Playing the title role in Ryan's Daughter is the beautiful, lusty, and spirited Sarah Miles who craves romance and a little bit of orgasm on the side. Unfortunately who she gets it from ain't her new husband, Robert Mitchum, the village school teacher on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland where the film is located and was shot.
Miles is a young girl with romantic notions and brought up in a strict Catholic environment where decent young ladies don't speak of such things. When the middle aged Mitchum proves to be a dud in the sack, Sarah's sure there's more out there than this in marriage. Sad to say she finds it in the person of a British major posted to Ireland after suffering shell shock in France during World War I.
As we all know while talk of sex is forbidden, talk of politics abounds, a little too much talk. Ireland is getting ready for revolution and the Germans would like to help it along. When Irish Republican commandant Barry Foster is betrayed when trying to land a shipment of German weapons for the Irish rebels, he's captured and taken along with a lot of the men from the village. They will all be hung and Sarah's looking real good for the role of informer.
Ryan's Daughter is a good film though it hardly compares with other David Lean masterpieces like Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, or The Bridge On the River Kwai. I'm not sure Lean knew exactly what he was trying to say in all this. Yet Lean got some noteworthy performances from this film, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for John Mills playing the village idiot. Quite a change for that most erudite of players.
Miles was sexy and at the same time conveyed a nice picture of romantic naiveté. The film as the title suggests is really about her and she centers the action well.
Robert Mitchum was also the recipient of offbeat casting, but I'm guessing that David Lean knew about Mitchum's uncanny ability to pick up all manner of speech. But he does show quite some depth as actor playing the middle-aged school teacher. It's not a performance you'd expect from one of Hollywood's sex symbols.
I think the most interesting part and least written about is that of Trevor Howard as the village priest. That's not a profession held in respect in many quarters these days and certainly Sarah Miles seeking advice on matters sexual from Howard does show how ludicrous that is. Yet Howard is not a fool, he is every bit the moral leader of the community. He stands up for Sarah when most of the town wants to do her harm.
His role is also historically correct in showing that during the years before the Easter Rebellion the Catholic Church had dropped its historic opposition to rebellion to one of at least benevolent neutrality. Howard's role with the rebels is quite accurate.
Though it's message is unclear, Ryan's Daughter is a beautifully photographed film with some outstanding performances and belongs in the second tier of David Lean's work.
Miles is a young girl with romantic notions and brought up in a strict Catholic environment where decent young ladies don't speak of such things. When the middle aged Mitchum proves to be a dud in the sack, Sarah's sure there's more out there than this in marriage. Sad to say she finds it in the person of a British major posted to Ireland after suffering shell shock in France during World War I.
As we all know while talk of sex is forbidden, talk of politics abounds, a little too much talk. Ireland is getting ready for revolution and the Germans would like to help it along. When Irish Republican commandant Barry Foster is betrayed when trying to land a shipment of German weapons for the Irish rebels, he's captured and taken along with a lot of the men from the village. They will all be hung and Sarah's looking real good for the role of informer.
Ryan's Daughter is a good film though it hardly compares with other David Lean masterpieces like Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, or The Bridge On the River Kwai. I'm not sure Lean knew exactly what he was trying to say in all this. Yet Lean got some noteworthy performances from this film, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for John Mills playing the village idiot. Quite a change for that most erudite of players.
Miles was sexy and at the same time conveyed a nice picture of romantic naiveté. The film as the title suggests is really about her and she centers the action well.
Robert Mitchum was also the recipient of offbeat casting, but I'm guessing that David Lean knew about Mitchum's uncanny ability to pick up all manner of speech. But he does show quite some depth as actor playing the middle-aged school teacher. It's not a performance you'd expect from one of Hollywood's sex symbols.
I think the most interesting part and least written about is that of Trevor Howard as the village priest. That's not a profession held in respect in many quarters these days and certainly Sarah Miles seeking advice on matters sexual from Howard does show how ludicrous that is. Yet Howard is not a fool, he is every bit the moral leader of the community. He stands up for Sarah when most of the town wants to do her harm.
His role is also historically correct in showing that during the years before the Easter Rebellion the Catholic Church had dropped its historic opposition to rebellion to one of at least benevolent neutrality. Howard's role with the rebels is quite accurate.
Though it's message is unclear, Ryan's Daughter is a beautifully photographed film with some outstanding performances and belongs in the second tier of David Lean's work.