“This is the kind of book every legendary director deserves and few of them ever receive: a carefully observed, clearly written, critically alert analysis of his body of work. This is film scholarship at the highest level, and a book that is in every sense worthy of its great subject.”
— Richard Schickel

David Laen was the Academy Award-winning director of such classics as Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations. Oliver Twist, Ryan’s Daughter, Passage to India, and Bridge on the River Kwai. His film career spanned more than six decades, during which time he was responsible for creating some of the world cinema’s most memorable moments. He began his career in 1927 as a tea boy at Gaumont Studio, soon graduating to camera assistant and editor, and in the early 1940s began directing.

Updated and extensively revised, this first American edition of David Lean and His Films offers the reader an in-depth analysis, discussion, and critique of Lean’s directorial output. In their film-by-film accounting of his work, authors Silver and Ursini uncover the themes and concerns that have been sustained throughout Lean’s career.

Alain Silver has worked as an assistant director for Paramount, Columbia, Warner Bros., MGM, and Universal, and has been a producer and production manager on dozens of features and television programs. He is the author of The Samurai Film and the co-author of David Lean and His Films. With Elizabeth Ward, Silver authored Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, Film Noir, and a book on producer/director Robert Aldrich.

James Ursini is the author of Preston Sturges and the co-author of The Vampire Film.