Brief Encounter (1945)
The housewife who engages in an affair to alleviate the monotony of domestic life is a central character in countless films. In Brief Encounter, David Lean revisits her again: Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) comfortably conforms to the role of a 1930s homemaker until she falls uncontrollably in love with Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), a doctor whom she met at a train station while heading into town to do her weekly shopping. It’s a familiar premise, but the film retains its originality as Lean refuses to let his characters become archetypes. Laura’s husband is kind and doting, not the bully that would justify her need to escape to the arms of another man. Nor can Laura be condemned as a conniving seductress—she refuses to consummate the affair, oscillating between excitement and guilt over her newfound love. Tension mounts as Laura struggles to resist her love for Alec, and she is forced to face the zest for life that he awoke within her.
—Brigit Katz
Rating: VVVVV
Great Expectations (1946)
David Lean’s classic adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel is a compelling drama that contrasts social mobility and suffering in 19th-century English society. The movie chronicles the life of the orphan Pip, who at the age of 20 receives a large monetary sum from a mysterious benefactor designed to make him a refined gentleman. The story follows Pip’s life from his early days as a young working boy (Anthony Wagner), his playdates with shut-in Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt), and his encounter with the object of his desire, Estella, through his rise as a society gentleman. While the cinematography and Lean’s direction make this an enduring classic, the screenplay would have benefited from adhering to Dickens’ original ending. In altering the resolution, much of the story’s meaning is lost. The “happily ever after” ending doesn’t fit the tone of the film, leaving viewers wanting more.
—Daphne Vrantsidis
Rating: VVVv
Oliver Twist (1948)
Oliver Twist wonderfully adapts the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, about the young boy who suffers hardships and misery in an orphanage, only to run away to the large, scary metropolis of London. There, he meets the Artful Dodger and Fagin (played by Lean’s great friend and enemy Alec Guinness), and an assortment of other devious characters, well played but sadly undeveloped beyond superficial caricature. Lean’s film clearly understands a setting’s importance in Dickens’ story: from the cold, uninviting, and savage orphanage, to Fagin’s dirty yet welcoming lair, to the bright open spaces of the grandfather’s mansion. Oliver Twist is carried by the weight of the innocent and sympathetic face of our young hero, but the film would have benefitted had Lean paid more attention to the supporting characters, the true heart of any Dickensian story.
—Alexandra Heeney
Rating: VVVv
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
War cinema has changed a great deal since 1957. Modern films like The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan depict the grisly nature of battle, exposing the irrationality of bloodshed on a large scale. The audience is obligated to sympathize with each soldier’s sacrifice. David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai does the opposite, focusing on the pride and dignity instilled in soldiers as a consequence of their training and military life. At the onset, British POWs, captured by Japanese troops in WWII, are forced to build a bridge across a river. When the British Colonel (Alec Guinness) defiantly refuses to have his officers partake in manual labour, they are imprisoned. The Japanese Colonel eventually gives in, realizing the lack of manpower in the construction of the bridge. Unbeknownst to the prisoners or their captors, the British army devises a plan to destroy the very bridge they are building. It demonstrates a different type of heroic behaviour—not born out of intense, bloody struggle, but instead from a honourable sense of military duty.
—Justin Beaubien
Rating: VVVVv
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The definition of a sweeping epic, Lawrence of Arabia chronicles the World War I exploits of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), a British lieutenant in the Middle East. As the war effort rages on, Lawrence closely identifies with the Arab tribes that he wishes to unite, as the film suggests an inner confusion of where his heart lies. While the film has been criticized for taking liberties with historical events, the masterful performances by O’Toole and Omar Sharif (as Sherif Ali) are powerful enough to alter history in the mind of the viewer. The film is most famous for its expansive scale. In Lean’s Arabian desert, the sky seems endless, and the horizon unreachable. The stunning cinematography is a perfect complement to Lawrence’s idealistic vision. With Lawrence of Arabia, Lean realized his most lofty ambitions, making it his most famous film, and deservedly so—it’s also his best.
—Rob Duffy
Rating: VVVVV
A Passage to India (1984)
Based on the E.M. Forster novel, A Passage to India capped off Lean’s career with a vivid and emotional take on colonialism and culture shock. On their first trip abroad, Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested, the mother and fiancée of a racist British magistrate, object to the segregation imposed upon Indians by the British Raj. In their effort to take in “the real India,” the friendly Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee) offers to take the women to the nearby Marabar Caves. While the harmony in India is already tenuous at best, an unseen incident during the expedition puts Dr. Aziz on trial, throwing the city of Chandrapore into racially-charged turmoil. While the British dismiss failing efforts in India as “a muddle,” Lean’s ornate depiction of India from the British point of view exposes the hypocrisy of colonialism. As the distrust heightens, the struggle to understand and accept one another becomes an obstacle too great to overcome. —RD
Rating: VVVV
