Lewis Gilbert: master craftsman who went beyond Bond with a 'working class trilogy' | Peter Bradshaw

Gilbert, who has died aged 97, may have been best known for his three 007 films, but it’s the films he made about working class life that are his great achievement

Lewis Gilbert was the brilliant master-craftsman of the postwar cinema, whose staggeringly prolific career epitomised the technique, professionalism and dash that made British moviemaking tradecraft respected everywhere. He started in wartime film units and the British studio system, making war movies with tremendous elan and punch, like Reach for the Sky and Sink the Bismarck!, and also comedies and character dramas like The Admirable Crichton and The Greengage Summer, which were robustly confident and terrifically watchable. He also famously took the helm of three very successful Bond movies, one with Connery, two with Moore: You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, maintaining that uniquely British brand with wit and clout.

Related: Lewis Gilbert obituary

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2GScNyt