David Lean's epic manages the rare feat of being both a sprawling visual spectacle and an intimate character study all at once. Shot almost entirely on location over the course of 17 months, Lawrence of Arabia features some of the best cinematography ever put to film and one of the all-time great acting performances in Peter O'Toole's career-defining turn as the title character. An epic in every sense of the word, the movie's budget swelled to $15m (well over $100m when adjusted for inflation), the running time pushes four hours and the narrative features thousands of extras and lavishly recreated sets. O'Toole features in virtually every scene, and effortlessly carries the movie with a performance both effortlessly charismatic and simultaneously enigmatic. With stunning desert vistas, sweeping camerawork and a majestic score to complement the iconic moments (Omar Sharif's entrance, the famous jump cut), the Hollywood epic doesn't get much better than this. Lawrence of Arabia would go on to win seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Original Score and Cinematography. Fittingly, the ambitiously bold and expensive production ultimately delivered one of the most grandiose, romanticized, visually spectacular epics ever committed to celluloid.
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