MY FAVORITE MOVIE REVISITED

I happened to pick up on the web the other day a notice from Fandango that on Thursday, October 4, there would be selected showings in key cities of the 50th Anniversary Edition, digitally remastered, of my favorite film---"Lawrence of Arabia". One of my daughters is visiting who had only seen bits and pieces of it on TV, and she was interested, as was my wife who loved the original in 1962. Another friend expressed interest, so I purchased and printed four tickets, and off we went to Fort Myers and the Regal Belltower stadium for the matinee. It started at 1:00 p.m. and ended at 5:20 p.m.

In addition to the film interviews with the powers and crew at Sony Entertainment who did the restoration, there was a wonderful interview with the great director Martin Scorsese who saw it as a young teen and was captivated, plus newsclips of the Royal Opening in London attended by the Queen and , of course, all the stars. Films of the making of the picture in the Moroccan desert (simulating the deserts of Saudi Arabia) showed director Sir David Lean ("Bridge Over the River Kwai". "Doctor Zhivago", "Great Expectations","A Passage to India". "Oliver Twist", etc.) and his crew and stars. It was the first film for Peter O'Toole, then 28 and an experienced stage actor, whom Kathryn Hepburn saw on the stage and recommended to Lean. The vicissitudes of heat, wind and sun played havoc with the production, but they succeeded in having it ready for fall showing in key theaters around the world and in December of 1962 for the Queen's Command Performance.

I saw the original production in 1962 in New York at one of the big theater houses and was awed by the film. I've seen it a few times on TV including the restoration version  in 1988, but nothing could compare with what I saw on the big screen yesterday where all the power of modern computer technology was applied painstakingsly to this "modern" version.

It took your breath away in its scope and majesty. The original was in CinemaScope and impressive in scope---but nothing like the new version. Every pore of Lawrence's face in a sand storm, every mote of sand was crystal clear. And Lean's incredible panning of cameras from sky to desert was totally vivid.

This classic was not like so many films of today which depend less on acting and plot but more on special effects. Certainly the computer magic was there, which complemented the superb cast of actors and the fascinating story of this iconic hero of Arabia and the World War I battles against the Turks where this one man galvanized the many tribes of Arabia into a fighting and conquering force. The complexities of the man, his mixture of hero, sado-masochist, mystical introvert, politician, and daredevil extrovert, were evoked by Peter O'Toole's multi-dimensional performance. A cast including Alec Guiness, Anthony Quinn. Jack Hawkins, Claude Rains, Anthony Quayle, Arthur Kennedy and the charismatic Omar Sharif (already a star in Egypt but now a star in the west) was stellar. The famous music and Lawrence theme by Maurice Jarre still ranks, along with "Gone with the Wind", as one of the greatest cinematic musical scores ever created.

More than ever, it is my favorite film. Go buy the 50th Anniversary bluray edition and see it on a big screen HDTV. It won't equal the theater, but you'll still be awed, as I was.