How great is David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia'? So great that though it was made by a British director, shot in the middle east, and made with an international cast, the American Film Institute once named it the fifth greatest American film of all time, and they've also named it cinema's greatest epic. Now it's fifty, and it's being reissued.

The film stars Peter O'Toole, Alec Guiness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, and won seven academy awards in 1962, including best picture. The film was famously restored in 1989, when it was reissued in 70mm across the country, but in 2012, it's a 4K digital restoration, and one that will be playing digitally across the country on October 4. Those who feel that it will just be a larger presentation of the blu-ray release only have to wait a couple weeks as a collectible box set Blu-ray set is coming out November 13. And those who can't be bothered with the theater or purchasing (or renting, people still do that) a copy can just wait for it to show on Turner Classic movies on November 16.

Undeniably brilliant, it should be seen on the big screen, as few films could ever be bigger. We can't wait for the reissue. Here's the trailer:

 

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