"Widely regarded as one of the cinema's most accomplished directors, David Lean helmed such classics as Brief encounter, Great expectations, and Oliver Twist. He twice received the Academy Award for best director, and two of his films - The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia - won the Oscar for best pictures. . . Santas argues that the epics show a progression and refirnment of Lean's work and are thematicallty broader and and feature more complex characterization than his earlier films." -- book cover.