David Lean: A Biography

by Kevin Brownlow

In discussions with the author, film director David Lean talks about his cinema career, which spanned more than half a century and encompassed films such as "Brief Encounter", "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia". There are also contributions from family and friends.

Genres: Biography, Film, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Media Tie In, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Kevin Brownlow, is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. He has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of cinema. Brownlow received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 13, 2010.

Reviews

[George Fairbrother · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin Brownlow is undoubtedly one of the most scholarly and interesting Hollywood and film historians of all. This ambitious work on David Lean is a stunning achievement, that not only sheds light on a very talented, complicated,(and not always likeable) individual, but also provides fascinating, technical insights into the real hands-on business of making and releasing films, from World War Two, to the dying days of the studio system and rise of the independents.

This rates as one of my favourite film studies, along with A Scott Berg's bio of Samuel Goldwyn, Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, and works by Neal Gabler, including An Empire of their Own.

Another interesting work which is particularly relevant to this volume on David Lean, is Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni's bio of notorious producer Sam Spiegel, something of a nemesis for David Lean himself, and producer of Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai.

[Alejandro Villarreal · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Lean faced challenges in all areas of his early life. As a young boy, he struggled in academics and sports; as a young man, he struggled in all manner of careers, possibly due to a form of ADHD. His own father even referred to him as "hopeless," and his mother would have nervous breakdowns, not knowing what would become of the young Lean.

But his salvation turned out to be the one thing he loved—movies.

Kevin Brownlow’s book on the iconic filmmaker delves into interviews with Lean himself and many of his collaborators and family members. It’s a complete portrait of a man who excelled in his chosen field, but was a disaster in his personal life.

Raised in a strict Quaker household, Lean wasn’t allowed to go to the movies. As a teenager, he snuck off with friends to the movie theater and saw director Rex Ingram’s THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921) and soon became addicted to movie-going.

A failed accountant and farm laborer, he decided to apply to work as an errand boy at a film studio. He was fired when he accidentally destroyed days of work by exposing reels of film to light.

But he was sent to the editing department, where he applied himself day and night, year after year. By the mid-1930s, Lean was considered England’s best film editor and was an on-set technical advisor for many of the country’s best filmmakers.

The book has extensive research and interviews of Lean’s friends and family. His ex-wives are also interviewed in the book. A relentless womanizer, Lean would incessantly begin relationships with women and then shut them out of his life.

Whether due to his strict upbringing or extreme fear of intimacy, his life was full of failed personal relationships. And Lean, who frequently saw a therapist, recognized his destructive patterns, but seemed indifferent to his effect on others. Brownlow presses Lean on this topic, but would normally get the “quiet treatment,” and not be able to unpack his deep-seated issues.

The book itself is an excellent record on the early British film industry, which like Lean, struggled to get on its feet and be taken seriously in the early sound era.

It’s also a perfect biography covering Lean’s filmography with behind-the-scenes interviews with crew members on the making of these classics. Not just the later epics like DR. ZHIVAGO and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, but movies like THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS, BRIEF ENCOUNTER and SUMMERTIME (Lean’s personal favorite).

Kevin Brownlow is a legend himself as a film historian. To tackle this work was an immense undertaking—and he delivers.

The book is also full of photos in honor of Lean’s wishes for the biography, which was completed shortly after the filmmaker died. Brownlow said Lean wanted “illustrations…and lots of good bloody pictures.” Brownlow delivers on that promise, and so much more.

A biography that is a fitting tribute to both of these legends.

[Andrewh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book mainly because I am an admirer of Kevin Brownlow rather than of David Lean - the former is one of the key historians of early Hollywood but this is not really his era and it seems a strange commission to me. I am not a huge fan of Lean's bloated epics (Lawrence excepted) but I do like his tighter, earlier B/W films, such as Great Expectations and In Which we Serve, and the incomparable stiff-upper-lip classic Brief Encounter. Lean made his name as an ace 'cutter' [film editor] and many critics disparage his directing work as too sanitised and clean, too technical and lacking in the poetry of, say, 'Micky' Powell (as he referred to here); an artisan not an artist, that is to say. This book is really good on the early years and how he got into directing and the early successes, but seems to be trying to emulate Lean's own overinflated grandisoity in the chapters which focus on the so-called 'great' later films, such as Bridge over the River Kwai, Lawrence, Dr Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter - most of these films get several chapters, charting almost every single event that took place in their chequered production histories. I usually love all that movie-lore stuff (especially the fighting with evil producers like the legendary Sam Spiegel - 'Dunes, baby, I want dunes!' as he said to Lean so piercingly about the sandy epic) but it is related here in a fairly boring, point-by-point fashion and it is quite tedious to have several chapters of this on one film, especially one as boring as Zhivago, without any real critcal insight being offered. Brownlow is an oral historian basically, which worked brilliantly for the silent era, but this book would be have been better had it been cut by a third, like most of Lean's later films. This book made me want to learn more about Sam Spiegel to be honest.

[Lisa Tangen · Rating 4 out of 5]

At last...I'm done reading this. It was a fitting epic for the maker of epic films. (I enjoyed it and I'm kind of sad to finish, but it was also a bit long and I was ready to move on.)

More for myself than anyone else, I note why I read this book. I just finished listening to Hayley Mills' memoir and my husband and I just happened to watch the movie Ryan's Daughter, which starred Hayley's father John Mills (won an Oscar for his role!). The movie had spectacular scenery (coast of Ireland), but the story was rather crushing and mostly sad. Anyway...this book was on our shelf...and reading it rounded out my picture if John Mills, Ryan's Daughterand so much more.

It's a classic case of rabbit-hole reading/viewing for me...as a result of reading the book, I ended up watching two more Lean movies, Escape Me Never (b/w from 1935) and Summertime (1955). EMN was rather sad but what interested me was that it was filmed in Venice and Cortina d'Ampeza, both locations I visited in 2019. Summertime too was shot in Venice (see a pattern here?)...and it was also rather sad, but semi hopeful.

So back to the book...it's a rich and comprehensive telling of David's struggles in childhood through his entire career and the end of his life. It's pretty remarkable he did as well as he did in life. I wonder if he wouldn't have been as successful if not for his challenging start in life. Based on the accounts in the book, he was a very complicated person...he could petty and self-centered, but also generous and kind (can't we all?). I'm glad I read it. It enlightened me on the processes behind movie making back then and I can appreciate the craft all the more.

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once in a while, I veer off-tangent, and purchase books I would normally ignore, even if this were wallpapered at my favorite bookshop's bestselling corner. But a not-so fleeting obsession with Omar Sharif, whom Lean first directed in Lawrence of Arabia, somehow led me to this book. Years earlier I had purchased T.E. Lawrence's The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and two books on Mayerling (Sharif had portrayed Austrian crown prince Rudolph in a movie that ended in that double suicide at a hunting lodge); I never could get past the first chapter of Lawrence's book, but the Mayerling books were fascinating.

This biography portrays director David Lean, he of the wide angle lens, as--hackneyed as it may sound but a perfect fit for the type of character he was--larger-than-life. When you think of epic films*, it is David Lean who comes to mind. Aggressive, influential, supremely confident, sharp, and the marrying kind: he clocked in with six wives. Talented, definitely--his filmography easily proves that (before he had the budget and the clout to create those large-scale epics, he was doing black and white films which today still merit critical and this film buff's admiration: Brief Encounter and Great Expectations). At some 800 pages, this was a giant of a book, as befitting a giant of the film industry.

* One of my favorite movies of all time featuring one of my favorite actors was directed by David Lean: Bridge on the River Kwai.

[Straker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid warts-and-all biography of the legendary director which reveals that there were many warts indeed. Not the sort of man I would've wanted to work for and I was left with nothing but sympathy for the six women unlucky enough to have married him. Despite a certain Brit-centric viewpoint the book reads well enough but relies too much on lengthy excerpts from Lean's correspondence, which often stop the narrative dead in its tracks.

[mega them · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really illuminating biography, especially considering how private and guarded Lean seemed. Really became a dick in his last few years, though.

[Tony and Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really a book of two halves. The first (actually third) is about Lean prior to him becoming a director. This is told as a more or less straight biography. The second goes chapter by chapter through his films.

This approach is good and bad. If, like me, you want to know about him as a director then it gives a strong sense of how his movie making evolved. In particular it makes clear Lean had two talents: editing and a sense of what makes a good photograph. He was heavily dependent on his scriptwriter and actors. There is no equivalent of Alan Parker or Ridley Scott's ability to make decent actors great in underwritten films or make beautiful cinema out of grim cityscapes. When Lean had Celia Johnson or Alec Guinness, in the right locations, Lean was great. When he had Sarah Miles and Christopher Jones in Ireland, he was so-so.

The bad side of this approach is that it leaves the more interesting mysteries about him unanswered. Lean treated the women in his life abysmally. He treated his son even worse. Yet his films are not misogynistic. The real star of his films before Alec Guinness is Celia Johnston, who he allowed to express complex female roles in a way that is heart breaking. "In which we serve" is about the sailors who survive their ship being sunk in the war. But its heart is Johnston and the other women's portrayal of life on the "home front". The scene where there is an air raid that ends with the death of one of a group of women has got to be one of the great scenes of cinema. This book does not even discuss it when discussing the film.

I recommend reading the book because David Lean is a great film maker, but you will finish it wanting to read another biography to learn about him.

[Paul Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giant and wide, weighing in at something like ten to fifteen pounds, with over 700 pages of densely packed text plus pictures, notes and index, "David Lean: A Biography" is as grand and epic and ambitious as its subject matter. Author Kevin Brownlow put together one massive book, covering every aspect of David Lean's life, through sixteen films and six wives, through worldwide living and creating and filming. If ever you were curious about Lean's life, THIS is the book.

...and, it's good, very good. Rarely does a biography so comprehensively cover a person's life and career. Kevin Brownlow had impressive access to friends, family, co-workers, associates, and all manner of men and women who knew or were associated with, or were in love with David Lean. More importantly, Kevin Brownlow actually knew Lean, and spent hours interviewing him, so some of the book's thoughts and detailed opinions and facts came from first-hand accounts by David Lean himself.

What was inspiring about reading "David Lean: A Biography" was that it took the reader on such a vivid journey from Lean's birth in 1908, through all of his early years growing up in a British Quaker family with a successful yet detached father, a moderate yet needy mother, and a younger brother who was considered the family favorite, all through Lean's early entry into the film business in London, through his years as a successful feature film editor, through all sixteen of the feature films David Lean directed, plus the movies he never got to make...AND the personal life and love Lean had with long and short-time lovers, plus no less than six marriages and one son, whom he was mostly estranged from. It's A LOT. For 700-plus pages, it BETTER be a lot!

It's true, the physical hardcover "David Lean: A Biography" is so large and heavy that it took a lot work to make the book physically, and comfortably readable. First one I've ever read that was almost unmanageable in both size and weight. But, guess what? David Lean's life was so fascinating, and Kevin Brownlow's research and information so engaging and entertaining, the trouble it took to actually sit down and read the tome was most certainly worth it.

Perhaps the best thing about "David Lean: A Biography" is that leaves (for the reader) a supreme impression as to who David Lean really was. Sure, the book's film-by-film detail is wonderful, inspiring one to watch Lean's entry into directing via Noel Coward and 1942's IN WHICH WE SERVE, and then proceed on to 1944's THIS HAPPY BREED, through GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OLIVER TWIST, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, all the way to 1984's A PASSAGE TO INDIA. All of that is great just in and of itself, presenting to the reader how each film was developed, produced, directed and released...great stuff.

BUT what makes "David Lean: A Biography" special is that the book lets the reader inside the man, so you feel that these illustrious films were not just made in a vacuum, and appeared out of thin air. No, instead the book makes you know WHO exactly was directing those movies, who was he before and who was he during the time of film production. I mean, you really feel as if you truly know David Lean.

From what I gathered from "David Lean: A Biography," David Lean was an exceptionally gifted visual artist, whose strength was also his weakness. Despite the pedigrees of his father and his scholarly brother, Lean was not an intellectual. As a child, David Lean was considered mentally slow, and that devastating assessment combined with the snobbery of both his father and his young brother, as well as the British snobbery towards the cinema in general as a low form of art, all made David Lean both insecure and irreparably adverse to the people as well as the culture of intellectuals (Noel Coward and screenwriter Robert Bolt being the exception), distrustful and disdainful of unscrupulous men more clever than he was (i.e. star film producers Sam Spiegel, Carlo Ponti, Dino De Laurentiis, etc...) but also sensitive to any and all criticism that came his way.

Though rarely did he perceive himself as an artist, David Lean certainly seemed to have the artist's selfishness, tunnel vision and temperament. His ego was as gigantic as some of his greatest films, however NO ONE could have made or even THINK of making masterpieces like THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA without a massive ego to back it up. Lean was never a "little engine," yet he most certainly "could."

There is a price to be paid for one to be so artistically right-brained. For his careful planning, Lean could be hasty, unrealistic and lack business sense. Lean was a challenging boyfriend and husband, with more than a wandering eye, and was an even worse father. David Lean's life WAS the world of cinema, and what he lacked in spousal interest and support, and parental interest and support, and safety interest and concern for others, he made up for with EVERYTHING he put into his movies. When you watch even a flawed and disparaged film like RYAN'S DAUGHTER and then read this book, it all makes sense, since the largesse, the GREATNESS of David Lean is all there...right up on the screen, whether you like the movie or not.

Sure, David Lean COULD have been nicer, could have been more loyal and loving and longstanding with his wives and son. He could have cared more, been less stubborn, less vain, less obstinate when it came down to sets, location, schedule, script and budget concerns. As a craftsman of the cinematic arts, Lean could be unforgiving, impatient, inconsiderate and downright ruthless. Yet David Lean was also a human being, with all shades of good, bad and ugly...and a bloody brilliant filmmaker of the first degree. And, outside of watching his movies, it's all there in this marvelous, incredibly comprehensive book. If you love great movies, and love David Lean, and also have the physical strength to manage the book, "David Lean: A Biography" is a must-read.

[Ann Otto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography is for anyone interested in film and a must for anyone in love with David Lean's masterpieces The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago. It is eight hundred pages with a few photographs. The behind the scenes information on these and other films that he edited or directed beginning in 1930 is very interesting as is the detail about his complicated personality and personal life.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous biography that, with the full cooperation and blessing of Lean himself, does not shy away from his flaws and failings as both a man and an artist, while also presenting a comprehensive and thrilling overview of a legendary career and the creation of some of the greatest motion pictures ever produced.

[Steve Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so similar to the biography of Kubrick I recently finished and almost exactly the same. Lean was probably a genius in film, but he was a cold, selfish, credit-hungry filmmaker. Astonishing how he could drop people in an instant. The writing is clear and informative, especially with so many characters.

[Josh Halpern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one, to follow up with my 'Rise of Theodore Roosevelt' review, where I'm just so close to the finish, but I can't seem to get over the hump.

I even returned this book to the library, with only maybe 150 pages left. Which may seem like a lot, but when the book itself is over 500 pages, you got to figure YOU'VE GOT TO FINISH IT.

The breakdown of the book is great, basically associating the times in Lean's life with the movies he worked on, broken down by chapter, in chronological order (obviouslyy?)

Any way, I picked this one up because I loved David Lean and this book cover stared me in the face long enough at the Public Library that I just said f**k it and grabbed it.

I was tempted to skip over the chapters of the films I haven't seen, but I didn't because there were still references further into the book of the previous films, so it's not the kind of book where you can conveniently do that. Damn it, Brownlow!

So I read about Lean's early films, like Great Expectations, and The Sound Barrier, and Oliver Twist. I read about his time editing news reels, and his early family life (apparently he didn't get along with his mother). His travels to India, time at the Oscars, work with Hepburn on 'Summertime.'

Just learning about the man, became great. Also his exchanges with Sam Spiegel during production of Lawrence of Arabia are pretty great. And just reading over the developmental process of each of his works illuminates quote unquote MASTERPIECES in a way that humanizes the man. It was stressful, irritating, and for lack of a better phrase, he stuck to his guns.

I just got bored of the text...

It's a tough read. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the man. However, as a stand-alone biography, I think it's a bit over-the-top.

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One of the essentials in the movies is for the audience to feel that they are in the hands of a good story teller; they are being led, and what leads them is the intention of the scene. If it has the intention, you ill nearly always win though. It somehow carries you on like a wave which breaks on the share and carries you up that beach. All great things have an intention behind them. We didn't have a real intention on Madeleine....I was looking at in in the wrong way. I had no particular feelings for anybody in the picture an as far as movies are concerned that is pretty well fatal. I am not saying that one should sit back and say 'This is going to excite the audience.' I've never done that. I sit back and say, 'Does it excite me?' Somehow it didn't and I think that's the answer.' "

[Keith B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best biography books i've ever read. it is very deeply researched, great details of one of the most exciting directors in cinema. It's a very thick book, but what i found so surprising was how well paced it was, it flows well.
I learned about integrity, and how precise and assured one has to be in being a leader in a movie. He directed movies like Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, Summertime, and many more. He was known for his epic filmmaking. David Lean is not the best example in how to treat people, another lesson learned from the book. Plus, what passion one must have to be a artist, when he directed Passage to India, he was in his eighties, one the oldest directors working at the time.
Very read, check it out.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best film biography I've ever read. It paints the picture of man who was both enormously generous and incredibly petty, and a man who despite having all the talent in the world was crippled by insecurity. And the final few pages are amongst the most moving I've read in any book.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in the life and films of David Lean - this is the definitive biography