David Lean best film

[Smokey]

David Lean is British director and he got pretty good resume in that department. I have seen all of his movies except the real early ones in his career. Oliver Twist, Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai rank pretty high on my list, so it is a tough choice to choose one. So will go with Lawrence of Arabia as his best work.

Ranked by released date:

Brief Encounter (1945): set in British suburban life, this movie center on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions.


Great Expectations (1946): A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.


Oliver Twist (1948) Based on the Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Accompanied by Alec Guinness's most memorable performance as F*a*gin


Hobson's Choice (1954): Charles Laughton star as Henry Hobson who runs a successful bootmaker's shop in nineteenth-century Salford.


Summertime (1955 film): A lonely American woman (Katharine Hepburn) unexpectedly finds romance in Venice, Italy.


The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): After winning a battle of wits with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.


Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert after help uniting Arab tribes against Ottoma empire.


Doctor Zhivago (1965): Life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution.


Ryan's Daughter (1970): The film, set in 1916, tells the story of a married Irish woman who has an affair with a British officer during World War I, despite opposition from her nationalist neighbours. With Robert Mitchum.


A Passage to India (1984): Tensions between Indians and the colonial British come to a boil when a white female tourist accuses a young Indian doctor of rape during a visit to some caverns.

[Feanor]

David Lean is British director and he got pretty good resume in that department. I have seen all of his movies except the real early ones in his career. Oliver Twist, Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai rank pretty high on my list, so it is a tough choice to choose one. So will go with Lawrence of Arabia as his best work.

Ranked by released date:

Brief Encounter (1945): set in British suburban life, this movie center on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions.

Great Expectations (1946): A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.

Oliver Twist (1948) Based on the Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Accompanied by Alec Guinness's most memorable performance as ***in

Hobson's Choice (1954): Charles Laughton star as Henry Hobson who runs a successful bootmaker's shop in nineteenth-century Salford.

Summertime (1955 film): A lonely American woman (Katharine Hepburn) unexpectedly finds romance in Venice, Italy.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): After winning a battle of wits with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert after help uniting Arab tribes against Ottoma empire.

Doctor Zhivago (1965): Life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Ryan's Daughter (1970): The film, set in 1916, tells the story of a married Irish woman who has an affair with a British officer during World War I, despite opposition from her nationalist neighbours. With Robert Mitchum.

A Passage to India (1984): Tensions between Indians and the colonial British come to a boil when a white female tourist accuses a young Indian doctor of rape during a visit to some caverns.

Got me beat, Smokey. Lawrence, Bridge, and Zhivago are the only ones that stick in my mind though I know I've seen Passage to India and probably Oliver Twist and Great Expectations at times in the remote past. I'm voting for Lawrence of Arabia, just because.

[Smokey]

Thanks Feanor

Three films have not seen on the list are Brief Encounter, Great Expectations and Summertime. It is usaully not fair to put movies in a poll one haven't seen, but can't imagine them be better than Lean's later works.

[3LB]

I voted Bridge On The River Kwai because I loved WW-II flicks when I was a kid and this movie made a big impression on me. In hindsight though, this movie bucked a lot of trends, given it came out during a glut of simplistic, overtly patriotic shoot'em-ups. The story was the star, not the action. Substance triumphs symbolism.

[Smokey]

The story was the star, not the action. Substance triumphs symbolism.

And at the end, no heroes

[JohnMichael]

I was torn between The Bridge On the River Kwai and Doctor Zhivago. I had to vote for Doctor Zhivago not only for the romance, revolution and scenery but also the theme song. I would hate to admit how many times I have seen that movie.