Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: dedicated maniacs, principal photography commenced, passionate friends, David Lean, Ryan's Daughter, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Beyond definitive - approaches the inner secrets of why movies are both magical and life altering." -- Vincent LoBrutto, author of Stanley Kubrick: A Biography

"Gene Phillips provides the final word on a great filmmaker and a fabulous showman." -- Lester Keyser, author of Hollywood in the Seventies

Review

"For admirers of storytelling on a vast canvas, and of an old master, Phillip's study is an overdue pleasure.-- Hollywood Reporter" -- Hollywood Reporter

"I found it hard to stop reading. I was impressed that Gene Phillips had spoken to so many of the people in the Lean circle. His enthusiasm for the films comes through strongly.-- Kevin Brownlow, author of David Lean: A Biography" -- Kevin Brownlow, author of David Lean: A Biography

"Gene Phillips provides the final word--the definitive evaluation--of a great filmmaker and a fabulous showman. He carefully reveals the evolution and creation of several cinematic masterpieces.-- Lester Keyser, author of Hollywood in the Seventies" -- Lester Keyser, author of Hollywood in the Seventies

"An entertaining, in-depth look at Sir David's life and diverse career.... A welcome addition.-- Library Journal" -- Library Journal

"An entertaining, in-depth look at Sir David's life and diverse career.-- Library Journal" -- Library Journal

"Phillips brings out the person, the immense talent, and the consummate skills of the director.-- Midwest Book Review" -- Midwest Book Review

"[Gives] its subject a thorough treatment.-- San Antonio Current, Armchair Cinephile" -- San Antonio Current, Armchair Cinephile

"It's a step forward... for the legacy of the man who created The Bridge on the River Kwai, A Passage to India, and Lawrence of Arabia, 'the greatest film ever made.'-- The Week" -- The Week

"It takes a great author to write about a great film director. In Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean Gene Phillips matches the excellence and meticulous artistic care Lean brought to the cinema. Utilizing biography, analysis, criticism, historical background, journalistic reporting, and the inner-workings of the moviemake process, Phillips totally captures the total filmmaker. David Lean was a towering genius who demanded emotional and physical perfection as well as the freedom to make his human epics. Gene Phillips is a writer with wisdom, tenacity and the ability to write in the spirit of his subject. Reading Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean is like watching a David Lean film. Phillips takes us on a journey to a place beyond the formalities of filmmaking into the heart of the artistic process itself and into the soul of a true cinema artist. The result is beyond definitive and approaches the inner secrets of why movies are both magical and life altering.-- Vincent LoBrutto, author of Stanley Kubrick: A Biography and Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motions Pictures" -- Vincent LoBrutto, author of Stanley Kubrick: A Biography and Becoming Film L

"[Phillips] offers an in-depth examination of prominent filmmaker David Lean.--Partners" -- Partners

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (November 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813124158
• ISBN-13: 978-0813124155
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #527,198 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars career of the masterful director of Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, and other film classics, December 1, 2006

By	Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The film historian Phillips brings out the person, the immense talent, and the consummate skills of the director about whom one film critic wrote that David Lean's films were "too mammoth in scope and Olympian in style" for moviegoers, even students of the artistic genre, "to get an impression of the man behind the camera." Lean was an extraordinarily ambitious and skilled director who brought his particular, uncompromising touch to any movie he made. Among his movies are the panoramic classics "Dr. Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia"; "Great Expectations" and "Passage to India" adapted from major novels of different centuries; and the war movies "In Which We Serve" and "Bridge on the River Kwai." Lean worked with Alec Guiness, Katherine Hepburn, Omar Sharif, Charles Laughton, and Julie Andrews--all of whom acknowledged his indelible impact on their performances as well as the finished movie even though viewers were not distinctly aware of the director behind it, as they are in a Woody Allen or Alfred Hitchcock film for example. Phillips hones in on Lean's particular style and accomplishments by close readings of many of his 16 films. The author analyzes details of scenes from the films to cast light on Lean's techniques and masterful intentions; and he often notes commentary and critiques by critic, actors, and others for additional perspectives and appreciations of Lean's work. As his major, most memorable films show--"Lawrence of Arabia," for example--Lean was able to create and project romanticism, expansive emotions, genuine characters, and variously the sweep of history or the genius of literature without sensationalism or sentimentality. This is his characteristic, extraordinary, achievement in the world of film.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monumental book on David Lean, September 27, 2007

By	C. Santas (St. Augustine, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Gene D. Phillips's "Beyong the Epic: The Life & Films of David Lean" comes at a time of renewed interest in David Lean and his films, and puts perhaps the definitive stamp on this filmmaker's achievements. Though it often goes over the same ground as previous books have on Lean--especially the excellent biography by Kevin Brownlow (1996)--Phillips's book has assembled a mass of material from biographical, critical and other sources, including personal interviews with actors, colleagues and filmmakers who knew Lean, and has integrated these materials into an admirable whole, lucidly and painstaikingly evaluating the opus of Lean in its entirety. At last, Phillips offers the Lean devotees--and a broader audience--a remarkable book that places the cinematic achievemnts of David lean into proper perspective, balancing all the elements of a director whose directorial style and methods both attracted and repelled viewers and critics, some of whom still have not accorded Lean the high place he deserves among twentieth century filmmakers. Massive and minutely authenticated, tackling the knottiest problems head on, "Beyond the Epic" redresses critical lapses, and, without being maudlin or worshipful, presents an image of David Lean as, deservedly, one of the greatest narrative film directors of the twentieth century.