Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Trivia
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Spoilers (2)
During the filming of the movie on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland's County Kerry, Robert Mitchum planted marijuana plants in the back garden of the hotel used by the production cast and crew, and gave many of the people connected with the production, including Sarah Miles' mother, and the local constabulary, their first experiences with the drug.
As problematic as the production was, Robert Mitchum said that he felt his performance in the movie ranked amongst his best, that Sir David Lean was one of the best directors with whom he had worked, and that he regretted the movie was so poorly received.
Christopher Jones and Sarah Miles did not get along. Not only was Jones in mourning for his close friend (and possibly ex-girlfriend) Sharon Tate, who was murdered by the Manson family during production, but he was also engaged to Olivia Hussey (said engagement was ultimately broken off), and was simply not attracted to Miles. At one point, Miles conspired with Robert Mitchum to drug Jones' breakfast to make him get over his disgust at filming the scene where Rosy and Doryan have a tryst in the forest, but Mitchum overdid the dosage, rendering Jones nearly catatonic for filming of the scene and leading him to believe he was having a nervous breakdown. A combination of grief over Tate's death and his negative experience working on this movie prompted Jones to retire from acting. He only made one other movie. His performance was one of the most criticized aspects of this movie.
While filming in Ireland, they ran out of sunshine, so they shot quite a few of the beach scenes at Noordhoek Beach, located a few miles from Cape Town in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. Those scenes are easy to identify because the sky is particularly bright and clear, and the beach sand exceptionally white and fine.
The movie's long gestation did not endear Sir David Lean to MGM, who soon regretted giving Lean carte blanche after Doctor Zhivago (1965). At one point, MGM President James Aubrey arrived in Ireland to demand that Lean pick up the pace. Lean responded by shutting down production until Aubrey left the country.
Robert Mitchum was widely felt to be badly miscast as a timid, frigid Irish schoolteacher. Director Sir David Lean believed that casting against type made movies more interesting.
MGM was expecting this movie to repeat the huge success of Doctor Zhivago (1965), and unveiled it with a suitably lavish publicity campaign and roadshow release. Unfortunately, the movie was roundly savaged by critics, who complained it was too big a scale for its modest love story. Director Sir David Lean took this criticism extremely personally; at a meeting of New York City movie critics, he was confronted by Pauline Kael, Richard Schickel, and others who reacted quite negatively to the film. It eventually turned a profit, but fell short of MGM's hopes for a massive blockbuster. Lean was so hurt by this, he wouldn't make another movie for fourteen years.
Robert Bolt wrote the part of Father Collins with Sir Alec Guinness in mind. Guinness, a staunch Catholic, sent director Sir David Lean a long list of objections he had to the character's portrayal. Lean reportedly said "Thank you for being so frank," and then offered the part to Trevor Howard, who accepted.
Robert Mitchum was undergoing a personal crisis at the time. He told Sir David Lean that he was seriously contemplating suicide when he was cast. When screenwriter Robert Bolt heard of this, he told Mitchum that as long as he finished "working on this wretched little film" first, he would pay for his burial.
It is rumored that Sir David Lean was reportedly so emotionally devastated by critic Pauline Kael's scathing review of this movie, he retreated for a 14-year directorial hiatus until he made A Passage to India (1984).
Screenwriter Robert Bolt's original idea was to make a movie of Madame Bovary, starring Sarah Miles. Sir David Lean read the script and said that he did not find it interesting, but suggested to Bolt that he would like to re-work it into another setting.
Reportedly, many people, including Sarah Miles, felt Trevor Howard, rather than John Mills, should have won Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Sir David Lean had to wait for a year for a suitably dramatic storm to strike the Irish coast for a pivotal scene in which the villagers wade into the sea to retrieve a shipment of weapons intended for the I.R.A.
Sir David Lean had difficulty casting the role of Major Randolph Doryan. Lean wanted to work with Marlon Brando, but he was not offered the role. Lean cast Christopher Jones after seeing him in The Looking Glass War (1970), not knowing that Jones' voice had been dubbed. Jones proved to be a disaster during filming, which explains the monosyllabism of his character, and the loquaciousness of his aide-de-camp, who had to pick up the slack, as Jones simply could not act. Jones' voice was eventually dubbed by Julian Holloway.
Sir John Mills was the first actor cast in this movie. He happened to be vacationing in Rome when Sir David Lean and Robert Bolt began developing the project. Lean (who lived in Venice at the time) met Mills in Rome and offered him the role of the village idiot. Mills accepted, though he remarked that he felt the role was "typecasting."
Sir David Lean had been unable to film actual love scenes in Brief Encounter (1945) and Doctor Zhivago (1965) due to the censorship at the time. However, the moral climate had changed enough in the seventies to show the sex scene between Rosy and Randolph. Unfortunately, Christopher Jones had great difficulties getting into character, did not get along with his co-star Sarah Miles, and flat-out refused to film the scene in an explicit way. This is the reason why the scene consists mainly of close-ups of the couple, interspersed with shots of wind-swept trees and rustling leaves.
While filming on the coast, director Sir David Lean and the camera crew were plagued by spray from the Atlantic ocean landing on the lens and ruining each take. Cinematographer Freddie Young asked the Panavision camera company if they could do anything about it. Their engineers designed a spinning disc that fitted in front of the lens and was in sync with the camera shutter which solved the problem.
Sarah Miles was suggested for Lara in Sir David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965), but screenwriter Robert Bolt dismissed her as a "north country slut." Not only was she cast in this movie, but she and Bolt were married.
The village of "Kirrary" was built just for this movie and dismantled afterwards, shops, schoolhouse, church, pub, post office, et cetera. Two hundred workmen built it, all using slate and twenty thousand tons of granite from a dozen local quarries. Anything less substantial wouldn't have stood up to the Atlantic gales. Many buildings had fitted interiors, ceilings, lighting, plumbing, and even working fireplaces and chimneys.
Leo McKern nearly drowned and nearly lost his glass eye to the rough seas during the storm scene.
Because of his negative experience working on this movie, Leo McKern gave up acting for two years.
The fictional village of "Kirrary," which was specifically built for this movie, was demolished shortly after filming. The reason for it was due to two feuding real-life landowners who quarreled over the site where "Kirrary" stood. MGM generously donated the set when the shoot was completed, and it would have been a major tourist attraction in Ireland, had it remained.
Various accidents occurred during filming. Christopher Jones totalled his sports car on a winding road, Trevor Howard was hospitalized after falling off a horse, frogmen saved Howard and Sir John Mills from drowning when a fishing boat scene went wrong, and two vehicles sank in a peat bog.
Sir David Lean ultimately fell out with Robert Mitchum to the extent that all communication between director and actor was carried out through Sarah Miles. Mitchum later compared working with the notoriously perfectionist director to "having to build a Taj Mahal out of toothpicks."
Trevor Howard was undergoing marital difficulties during filming. When his wife Helen paid a visit to Ireland, but stormed out of a party after an argument with him, she was nearly killed in a car accident on the treacherous narrow, winding roads.
Sir John Mills told the story that he took delivery of a new Rolls-Royce convertible during filming. He took it for a drive while completely made up for his role as Michael. He was stopped by the police and had to prove his identity.
Paul Scofield was offered the role of Charles Shaughnessy, but turned it down. Producer Sir Anthony James Allan Havelock-Allan then suggested Gregory Peck, who was of Irish descent, and reportedly enthusiastic for the role, but director Sir David Lean turned him down as being too typecast.
The role of Major Doryan was written for Marlon Brando. Brando accepted, but problems with the production of Queimada (1969) forced him to drop out.
The preview cut, which ran to three hours and 43 minutes, was criticized for its length and poor pacing. Director Sir David Lean felt obliged to remove up to 17 minutes of footage before the wide release, and the missing footage has not been restored or located.
Peter O'Toole was considered for Michael and Doryan but turned down both parts.
This was the last theatrical movie photographed entirely in the 65mm Super Panavision format until Far and Away (1992), which was shot largely at the same locations.
Christopher Jones said in later interviews that the main reason for his poor performance was the murder of Sharon Tate, which occurred during filming. He had had a secret affair with her in Rome in 1968, and was devastated by her loss.
Julie Christie turned down the role of Rosy Ryan.
Some criticized this movie as an attempt to blacken the legacy of the 1916 Easter Rising, and the subsequent Irish War of Independence in relation to the eruption of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland at the time of this movie's release, but approval of the project had started a few years before the Troubles.
Villagers from the town of Dunquin were hired as extras. The area was at the time economically destitute, but the amount of money spent in the town, nearly £1 million, revived the local economy and led to increased immigration to the Dingle Peninsula. Disputes over land meant the entire village was razed after filming. The schoolhouse still exists, but in a ruined state.
Christopher Jones was dubbed by Julian Holloway.
Gregory Peck was very keen to play the role of Charles Shaughnessy. His grandmother Catherine Ashe was from County Kerry where the movie was shot, and her cousin Thomas Ashe was a key figure in the Irish Revolution depicted in the story.
Filming was done on the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland. The view of the bay from the shore early in the film features the sharply peaked Tearaght Island in the distance. This island was the first European feature recognized by Charles Lindbergh on his transatlantic flight in 1927 - from the other side, out over the water. That view can be seen in the film "The Spirit of St. Louis".
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) originally gave this movie an "R" rating instead of MGM's desired "GP" (now PG), due to the love scene between Rosy and Doryan, as well as themes involving infidelity. Although MGM argued that the sex scene was tasteful and there was a lot more nudity in other movies that were rated "GP," the primary motivation was to save the hurting studio. MGM was in serious debt at the time, and studio executives argued that they needed the less-restrictive "GP" in order to increase ticket sales; otherwise, MGM would not survive it. MGM even threatened to leave the MPAA if the rating was not lowered. The MPAA relented and passed this movie with the "GP" rating. When MGM re-submitted this movie to the MPAA in 1996, it was re-rated "R."
According to producer Sir Anthony James Allan Havelock-Allan, the availability dates of Sarah Miles and Robert Mitchum made pre-production something of a rush, preventing Sir David Lean from assembling a proper shooting script.
When this movie was finally completed, MGM claimed to have $5 million for promotion, but producer Sir Anthony James Allan Havelock-Allan said the studio's financial woes made publicity almost non-existent.
Features the only Oscar nominated performances of Sarah Miles and Sir John Mills (for which he won Best Actor in a Supporting Role).
This movie was the fourth most successful movie at the U.S. box office in 1970, taking in over $13 million in rentals.
This was the final British movie to be shot in 65mm until Hamlet (1996), in which Sir John Mills (Michael) appeared.
Richard Burton, Sir Richard Harris, and Peter O'Toole were considered for the role of Major Randolph Doryan.
Sir Anthony Hopkins, George C. Scott, and Patrick McGoohan were considered for the lead role, but not approached.
Major Doryan is wearing the ribbon for the Victoria Cross, the highest British decoration for extraordinary courage, equivalent to the American Medal of Honor. The appearance of the award went through several changes. The Major wears a ribbon version that is plain crimson, without the miniature version of the actual medal. That device was added in 1917, the year of the film.
Theatrical movie debut of Niall O'Brien (Bernard).
This movie is set in 1916. Robert Mitchum was born in 1917.
Robert Shaw was considered for the role of Tim O'Leary. A few years later, Shaw and Sarah Miles starred The Hireling (1973).
At the American premiere, after Charles and Rosy make desultory love on their wedding night, a woman rose up in the audience and shouted "Goddamn it are you trying to tell me Bob Mitchum is a lousy lay?"
Spoilers
In the scene before Major Doryan (Christopher Jones) commits suicide, there is a cut from a sunset to Charles striking a match, which is a sly allusion to Lawrence of Arabia (1962) with its famous cut from Peter O'Toole blowing out a match to a sunrise in the desert.
This movie takes its inspiration from Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary." Although set in peasant-class Ireland, as opposed to middle-class France, in addition to the basic plot of a bored young wife taking a lover, other characters such as the girl's father and the priest are loosely inspired by the novel, in addition to the "ride in the woods" sequence. However, there is no traitor in "Madame Bovary," no one takes vengeance on her, and nobody takes poison in this movie.
