing with enthusiasm for Lean and his work, it says as much about Spielberg (often accused of nicking ideas and shots from the Lawrence Of Arabia director) as it does about Lean.