David Lean Archives

A Passage to India

Set during the period of growing influence of the Indian independence movement in the British Raj, the story begins with the arrival in India of a British woman, Miss Adela Quested, who is joining her fiancé, a city magistrate named Ronny Heaslop. She and Ronny's mother, Mrs. Moore, befriend an Indian doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed.

PG

6.9

1984 Adventure 163 min Play

7.3

Ryan’s Daughter

An Irish lass is branded a traitor when she falls for a British soldier.

NR

7.3

1970 Drama 206 min Play

7.5

Doctor Zhivago

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

PG-13

7.5

1965 Drama 200 min Play

8

Lawrence of Arabia

The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.

PG

8

1962 Adventure 227 min Play

7.8

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson , the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

PG

7.8

1957 Drama 161 min Play

6.9

Summertime

Middle-aged Ohio secretary Jane Hudson has never found love and has nearly resigned herself to spending the rest of her life alone. But before she does, she uses her savings to finance a summer in romantic Venice, where she finally meets the man of her dreams, the elegant Renato Di Rossi.

NR

6.9

1955 Drama 100 min Play

7.4

Hobson’s Choice

Henry Hobson owns and tyrannically runs a successful Victorian boot maker’s shop in Salford, England. A stingy widower with a weakness for overindulging in the local Moonraker Public House, he exploits his three daughters as cheap labour. When he declares that there will be ‘no marriages’ to avoid the expense of marriage settlements at £500 each, his eldest daughter Maggie rebels.

NR

7.4

1954 Comedy 107 min Play

6.8

The Sound Barrier

Fictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.

NR

6.8

1952 Drama 118 min Play

6.6

Madeleine

The middle-class family of a young woman cannot understand why she delays in marrying a respectable young man. They know nothing about her long-standing affair with a Frenchman.

NR

6.6

1950 Crime 114 min Play