David Lean is not quite at his best here like he was with Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and Brief Encounter, but Ryan's Daughter is a very good (though flawed film). It is better than most directors' later films and did not deserve the critical roasting it got.
There were a couple of things that weren't quite right with Ryan's Daughter. Christopher Jones, despite looking the part, is dreadfully stiff and wooden in his role, showing little involvement or range, by far the (only) weak link in the cast. And while the score from Maurice Jarre has its moments like the main theme, the tavern scene and the beach hallucination and is not bad music at all on its own, it is for me the weakest of his collaborations with Lean and doesn't fit within the film, sounding too inappropriately jaunty often (especially Michael's theme) in a film that would have benefited better with a lusher, more Celtic touch.
However, Ryan's Daughter is a beautiful-looking film, with grand settings, rich use of colours and Freddie Young's sweeping Oscar-winning cinematography (especially in the storm scene). It's superbly directed as ever by Lean, taking full advantage of the epic scope of the visuals and story and while deliberate he does succeed in making the story compelling and the characters interesting enough. The script from Robert Bolt is intelligent, witty and very thoughtful and never becomes over-the-top or slack, complete with a good balance of the personal, the historical and the political.
With the story, it's deliberate in pace but never interminably so and is often very moving (even if a few parts in the first half could have done with more meat), complete with the unforgettable storm scene. It is also one of Lean's more cohesive later stories, being less sprawling than Doctor Zhivago and less drifting than A Passage to India (which are also both fine films). The historical backdrop is very effective, more so I feel than Doctor Zhivago's, and the characters are interesting and intimate.
Apart from Jones, the performances are of a very high standard. Robert Mitchum was courageous casting and is a revelation in a different and gentler role to the tough guy roles he took on, while Sarah Miles is moving as one of the characters that evolves the most throughout the course of the story. Whether John Mills deserved his Oscar is up to debate, but what matters more to me was whether his performance is good and, while it is understandably one of the film's most divisive components, the almost unrecognisable Mills is very amusing and affecting as the village idiot. Leo McKern more than excellently portrays a hypocritical, cowardly and domineering father figure and Trevor Howard does a wonderful job providing the moral compass of the story. Barry Foster shows off briefly but is suitably intense and grittily dignified, likewise Gerald Sim's appearance is very brief but is very memorable.
Overall, a flawed but very good and undervalued (back then and now) film from David Lean. It may not be quite a masterpiece, but it is not even close to a disaster. 8/10 Bethany Cox
There were a couple of things that weren't quite right with Ryan's Daughter. Christopher Jones, despite looking the part, is dreadfully stiff and wooden in his role, showing little involvement or range, by far the (only) weak link in the cast. And while the score from Maurice Jarre has its moments like the main theme, the tavern scene and the beach hallucination and is not bad music at all on its own, it is for me the weakest of his collaborations with Lean and doesn't fit within the film, sounding too inappropriately jaunty often (especially Michael's theme) in a film that would have benefited better with a lusher, more Celtic touch.
However, Ryan's Daughter is a beautiful-looking film, with grand settings, rich use of colours and Freddie Young's sweeping Oscar-winning cinematography (especially in the storm scene). It's superbly directed as ever by Lean, taking full advantage of the epic scope of the visuals and story and while deliberate he does succeed in making the story compelling and the characters interesting enough. The script from Robert Bolt is intelligent, witty and very thoughtful and never becomes over-the-top or slack, complete with a good balance of the personal, the historical and the political.
With the story, it's deliberate in pace but never interminably so and is often very moving (even if a few parts in the first half could have done with more meat), complete with the unforgettable storm scene. It is also one of Lean's more cohesive later stories, being less sprawling than Doctor Zhivago and less drifting than A Passage to India (which are also both fine films). The historical backdrop is very effective, more so I feel than Doctor Zhivago's, and the characters are interesting and intimate.
Apart from Jones, the performances are of a very high standard. Robert Mitchum was courageous casting and is a revelation in a different and gentler role to the tough guy roles he took on, while Sarah Miles is moving as one of the characters that evolves the most throughout the course of the story. Whether John Mills deserved his Oscar is up to debate, but what matters more to me was whether his performance is good and, while it is understandably one of the film's most divisive components, the almost unrecognisable Mills is very amusing and affecting as the village idiot. Leo McKern more than excellently portrays a hypocritical, cowardly and domineering father figure and Trevor Howard does a wonderful job providing the moral compass of the story. Barry Foster shows off briefly but is suitably intense and grittily dignified, likewise Gerald Sim's appearance is very brief but is very memorable.
Overall, a flawed but very good and undervalued (back then and now) film from David Lean. It may not be quite a masterpiece, but it is not even close to a disaster. 8/10 Bethany Cox