Favorite Five: David Lean

He's one of my favorite directors. Probably my absolute favorite classic Hollywood director who made movies in the classic pre-70s style.

Sure there's Hitchcock....... but his movies are timeless and universal and less married to an era. I mean, he is era specific but his genre films are at core the most psychologically enduring films and if made in a later era is probably the same product with different backgrounds and technological innovations.


However Lean is in my opinion, strictly a classic Hollywood director who crossed into the genres of adventure and epic.



1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. Dr. Zhivago
3. The Bridge on the River Kwai
4. Passage to India
5. Brief Encounter (this used to be an all time Top 3 film of mine... but has really slipped. Used to be Casablanca, La Dolce vita, Brief Encounter. Or was it Vertigo #2.... I forget)

1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. The Bridge on the River Kwai
3. Brief Encounter
4. A Passage to India
5. Doctor Zhivago