22. David Lean
Many great directors such as Cecil B. Demille, William Wyler, Peter Jackson, and James Cameron, have been known as great directors of epics, but few have ever been more versatile, groundbreaking, and talented across the whole spectrum of filmmaking as was David Lean. He began his career adapting novels and plays which resulted in some very acclaimed early works such as a very well-received adaption of Great Expectations and an adaption of Noel Coward's play Still Life which was renamed Brief Encounter and has become one of the most acclaimed films in British history. His success allowed him to go on to make the epics which he became legendary for, first as director of the internationally produced Bridge on the River Kwai and finally on Lawrence of Arabia, arguably the all-time greatest screen epic and one of the most impressive accomplishments in film history. His next epic was Dr. Zhivago in 1965 which, although was not as impressive as some of his other works, was one of the highest grossing films of all-time. His output slowly decreased in quantity and quality after that but he still turned out epics such as Ryan's Daughter in 1970 and A Passage to India in 1984. Even though he was nominated seven times for Best Director at the Oscars, Lean has always more appreciated by other directors than by critics, as they can better appreciate the massive undertaking that many of his films must have been. Many of his films, most notably Lawrence of Arabia, were filmed on location and they often had huge casts of extras. His films were epic in both size and scope and he made them with such technical proficiency and storytelling ability that many of them remain popular with ordinary filmgoers even today, fifty years after they were made.