Wow. That was a great movie.
It was epic. It was beautiful. It was tragic. It was also lengthy (2 hours, 40 minutes). It was well worth the viewing. I was tipped off to it via a review on Reel Reviews Radio, and I'm really glad I added it to my NetFlix queue. I've never read King Lear, and was not previously familiar with the story.
I was also really impressed with they way the film was put together. It's the first Akira Kurosawa film I've seen. After watching this one, I'm hungry for more and went ahead and moved The Seven Samurai up on my NetFlix queue. I've been meaning to watch that one for years -- I think I'm finally going to watch it sometime in the next several weeks.
Anyway, I highly recommend Ran.