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Ryan's Daughter

  • 19701970
  • RR
  • 3h 20m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
10K
YOUR RATING
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Trailer two
Play trailer2:15
2 Videos
50 Photos
DramaRomance
Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
10K
YOUR RATING
    • David Lean
    • Robert Bolt(original screenplay by)
  • Stars
    • Robert Mitchum
    • Trevor Howard
    • John Mills
    • David Lean
    • Robert Bolt(original screenplay by)
  • Stars
    • Robert Mitchum
    • Trevor Howard
    • John Mills
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 140User reviews
    • 47Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 2 Oscars

    Videos2

    Ryan's Daughter
    Trailer 2:15
    Watch Ryan's Daughter
    Ryan's Daughter
    Trailer 2:55
    Watch Ryan's Daughter

    Photos50

    John Mills in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    John Mills in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, Leo McKern, and Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Robert Mitchum, David Lean, and Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Douglas Sheldon in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Christopher Jones and Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Christopher Jones and Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Christopher Jones and Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, Barry Jackson, Leo McKern, and Arthur O'Sullivan in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter (1970)
    l to r: Freddie Young, Christopher Jones, Jonathan Burrows

    Top cast

    Edit
    Robert Mitchum
    Robert Mitchum
    • Charles
    Trevor Howard
    Trevor Howard
    • Father Collins
    John Mills
    John Mills
    • Michael
    Christopher Jones
    Christopher Jones
    • Major Doryan
    Leo McKern
    Leo McKern
    • Thomas Ryan
    Sarah Miles
    Sarah Miles
    • Rosy
    Barry Foster
    Barry Foster
    • Tim O'Leary
    Marie Kean
    Marie Kean
    • Mrs. McCardle
    Arthur O'Sullivan
    • Mr. McCardle
    Evin Crowley
    Evin Crowley
    • Moureen
    Douglas Sheldon
    Douglas Sheldon
    • Driver
    Gerald Sim
    Gerald Sim
    • Captain
    Barry Jackson
    Barry Jackson
    • Corporal
    Des Keogh
    • Lanky Private
    Niall Toibin
    Niall Toibin
    • O'Keefe
    Philip O'Flynn
    • Paddy
    Donal Neligan
    • Moureen's Boyfriend
    Brian O'Higgins
    • Constable O'Connor
      • David Lean
      • Robert Bolt(original screenplay by)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      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.
    • Goofs
      As he is driving Major Doryan to the camp, the corporal asks him if he had been in the Second Battle of the Marne. The Second Battle of the Marne was fought in July and August of 1918 near the end of WWI while events in Ryan's Daughter are set in 1916 not long after the Easter Rising.
    • Quotes

      Father Collins: Don't nurse your dreams, Rosy. You can't help having them, but don't nurse them. Because if you nurse your dreams, they tend to come true.

    • Alternate versions
      The general release version omits the Overture, Intermission, and Exit Music, bringing the running time down to 195 minutes. The roadshow version is what appears on most laserdisc and VHS releases, along with the DVD version.
    • Connections
      Edited into Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
    • Soundtracks
      Mary of the Curling Hair
      (uncredited)

      Traditional

    User reviews140

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Nothing short of a masterpiece.
    So who's right? Is it a dull, lumbering vehicle with beautiful photography and little else, or is it nothing short of a masterpiece?

    Nothing short of a masterpiece.

    So what explains the critical shellacking it got back in the 1970s, and the lazy kicks in the ribs it continues to get today? I have only a weak suggestion, scarcely an explanation at all:

    It was the zeitgeist. The early 1970s - although the trend really began in the late 1960s - saw the rise of a dreary, kitchen-sink style of film-making which is easiest to recognise by its dingy cinematography (although that's not all here is to it); it was the style in which the young lions of 1970s American cinema (Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and if "THX-1138" is the kind of film people say it is, George Lucas) made their name. It's true that time has not been kind to this style, and that the greatest films of the 1970s (like this one) owe nothing to it, but to be fair, it IS possible to make good films in this style, and a few such were made. The greatest asset of standard 1970s film-making is, as it happens, one also possessed by Lean: the ability to be in deadly earnest, to banish any hint of irony or sarcasm when it's not wanted. But this doesn't change the fact that "Ryan's Daughter" is not only different from what was modish around the time it was made; it ADVERTISES this difference. It might very well have the most beautiful cinematography of any film shot anywhere at any time. What's more, gorgeous photography is part of the essence of the film, not something that one can grime down in one's imagination to reveal a distinctively '70s film, in which the composition of shots doesn't matter, there's no atmosphere to speak of and everybody mumbles half-formed thoughts in ungrammatical sentences. This film, simply and unmistakably, doesn't belong in the era in which it was made.

    At any rate the stated reasons for condemning he film don't sound at all convincing. Pauline Kael made a big deal of the fact that she couldn't accept Robert Mitchum as a mild-tempered cuckolded husband, which leads me to conclude that (a) she'd just seen "Cape Fear" the previous night, and (b) her brain was tired that week. In a way I can appreciate her difficulty, since when I saw the film, I wasn't aware that it WAS Robert Mitchum until I saw the end credits, so entirely convincing is he (and everyone else, for that matter). Another thing I've seen written a couple of times is that the film is "over-produced", a charge it's hard to make sense of. So Lean made a better film than, strictly speaking, he had to, in order to be faithful to the script? And this is meant to be a CRITICISM?

    The only complaint that has justice on its side is the one directed at Maurice Jarre's score, too relentlessly jaunty at ill-chosen moments, particularly in the early arts of the film, without enough meat on the bones of the tunes to justify the fact that the music is really doing little to help. But even here, criticism is exaggerated. A majority of films released since, say, 1990, and this includes a majority of GOOD films, have musical scores that contribute even less, and are even more ill-judged; with "Ryan's Daughter" far more than with those films, complaining about the music seems petty.

    Nothing so beautiful as "Ryan's Daughter" could possibly be other than good; the story is a fine one, simple in shape yet morally complex, and it's honestly told, with each point of view made vivid. The three hours are there to be relished. Lean uses the length of his film to make you wish it were longer still.
    helpful•65
    28
    • Spleen
    • Sep 2, 2003

    Details

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    • Release date
      • December 10, 1970 (United Kingdom)
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
      • Warner Bros. (United States)
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland
    • Production companies
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
      • Faraway Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 3 hours 20 minutes
      • Color

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