Love him or hate him, David Lean was ‘the Christopher Nolan of his day’

During his lifetime, the British director’s works were either heralded as masterpieces or accused of mawkishness and racism. Geoffrey Macnab looks at the mixed legacy of a filmmaking titan who inspired awe in everyone from Spielberg to Scorsese

David Lean (pictured in 1953) is the acclaimed director of ‘Brief Encounter’, ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Doctor Zhivago’ (Getty)

It makes you happy and want to cry at the same time,” rhapsodised Hoyte van Hoytema, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer who was struck by the sheer beauty of David Lean’s Ireland-set romantic epic Ryan’s Daughter (1970) after seeing it on a restored 70mm print.

Lean’s films have no shortage of high-profile admirers. Steven Spielberg was so overwhelmed when he first watched Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as a teenager that he couldn’t absorb it on a single viewing. “I look on that picture as a major miracle,” he later said. “I couldn’t really comprehend the enormity of the experience … I actually walked out of the theatre stunned.” Martin Scorsese loved Lawrence of Arabia too, especially its tortured, self-loathing “screw-up” of a hero TE Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), whom he likened to a character in the sort of twisted film noir he might have made himself.

Despite this, Lean’s critical reputation has always oscillated. Even during his lifetime, the British director’s works were being accused of everything from mawkishness to racism. Early in his career, he was considered highbrow and pretentious; later on, reviewers dismissed him as too populist and “schlocky”. He couldn’t win. (The latter charge might have something to do with the syrupy Maurice Jarre music he started coating his films with.) In 2024, Lean’s status remains strangely uncertain. He is one of the acknowledged titans of UK film history – and yet, contemporary viewers remain deeply uncomfortable with aspects of his films.