David Lean vs Stanley Kubrick

[An4h0ny]

I feel like this is saying... who's the better band... MC5 or Yes.

Panic! At The Disco or the Avett Brothers?

I'm not thread crapping. Just pointing out that they are so different stylistically and for how they have influenced those who came after.

You can see a lot of David Lean & Freddie Young influence in cinema today. I thought of them while watching Dune and Eternals. Those big wide slow tracking gorgeous establishing shots. Lean & Young didn't invent them, but they sure did innovate some neat tricks and really manage to elevate their work to some incredible levels. Their influence feels very substantive and bedrock to me. Foundational in scope like DeMille or Hitchcock.

Kubrick's influence (imo) is more about the style of filmmaking. I feel like it's almost impossible to tease out his impact on any newer film because it's so ubiquitous and embedded in the language of film now. Whatever genre Kubrick worked in, he impacted greatly. Horror, sci-fi, noir, dystopian, black comedy, period drama and of course Anti-War.

Both are masters. Two things weight this in favor of Lean being more influential with directors.

#1 Lean was directing before Kubrick and has a slightly larger body of work.
#2. Kubrick has never been shy about pointing to Lean as an influence.

But who's better? That's beyond my ability to determine. Kubrick is definitely on my all time favorite directors list. I enjoy his films more on a visceral and emotional level. Lean's films are beautiful but more classically composed and elevated.

Just my .02.

“There are very few directors, about whom you’d say you automatically have to see everything they do. I’d put Fellini, Bergman and David Lean at the head of my first list, and Truffaut at the head of the next level.” -Stanley Kubrick (1966)

Stanley Kubrick Letter Discovered After 60 Years Reveals His Own Plan for ‘Doctor Zhivago’ Epic
https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...medium=twitter