Great Expectations is a 1946 British film directed by David Lean. It is based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens. Alec Guinness and Martita Hunt reprised their roles in the film. It won two Academy Awards and was nominated for three others. In 1999, it was named the 5th greatest British film of all time.
About Great Expectations (1946 film) in brief
Great Expectations is a 1946 British film directed by David Lean. It is based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens. Alec Guinness and Martita Hunt reprised their roles in the film. It won two Academy Awards and was nominated for three others. The film is now regarded as one of Lean’s best. In 1999, it was named the 5th greatest British film of all time. It was the first of two films Lean directed based on Dickens’ novels, the other being his 1948 adaptation of Oliver Twist. The script was a slimmed-down version of Dickens’ novel – inspired after David Lean witnessed an abridged 1939 stage version of the novel, in which Guinness had played Herbert Pocket, and Hunt was Miss Havisham. Pip Pirrip is an orphan who falls in love with an old spinster. He is taken to London by a mysterious benefactor to learn how to behave like a gentleman. He meets an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, who reveals that he is Pip’s patron, having escaped again and made a fortune sheep-farming in New South Wales. Pip and Magwitch attempt to smuggle the old man onto a ship leaving England, but are intercepted by police.
Magwitch is sentenced to death and Pip visits his dying daughter, Estella, who is tipped off by Pip’s suspicion that she is his lost daughter, and tells him of her death. Pip leaves, but when she stands up to follow him, a piece of flaming wood from the fireplace rolls out and ignites her dress. Her screams alert Pip, who runs back to save her, but fails. Pip is then warned that Magwitch has been killed by an old man, and is forced to accompany him onto the ship to die. The ship arrives in England and Pip is taken in by police, who arrest Magwitch and put him on death row. He then visits Estella and is reunited with her, who tells him, “You must know, Pip, I have no heart.’’ The film was produced by Ronald Neame and photographed by Guy Green, and was shot on location in Sydney, Australia, in the summer of 1946. It has been released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK and the U.S. in the United States in the spring of 2013. The UK release date of the Blu-Ray and DVD of Great Expectations has yet to be announced.
You want to know more about Great Expectations (1946 film)?
This page is based on the article Great Expectations (1946 film) published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 15, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.