Editing David Lean (section)

====For Columbia and Sam Spiegel====

Lean's films now began to become infrequent but much larger in scale and more extensively released internationally. ''[[The Bridge on the River Kwai]]'' (1957) was based on a novel by [[Pierre Boulle]] recounting the story of British and American prisoners of war trying to survive in a Japanese prison camp during the [[Second World War]]. The film stars [[William Holden]] and [[Alec Guinness]] and became the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States. It won seven [[Academy Awards]], including [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]], and [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] for [[Alec Guinness]], who had battled with Lean to give more depth to his role as an obsessively correct British commander who is determined to build the best possible bridge for his Japanese captors in Burma.

After extensive location work in the Middle East, [[North Africa]], [[Spain]], and elsewhere, Lean's ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]'' was released in 1962. This was the first project of Lean's with a screenplay by playwright [[Robert Bolt]], rewriting an original script by [[Michael Wilson (writer)|Michael Wilson]] (one of the two blacklisted writers of ''Bridge on the River Kwai''). It recounts the life of [[T. E. Lawrence]], the British officer who is depicted in the film as uniting the squabbling Bedouin peoples of the Arab peninsula to fight in [[World War I]] and then push on for independence.

After some hesitation, Alec Guinness appeared here in his fourth David Lean film as the Arab leader Prince Faisal, despite his misgivings from their conflicts on ''Bridge on the River Kwai''. French composer [[Maurice Jarre]], on his first Lean film, created a soaring film score with a famous theme and won his first Oscar for Best Original Score. The film turned actor [[Peter O'Toole]], playing Lawrence, into an international star. Lean was nominated for ten Oscars, winning seven, including two for Best Director. Lean remains the only British director to win more than one Oscar for directing.