Editing David Lean (section)

====For MGM====

Lean had his greatest box-office success with ''[[Doctor Zhivago (film)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' (1965), a romance set during the [[Russian Revolution]]. The film, based on the Soviet suppressed novel by Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet [[Boris Pasternak]], tells the story of a brilliant and warm-hearted physician and poet ([[Omar Sharif]]) who, while seemingly happily married into the Russian aristocracy, and a father, falls in love with a beautiful abandoned young mother named Lara ([[Julie Christie]]) and struggles to be with her in the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution and subsequent [[Russian Civil War]].
[[File:Lean-and-Sharif-in-Joensuu-1965.jpg|alt=Lean-and-Sharif-in-Joensuu-1965|thumb|Lean and [[Omar Sharif]] arriving to Joensuu, Finland, to shoot ''[[Doctor Zhivago (film)|Doctor Zhivago]]'', March 1965]]

Initially, reviews for ''Doctor Zhivago'' were lukewarm, but critics have since come to see it as one of Lean's best films, with film director [[Paul Greengrass]] calling it "one of the great masterpieces of cinema".<ref>[http://www.bafta.org/media-centre/transcripts/paul-greengrass-david-lean-lecture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804133501/http://www.bafta.org/media-centre/transcripts/paul-greengrass-david-lean-lecture|date=4 August 2017}}. "Paul Greengrass: David Lean Lecture|BAFTA". Retrieved 28 May 2017.</ref> {{as of|2020}}, it is the 9th highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. Producer [[Carlo Ponti]] used [[Maurice Jarre|Maurice Jarre']]s [[Doctor Zhivago (soundtrack)|lush romantic score]] to create a pop tune called "[[Lara's Theme]]", which became an international hit song with lyrics under the title "Somewhere My Love", one of cinema's most successful theme songs. The British director of photography, [[Freddie Young]], won an Academy Award for his colour cinematography. Around the same time, Lean also directed some scenes of ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]'' (1965) while [[George Stevens]] was committed to location work in Nevada.

Lean's ''[[Ryan's Daughter]]'' (1970) was released after an extended period on location in Ireland. A doomed romance set against the backdrop of 1916 Ireland's struggles against the British, it is loosely based on [[Gustave Flaubert]]'s ''[[Madame Bovary]]''. Starring the aging Hollywood 'bad boy' [[Robert Mitchum]] in an uncharacteristic role as a long-suffering Irish husband and British actress [[Sarah Miles]] as his faithless young wife, the film received far fewer positive reviews than the director's previous work, being particularly savaged by the New York critics. Some critics felt the film's massive visual scale on gorgeous Irish beaches and extended running time did not suit its small-scale romantic narrative. Nonetheless, the film was a box office success, earning $31 million and making it the 8th highest-grossing film of that year. It won two Academy Awards the following year, another for cinematographer [[Freddie Young]] and for supporting actor [[John Mills]] in his role as a village halfwit.

The poor critical reception of the film prompted Lean to meet with the [[National Society of Film Critics]], gathered at the [[Algonquin Hotel]] in New York, including ''[[The New Yorker]]''{{'s}} [[Pauline Kael]], and ask them why they objected to the movie. "I sensed trouble from the moment I sat down", Lean says of the now famous luncheon. [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] critic [[Richard Schickel]] asked Lean point blank how he, the director of ''Brief Encounter'', could have made "a piece of bullshit" like ''Ryan's Daughter''.<ref>Wolcott, James (April 1997). "Waiting for Godard". Vanity Fair (Conde Nast)</ref> These critics so lacerated the film for two hours to David Lean's face that the devastated Lean was put off from making films for a long time. "They just took the film to bits", said Lean in a later television interview. "It really had such an awful effect on me for several years&nbsp;... you begin to think that maybe they're right. Why on earth am I making films if I don't have to? It shakes one's confidence terribly."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvB-u7vVZus|title=David Lean on the critical reaction to Ryan's Daughter|website=[[YouTube]]|date=25 June 2014 |access-date=26 July 2016|archive-date=5 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105003914/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvB-u7vVZus|url-status=live}}</ref>