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One of the great translations of literature into film, David Lean’s Great Expectations brings Charles Dickens’ masterpiece to robust onscreen life. Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella populate Lean’s magnificent miniature, beautifully photographed by Guy Green and production designed by John Bryan to evoke Dickens’ 19th-century London. Academy Award® winner for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration.Click here for more Criterion favorites!
Editor's Note
David Lean directs this definitive version of the Charles Dickens classic about an orphaned British boy befriended by a mysterious benefactor who enables him to become a gentleman of means. In nineteenth century London, in the gloom of a country graveyard, a young boy encounters an escaped convict, a chance meeting that years later leads the boy to mysterious adventure, wealth and joy.
Plot Summary
This 1946 film is the definitive version of the classic Charles Dickens story of Pip, an orphaned British boy who is befriended by a mysterious benefactor who enables him to become a gentleman of means. Director Lean deftly represents Dickens' disdain for the iniquities of Victorian society. This sentiment rang particularly true when the film was released the year after the war in Britain, when Britain had just elected a labor government. In a style resembling horror films, starting with a straight narration of Dickens's first two pages, through the scenes of Miss Havisham's decaying petrified and cobwebbed house, we are caught in a narrative that is both heart wrenching and socially relevant. Lean's achievement is in setting once-in-a-lifetime performances in a vibrant narrative that maintains rich detail but never bogs down. Considered by many to be among the greatest films ever made.
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