The 19 movies credited to director David Lean include "Brief Encounter", Dickens movies "Oliver Twist" & "Great Expectations", "Hobson's Choice", "The Bridge On The River Kwai", "Lawrence Of Arabia & "Doctor Zhivago". Many of us film fans & critics alike regard him as the greatest movie director who ever lived & his credit list would certainly support that. So when "Ryan's Daughter" was released in 1970 it received such a battering from the critics that David Lean was terribly upset. So much so that he never made another movie until "A Passage To India" 14 years later, which was to be his last. The critics thought "Ryan's Daughter" a slight story that was both overblown & overlong. There may be some validity to their criticism regarding the story but, notwithstanding, it is still a visual work of art. Freddy Young's cinematography under Lean's direction is utterly magnificent as well as extremely beautiful which, for me & most people it seems, just make it a joy to watch. It is set in 1916 after the outbreak of WW1 in a village on the west coast of Ireland & stars Sarah Miles in the title role. She plays Rosy the daughter of local publican Thomas Ryan (Leo McKern). Much to her father's dismay Rosy marries middle-aged schoolmaster Charles Shaughnessy (Robert Mitchum), whose first wife died young. She finds her marriage not as fulfilling as she hoped for & begins an affair with a handsome British army officer (Christopher Jones). He has been posted to Ireland after receiving a serious leg injury in the war in Europe & also suffers from shell-shock. John Mills won his only Oscar playing the village idiot Michael & Trevor Howard is also memorable playing the dour, down-to-earth village vicar Father Collins. For anyone who has never seen this movie, take no notice of the critics. As Tony the Tiger said, IT'S GRRRRREAT!!!.

I have trouble with Ryan's Daughter . It is astoundingly beautiful (esp. in 70mm in the cinema). At its heart it is a story of a woman trapped in a violent time and suffocating society symbolised by her marriage. I don't really quite know how to express this: I have never liked films where there is mob violence. But is it a sign that Lean succeeded when I say I find these elements of this film disturbing? The sequence when the mob attacks Rosy are truly horrible.As for those who accuse Lean of racism I ask how would Rosy have fared in Derry in 1971?This is a dark story really,despite the beauty of the scenery, a story of deep seated hatred, of sexual repression and of treason. With those themes in play how is this a small story as some critics state.Whether Lean and his cast bring it all off I do not know. Sarah Miles has never been a favourite actress of mine but in this she glows on screen. Mills is really fine as is Howard and McKern but Mitchum never quite convinced me.Christopher Jones seems to have had problems with the part and Lean was unhappy but in many ways he is perfect. He is a cypher. A symbol of an outside world. Little more.It is ironic that he and Sarah Miles reportedly did not get along at all.But in the end this is an exquisitely made film. Lean was always a great craftsman. So in the end I still do not know what I think about Ryan's Daughter. I do know it makes me think about the themes at its heart. Is that a sign of the success of Lean? Perhaps.I am sure critics will keep arguing about it for another 40 years.

Lean's Ryan's Daughter is sadly undervalued by many as they thought him past his best, when, five years after Doctor Zhivago, he constructed a whole new village on the Dingle Peninsular on the west coast of Ireland and spent over a year on his indulgence.This beautifully filmed epic, on 70mm negative, might not have the cold harshness of Zhivago, or the scorching majesty of Lawrence of Arabia, but still remains my very favourite film set in and filmed in Ireland.John Mills, as the village idiot steals every scene he's in and leaves us his legacy as a very adaptable actor and Trevor Howard, as a priest. In a brave casting, Robert Mitchum is the teacher who is married to the beautiful and beguiling Sarah Miles, whom she finds his lack of husbandly attention responsible to her becoming attracted to others. The film, a first for Lean, is rated as '15' for a very tasteful outdoor sex scene that involves Miss Miles....The political agenda is always bubbling away, set in both World War 1 and the Uprising, with the locals even siding with the Germans, so anti- British was the feeling. Leo McKern, as the village's Publican, who poses as a Republican and such was Lean's quest for reality that there's actual bloody injury detail incurred during a real storm that the director insisted they filmed in. That it wasn't edited out afterward is also testament to Lean's personal stamp on his cherished creation.Perhaps the star of Ryan's Daughter will always be Freddie Francis' Oscar winning cinematography - the backdrops really are akin to giant, living canvasses. However, unlike the majority of Lean's epics, only two Academy Awards were scooped, the other going to the deserving John Mills.

I am struggling with this review more than usual because there is a lot to like about this film and I don't want to dismiss it too quickly or tell you not to see it. No, my advice is to see it but understand its limitations and try to look past them.This basic story is that of "Madame Bovary"--which, coincidentally, I watched just a week ago. Like Bovary, the main character in "Ryan's Daughter" (Sarah Miles) is a rather immature and emotionally shallow lady who ruins her life with an affair. But, there are many, many changes from the original tale--the least of which is relocating the tale to Northern Ireland during WWI. Instead of the somewhat moralistic and depressing ending, "Ryan's Daughter" has an oddly vague ending where no one at all dies! Yet, in Bovary (at least the book), practically everyone is dead by the time the book is complete! The biggest change, however, is that David Lean has managed to stretch this story--making it very, very long and rather slow-paced. This isn't all bad--as the film is a delight to the senses with its amazing cinematography and scenery. Despite criticism by reviewers at the time about the pacing, I don't think this is THAT serious a problem. Yes, it's too slow, but made so beautifully that I could easily look past this.So what, then, are the more serious problems? Well, the number one problem is the exact same one you'll find in Bovary--there really are no likable characters in the tale. The title character and her father (Leo McKern) are, frankly, 100% awful and easy to hate. Even the wronged husband (Robert Mitchum) is easy to dislike after a while because he's such a flaccid jerk--no man is THAT long-suffering unless he's an idiot! Less serious, but still a problem, is the seriously confusing character of the Priest (Trevor Howard). He is so inconsistent and much of what he says and does seems as if it was drawn from a hat--especially the ending where he admonishes the husband NOT to divorce his slutty wife! Why?! A real priest might have admonished the man not to murder her, perhaps! The third problem is the music. While at times it's wonderful, too often it's used inappropriately--practically destroying scenes by dominating the film. It's used, at times, like a sledgehammer.Now despite these serious story problems, see this film. I nearly gave it an 8 but after thinking it over, I realized that serious plot problems can't be ignored...not when they are that pervalent. What did I like? Well, other than the amazing cinematography, I thought the acting was almost universally exceptional. While some complain about Mitchum's accent, I thought he was just fine--even if he played way against type (a typical Mitchum character would have kicked butt, that's for sure). Sarah Miles was great. I was not bowled over by John Mills' performance to understand why he got an Oscar--but he was still very good. Leo McKern was fantastic. But why Christopher Jones?! First, they had to dub him. Second, he and his character were totally wooden (no this is not meant as an innuendo but a comment about his leg). You could NOT understand why Miles fell for such a man...a man with almost no discernible personality. I did like the townspeople and their reaction to the revelations about the adultery was exciting and savage. And so, despite flaws, there is so much to admire about the film--and I'm glad I saw it.A final word of caution. The film is about adultery and features some adult sex scenes--think about this before letting young kids watch it.