Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 19, 1991 TAG: 9104190232
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Despite the fact that they lived on a picture-book spread named Yellow Breeches Farm, they were my citified relatives who regularly trotted the globe.
While my accent - one that I have proudly clung to since - was the object of much merriment wherever I went, overall it was a pleasant stay. I worked the bird dogs, fished for bass and drove the farm jeep. My aunt, fearful that I was all but lost to hickdom, attempted to counter with a flurry of cosmopolitan activities. The highlight was an insider's tour of Philadelphia, including lunch at Wanamaker's department store, with its huge pipe organ and delicious crab cakes.
One of our trips included a visit to the first shopping-mall movie theater I ever saw. It was a no-frills operation, but the screen was the largest I had ever seen. The movie was "Lawrence of Arabia," shown in mind-boggling Cinerama. It hit me like a bolt of lightning.
It was truly a memorable movie experience. I wheedled a trip back the next day and again sat spellbound for every second of its considerable length.
I was a veteran movie-goer by then, but I don't think I had ever sensed the power of cinema until this blockbuster biography of a severely disturbed and heroic British desert warrior. No doubt, there are other movie lovers with similar memories.
The image of Peter O'Toole striding across the vast Arabian desert to the strains of Maurice Jarre's unforgettable theme has engraved itself in many memories.
David Lean, the movie's director, was the master of such images. Lean died Tuesday at 83, a war horse at work. He was planning a film version of Joseph Conrad's "Nostromo."
Lean's trademark was the sweeping epic, and he approached every subject that way from the simple story of adultery in "Ryan's Daughter" to E.M. Forster's subtle and complex story of cultures in story, "A Passage to India."
His adaptation of Boris Pasternak's love story, "Doctor Zhivago," is one of the most popular movies of all time.
Yet his two best movies may be the ones about British soldiers whose heroism is counter-balanced by their peculiarity - "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai."
After the critically panned "Ryan's Daughter," Lean stayed away from moviemaking for 14 years. But he came back with "A Passage to India" in 1984, which was well-received.
Lean was an intelligent filmmaker with an appreciation for the literate. And he was a great visual stylist.
When the final credits rolled on one of his pictures, there was no doubt that you had seen a Movie with a capital M.
by CNB