Ryan's Daughter
Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, the movie tells the story of a teacher's (Robert Mitchum) wife (Sarah Miles) who has an affair with a troubled British soldier (Christopher Jones).
21 August 1927, Beeston, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
1912, Ireland
18 August 1941, Jackson, Tennessee, USA
1936, London, England, UK
16 March 1920, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
29 September 1913, Cliftonville, Kent, England, UK
31 December 1941, Ingatestone, Essex, England, UK
29 March 1938, Birmingham, England, UK
March 22, 2008
Arguably David Lean's weakest film, this lushly photographed (it won Oscar for Freddie Young) period Irish romance is rambling and pointless, and feels like an occasion for Sarah Miles (then married to writer Bolt) to show off her beautiful body.February 22, 2006
Some hippie-dippiness dates the picture, but the vérité posturing of Lean's peers looks a lot kitschier in retrospectMarch 08, 2006
Those who were jealous of [Lean's] previous successes decried the film as an utter failure, though of course it is not, it just isn't quite as good as his other movies.January 30, 2006
Ryan's Daughter takes far too long to say much too little.October 23, 2004
A disappointing failure of tone, a lush and overblown self-indulgence in which David Lean has given us a great deal less than meets the eye.June 24, 2006
An awe-inspiringly tedious lump of soggy romanticism.January 01, 2000
It's insanely overproduced in Lean's standard epic style, yet somehow the crazy mismatches in scale contribute to the film's sense of romantic delirium.May 09, 2005
It doesn't transfigure the world. It embalms it.November 06, 2007
The best thing about this much-vaunted, overlong Irish epic love triangle is its gorgeous photography.May 24, 2003
Lean's depiction of provincial Ireland during the unrest of 1916 may suffer a little from its rather worthy romanticism, but this does not dilute its powerful, epic vision.November 06, 2007
Overlength of perhaps 30 minutes serves to magnify some weaknesses of Robert Bolt's original screenplay, to dissipate the impact of the performances, and to overwhelm outstanding photography and production.February 15, 2006
If you are looking for a breath of fresh Eire, you are in the wrong movie.