David Lean’s Great Expectations: One of the Greatest Films Ever Made
The Dickens adaptation yardstick by which all others must be judged.
Warning: Contains spoilers
Charles Dickens’s masterpiece Great Expectations has been adapted many times on film, but David Lean’s magisterial 1946 version towers far above them all. 75 years later, it remains a landmark in cinema, packed with unforgettable images and one of the greatest films ever made. It is also an exemplary, textbook page-to-screen translation, illustrating exactly how Dickens should be approached on film: Atmospheric, witty, fast-paced, and faithful to the spirit.
David Lean famously said he didn’t believe in realism for realism’s sake and that films should feel like dreams. By that definition, Great Expectations is a lyrical dream rendered in beautiful monochrome by one of cinema’s greatest visual poets. Every frame is infused with potent cinematic magic.
“Keep still you little devil or I’ll cut your throat!”
The opening sequence alone has to be one of the most overwhelmingly vivid reels of celluloid in existence. Young Pip (Tony Wager) visits the grave of his parents amid bleak Kent marshes. A creaking tree looms overhead. Pip becomes frightened, his imagination plays tricks, and he runs……
