Lawrence of Arabia: 60th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Lawrence of Arabia: 60th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Lawrence of Arabia has LOOONG since been considered one of the greatest classics in modern cinematic history. It has been lovingly release on just about every major home video format, and I remember reviewing the Blu-ray discs when they came out a decade ago for it’s Blu-ray debut. However, when releasing the film on 4K UHD for the first time, Sony pulled an interesting technique. Instead of giving the movie an individual release it was released in a “Columbia Classics” boxset along with several other iconic Sony films in 4K. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to review that set, but Sony looks to have decided to start releasing individual films from the sets in Steelbook form. This time they’ve also added in Dolby Vision (only HDR10 was available on the boxset version) and a classy new steelbook case…..and to make things better, I actually get to review it this time.

Thomas Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) is a socially inept intelligence officer for the British armed forces during the height of World War 1. Being that he was socially inept and his disrespect for authority, Lawrence is sent off into the deserts of Arabia on remote assignment in order to assess the Arabic front of the war. Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness) is the nomadic leader of the Arab resistance and accepts the help of Lawrence, whose goal is to assess the resistance and report back to his leadership. Instead of doing so and reporting back, Lawrence begs for 50 men from Feisal in hopes of freeing a port city that is the key to the Arabic defense. Above all odds, not only is Lawrence given the 50 men, but he treks across a harrowing desert landscape with them, and ends up taking the entire city with this ramshackle bunch.

After an incredible victory, Lawrence has garnered himself the support of the Arabs, and also a newfound confidence in his own abilities. Instead of returning to his post as the mild mannered civil servant, he sets out to acquire more British weaponry and to aid the Arabic forces with whatever help he can. He’s a sort of legend to the Arabs at this point, having taken more in just a short time than they could do in years, and he is flying high on his own supply. But as is the case of many men who gain such fame and power so fast, it sours in his mouth and becomes rotten. He begins to believe his own press releases, and thinks of himself as the savior of the Arab people, and that only HE can pull them out of the mire. Lawrence soon finds himself in a situation where he has to fall on his butt hard, and as is the case with these situations, it only spirals lower and lower and lower till he is not longer a hero, but an actual detriment to the Arabic forces.

Lawrence of Arabia is not really a war story, and it’s not really a story about the Arabian Desert. It’s a character study on a single man’s rise from meager, humble, surrounds and his subsequent fall. It’s a look into the soul of a man and what made him tick. A look at T.E. Lawrence’s rise form innocence, to power, and to absolute squalor and humility at the end. Lawrence himself was not a simple hero. He was a double edged sword during the war effort, but hurting his targets, as well as hurting his own forces by own hubris. Lawrence has always lauded as one of the best scripted big epics ever, and it still holds true today. Everyone involved is simply brilliant, from the stoic Prince played by Guinness, to Peter O’Toole who can play both a meek and humble man and a raging psychotic at the drop of a hat. The set pieces, the score, EVERYTHING was just the peak of Hollywood achievement at the time, and still holds up so well today.

The score has gotten almost more awards than the film itself, and it’s understandable why. The score binds the film together, playing a picture whether words are spoken or not. You can feel the rising and quelling of emotions based upon a tonal shift, and combined with the real life practical effects of the film, make this one of THE epics that must be seen.




Rating:

Rated PG for violence and language




4K Video: Video:

Being that I didn’t get to review the 1st Sony 4K UHD boxset that had Lawrence of Arabia in it, I can’t 100% guarantee that these are the same discs and same masters as the previous set, but from what I can gather from other reviewers and contacts in the industry, these discs are IDENTICAL in every way to the Columbia Classics collection except for one minor tweak. That tweak being that Sony only had HDR10 available back then, but has since put Dolby Vision on this new 60th Anniversary set. However, from flipping back and forth between the DV and the HDR10 versions on my player, I see very little difference between the two advanced visual methods. The Dolby Vision may have ever so slightly richer blacks, but other than that I can hardly tell a single difference.

I reviewed the Blu-ray edition of the 50th Anniversary set literally a decade ago (wow, has it been that long?) and I remember Lawrence of Arabia being one of THE best catalog titles of the time. To be honest, it still is, as the Blu-rays included in this 4K combo pack are still stunners to this day. However, the 4K UHD disc handily outclasses the perfection of what Blu-ray could achieve fairly easily. Separated across 2 discs (split by the intermission), the 4K set is just that much more refined and detailed. Sand shows more textural nuances, and the 70mm production shows such rich and vibrant colors thanks to HDR10 and DV that I nearly cried. Whites are slightly tamed in this variant (as is the case with many UHD discs), and while the image is ever so slightly dimmer, it feels more like the blacks are just that much more vibrant, than simply a dull image. Skin tones are amazing, with rich and well tapestried facial details, and I honestly was shocked at how well the image shifted from bleak to rich and vibrant at a moment’s notice. You can easily tell the makeup on Sir Alec Guinness face more so than the Blu-ray, and some of the old fashioned optics are more noticeable to the naked eye. However this is simply UHD perfection, as Sony uses the same master for the stunning 50th Anniversary Blu-ray and just amplifies it with the added bandwidth and resolution of 4K. Just superb.



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Audio:

The 4K disc employs an advanced Dolby Atmos track, but still retains the original 5.1 DTS-HD MA from the Blu-ray as an option as well. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track I rated a perfect 5/5 as it was a stunner, but this Atmos track adds an extra layer to it. I won’t say that it blows the 5.1 track out of the water and makes it a whole new movie, but the added layers of having rear surrounds, as well as the overheads and Atmos’s great use of directional shifting makes this an amazing track. The ambiance and musical scores just flows so effortlessly across the sound stage, and the overheads actually make use of the score for a good bit. One thing I noticed off the bat was that the LFE channel seems a bit more pronounced and offers some GREAT amplitude during the battles. The 2nd chapter on the 2nd disc where Lawrence blows the railroad is one that just simply shakes the whole house from end to end, and the rest of the time there is just plenty of low end for thundering horse hooves, the score itself, and sand storms rumbling around you. Another perfect score.











Extras:

4K UHD Disc 1

• New! Unused International Proluge

Blu-ray Disc 1

• Secrets of Arabia: A Picture-in-Graphic Track

Blu-ray Disc 2

• Secrets of Arabia: A Picture-in-Graphic Track
• Peter O'Toole Revisits "Lawrence of Arabia"
• Making of
• A Conversation with Steven Spielberg
• Maan, Jordan: The Camels Are Cast
• In Search of Lawrence
• Romance of Arabia
• Wind, Sand and Star: The Making of a Classic
• New York Premiere
• Advertising Campaigns

Final Score: ​

Lawrence of Arabia has been the gemstone of many a home theater collector’s collection for years, with the Blu-ray being the previous big boy on the block. Many people also missed out on the stellar 4K for several years due to the fact that it was ensconced in a rather expensive boxset with 4 or 5 other films, and then went out of print shortly thereafter. Thankfully Sony re-released the disc in collector’s steelbook packaging and added Dolby Vision into the film for good measure for those of us who missed out on the Columbia Classics Volume 1 collection. Easily one of my favorite classic movies and a MUST BUY for those who missed out on the Columbia Classics set.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif
Directed by: David Lean
Written by: Robert Bolt (Screenplay), T.E. Lawrence (writings)
Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, German, Japanese, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Italian, Polish, Russian DD 5.1, Czech, Hungarian, Mandarin, Spanish DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG
Runtime: 227 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: June 7th, 2022

Recommendation: Amazing Buy

 

[Asere]

I really need to watch this all time classic. Ashamed to say I have never seen it. Thanks for the review.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review.. A great movie to have.

 

[Epoxy1]

I watched it once and was bored to death...I'm not sure I could sit through it a second time. Granted, I'm older now and may be more patient, but I just can't get myself to jump in