Lawrence of Arabia (1962), directed by the much-lauded David Lean, is an old-school cinema epic in every sense of the word. It features magnificent wide shots of the sprawling desert, thousands of extras simulating the carnage of war, and a cast of stellar actors all at the top of their games. This is also the first big-screen role for the legendary Peter O’Toole, who commands the screen throughout and got his first of eight Academy Award nominations for the role. Not bad for a young man who, so I’ve read, drank a bottle of champagne every night during the shoot. To everyone who was worried about sitting through Avengers: Endgame earlier this year because it has a running time of 181 minutes, I challenge you to watch the restored version of Lawrence of Arabia currently available on Netflix. Running time: 220 minutes. To be fair, part of that running time includes an overture and an intermission, but we are still talking about over three hours of story here. Both Avengers and