A Beloved War Movie Has A Rare Perfect Metacritic Score

They say war is hell, and any number of cinematic depictions of war prove that maxim to be true. Although the so-called art of war has been fodder for all sorts of movies across the last 100 years,it's rare to find a lot of critics, let alone general audiences, fully aligned on the quality of a war film. Even war movies that many folks would consider to be among the best of the genre, such as Steven Spielberg's brutal World War II classic "Saving Private Ryan," can't claim to have unanimously positive reviews on aggregation sites like Metacritic.

That makes it all the more notable when you do find a film with a perfect score on Metacritic, no matter the genre. As you may already know, Metacritic is a bit more of a refined aggregation site than Rotten Tomatoes; it's not pulling in hundreds of reviews from random writers and outlets that few of us may be familiar with. Instead, it usually only collects 30 to 40 reviews from well-respected organizations, essentially ensuring that it's highlighting the cream of the crop and nothing else. Hence, it's particularly impressive when any movie boasts a 100 score there, even if that film is widely considered one of the best ever made by cinema buffs.

Such is the case with one particular war movie — a film that kickstarted its lead actor's career, netted a handful of Oscars, and has been re-released theatrically a few times over the decades. The movie is the 1962 epic "Lawrence of Arabia," but fair is fair: there is a catch here. Let's dig in.

Especially in the age of streaming, you may hear some of the more passionate cinephiles in your life tell you that certain films are best experienced in a theater, as opposed to on a 4K TV or your phone or tablet or the like. Though it's possible that not all films deserve this treatment, "Lawrence of Arabia" is absolutely the singular kind of movie that is unquestionably most impactful if you're in a theater. 

Made by English director David Lean, "Lawrence of Arabia" is a mammoth, 222-minute historical epic about the life and times of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), an insolent and insouciant British Army lieutenant who, during the First World War, is tasked with helping his fellow countrymen aid a Middle Eastern prince as he and his people revolt against the Turkish government. That task leads to a two-decade-spanning adventure that enables Lawrence to gain power and respect among the Arab National Council and related countries. However, while that plot synopsis sounds almost deceptively simple, the scope and breadth of this story, shot in 70mm, makes this one of the grandest, most expansive films ever made. 

"Lawrence of Arabia" was a solid hit when released in December of 1962, doing well at the box office, gaining critical praise, and winning seven Oscars, including one for Best Picture and one for Best Director. In some ways, though, the movie got a new life in the late 1980s when film historians released a remastered director's cut and helped spearhead a theatrical re-release. Not that the film wasn't already enshrined as a '60s-era classic, but the remastered version helped audiences see the film in a new light. The movie has been revived time and time again since then, with additional re-releases timed to both the updates in high-definition video technology (like when "Lawrence of Arabia" got a 4K release in 2012) as well as the passing of O'Toole himself in the mid-2010s. 

One of those re-releases came in 2002, as a way to commemorate the film's 40th anniversary, and this is where the catch with Metacritic comes into play. The movie does, deservedly, have a 100 score on the site ... but it's relative to that re-release, and as such, there are only eight reviews. A perfect score is a perfect score, of course, but the limited amount of reviews (even for Metacritic) does need to come into play as we consider the film's impact.

Now, one thing is true: no matter what score a film has on an aggregation site like Metacritic or the like, it doesn't impact anyone's opinion of the film. The aforementioned "Saving Private Ryan" may not have a 100 score, but that doesn't make it a movie whose fans aren't any more or less impassioned about its brilliance. And "Lawrence of Arabia," frankly, may not be the first title you think of when you think of the concept of a war movie or the genre as a whole. But in spite of focusing on a war that may be less familiar to Americans, "Lawrence of Arabia" is a shrewd character study as much as it is an epic with thrilling action sequences. That's part of what makes the film so special. Yes, it's true that if you ever have the opportunity to watch this movie on the biggest screen possible, you absolutely should take it. But even for the many of us who don't have that chance (either because you don't live near repertory-theater options or because timing doesn't work out for you), "Lawrence of Arabia" offers much to enjoy on screens of any size.

The high quality of the film, and the fact that it almost transcends its epic scale, is what makes its perfect score on Metacritic so pleasantly surprising, even keeping in mind the low number of reviews. Few films in cinema history have hit all the marks that this one does. Many past Best Picture winners are either forgotten or lamented. (Consider films like "Crash" and "Green Book" for examples of the latter, and even more recent films like "Nomadland" for examples of the former.) Some of them are beloved initially but don't always stand the test of time, either because of generational shifts or the simple fact that some movies don't age well. But then you have "Lawrence of Arabia," a thorny film that both valorizes and interrogates its hero. It's an epic that still feels massive so many decades later, as well as a movie that doesn't shy away from the harsher aspects of war. Good on this classic for being as perfect on Metacritic as it is in real life.