Great Expectations (1946) - Lean's first Dickens adaptation is pure cinema magic

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Five situations from the film are painted together with hyping assertions added to them on this poster for David Lean's Great Expectations

Pip is a boy who lives with his aunt in the country and visits an old, eccentric woman of wealth and her beautiful, uncouth daughter, when he one day helps an escaped prisoner in the heath, who is found starving.

 

Great Expectations is written by Ronald Neame (Blithe Spirit (1945)) and Anthony Havelock-Allan (Brief Encounter (1945)), - who also produced the film together, - Kay Walsh (Oliver Twist (1948)), Cecil McGivern (Blanche Fury (1948)) and British master filmmaker, co-writer/director David Lean (In Which We Serve (1942)), whose 5th feature it was. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' (Bleak House (1952-53)) same-titled 1860-61 novel.

Dickens' masterpiece relates a fantastical story, which grows increasingly complex, as it unfolds in exemplary fashion in Lean's picturesque, super-cinematic screen version. (Cinematography by Guy Green (Diamond Head (1962)).)

Tony Wager (Bluey (1977, TV-series)) and later John Mills (Young at Heart (1980-82)) as Pip and Martita Hunt (The Fan (1949)) as the rich spinster Miss Havisham are especially excellent in the wonderful cast.

Great Expectations is moving, beautiful and grand, and it has several highly memorable scenes. It is a masterpiece in its own right.

 

Related post:

 

David Lean: Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - One of the greats

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 375k £, approximately 1.5 mil. $

Box office: 2 mil. $ (US rentals alone)

= Uncertain

[Great Expectations premiered 16 December (London) and runs 118 minutes. The adaptation was inspired by a 1939 stage version by Alex Guinness, which Lean had witnessed. Shooting took place in England, including London, from September 1945 - April 1946. The film was the 3rd most popular at the British box office in 1947; the most popular in Canada in 1948; and it earned impressive 2 mil. $ in rentals in the US. Regrettably its numbers outside of that are unknown, but it may have been a hit despite its relatively high budget. (The 375k £ cost comes to 1.5 mil. $ with the conversion rate of 4.03 to the pound detailed here.) The film was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning 2: For Cinematography, B/W, and Art/Set Direction, B/W. It lost Best Director and Best Picture to Elia Kazan for Gentleman's Agreement, and Best Screenplay to George Seaton for Miracle on 34th Street. It also won a National Board of Review award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Lean returned with Oliver Twist (1948). Mills returned in So Well Remembered (1947); Valerie Hobson (Continental Express (1939)) in Blanche Fury (1948). Great Expectations is fresh at 100 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Great Expectations?

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - One of the all time greats

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Co-star Alex Guinness looks paranoid while holding a riffle in front of his precious bridge on this evocative poster for David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai

A large group of British prisoners of war in Japanese-occupied Burma in 1942 get as forced assignment to build a bridge for the railway. The mentally deteriorating British Colonel Nicholson in charge puts all of his pride into the project, which is to symbolize the unparalleled craftsmanship and unbreakable will of the British, he announces, while other allies are sent on a deadly sabotage mission through the hostile jungle towards the self same bridge.

 

The Bridge on the River Kwai is written by Carl Foreman (The Key (1958)) and Michael Wilson (Salt of the Earth (1954)), adapting the same-titled 1952 novel by Pierre Boulle (La Planète des singes/Planet of the Apes (1963)), and directed by English master filmmaker David Lean (This Happy Breed (1944)), whose 11th feature it was.
Kwai is an unequaled masterpiece in the suspense-based war movie genre. It is inspired by facts, but is for the most part fiction, as the real life parallel, the Japanese-led construction of the Burma-Siam railway, was actually much more terrible and deadly than the events depicted in the film. (13,000 war prisoners and between 80,000-100,000 civilians died as a result of the project; Nicholson is also entirely fictional.)
The film has some of the most exciting suspense scenes in all of cinema, and yet most of this epic relies on unforgettable, insightful character studies: There's the pragmatist doctor, who sees only pointlessness in the trials of the war; the zealous major, who makes it a matter of personal spite and principal to prove the Japanese inferior to the British. And there's the Japanese colonel Saito, who buds heads with the Brit and follows his own culture's specific codes of conduct.
Alec Guinness (Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)) portrays Major Nicholson brilliantly, a character whose rigid mind and jungle fever takes him to the blinded edge of sanity. Sessue Hayakawa (The Geisha Boy (1958)) is also supreme as Saito. The scenes between the two are some of the film's best. Highly sophisticated, intense and alive.

In other supporting roles, Jack Hawkins (To Bury Caesar (1963)) and William Holden (The Towering Inferno (1974)) are enjoyable. The film is also unusual in that it is almost entirely bereft of women.
The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of the best war films of all time, an eminent epic, and it has been restored beautifully. It is a must watch for every movie-lover out there, and especially so for the war-interested ones.

 

Related posts:

 

David Lean: Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Great Expectations (1946) - Lean's first Dickens adaptation is pure cinema magic 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3 mil. $
Box office: 30.6 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 10.6 times its cost)

[The Bridge on the River Kwai premiered 2 October (London) and runs 161 minutes. The film's American writers wrote the screenplay in British exile due to being on the McCarthy blacklist, and this also prompted non-English speaking Boulle to become credited with its writing. Foreman was paid 17k $ for the job. Guinness was paid 150k $; Holden 250-300k $ (different reports) plus 10% of the worldwide gross. Shooting took place from November 1956 - May 1957 in Sri Lanka. Lean had serious disagreements with Guinness during filming and also at one point nearly drowned in the river. A scene with a woman was shot solely to appease US studio Columbia. The film earned 17.1 mil. $ (55.9 % of the total gross) in North America: It was Columbia's highest-grossing at the time and the global top-grosser of the year, as well as the highest-grossing of the year in North America and the UK. It was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 7: For Best Picture, Actor (Guinness), Cinematography (Jack Hildyard (Emily (1976))), Director, Editing, Score (Malcolm Arnold (Hard Times (1977, miniseries))) and Adapted Screenplay; losing Supporting Actor (Hayakawa) for Red Buttons in Sayonara. It also won 4 BAFTAs, a David di Donatello award, 3/4 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for a Grammy, won 5 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. The first TV screening of the film was in 1962 on ABC, with a record result of 72 mil. viewers. Warren Buffett has said that it is his favorite film. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #171 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Trainspotting (1996) and Klaus (2019, VoD). Lean returned with Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Holden returned in The Key (1958); Guinness in All at Sea (1957); and Hawkins in Terror! Theatre (1957, TV-series), The World Our Stage (1958, TV-series) and theatrically in Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958). The Bridge on the River Kwai is certified fresh at 96 % with a 9.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Bridge on the River Kwai?