Spare a thought for Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) in David Lean’s World War II drama, at the mercy of his Japanese captors in a deep jungle POW camp, tortured, baked in the sun in a tiny corrugated “oven” after procedural and ethical clashes in the lead-up to the construction of the titular monument – an […]
Tag: David Lean
A black figure looming out of the desert haze stops both Lawrence and his guide in their path. Hardly a word is shared as they stare out into the distant white sands. David Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) follows an awkward Oxford intellectual and his transformation into an audacious military hero, who leads the […]
The historical epic dates from the earliest days of cinema, with Intolerance and Ben-Hur setting not only the desired level of visual splendour (with budget to match) but also the preferred period. The recreated glories of ancient Rome and Egypt have dominated the genre ever since, although this obscures some notable explorations of other times […]