Ryan's Daughter (1970)

Director:

David Lean

Writer:

Robert Bolt (writer)

Release Date:

17 December 1970 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A story of love...set against the violence of rebellion

Plot:

World War I seems far away from Ireland's Dingle peninsula when Rosy Ryan Shaughnessy goes horseback...

Plot Keywords:

Dynamite | Slap | Sex | Lamp | Sin Eater

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 8 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Robert Mitchum	...	Charles Shaughnessy
Trevor Howard	...	Father Collins
Christopher Jones	...	Randolph Doryan
John Mills	...	Michael
Leo McKern	...	Thomas Ryan
Sarah Miles	...	Rosy Ryan
Barry Foster	...	Tim O'Leary
Marie Kean	...	Mrs. McCardle
Arthur O'Sullivan	...	Mr. McCardle
Evin Crowley	...	Maureen
Douglas Sheldon	...	Driver
Gerald Sim	...	Captain
Barry Jackson	...	Corporal
Des Keogh	...	Lanky private
Niall Toibin	...	O'Keefe

Also Known As:

Michael's Day (UK) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for a sex scene.

Runtime:

206 min (roadshow/DVD version) | 195 min (general release version)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | Iceland:16 | UK:AA (original rating) | West Germany:16 (f) | Singapore:M18 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:R (re-rating)

Filming Locations:

Bridges of Ross, County Clare, Ireland

Company:

Faraway Productions

Trivia:

The village of "Kirrary" was built just for the film and dismantled afterwards -- shops, schoolhouse, church, pub, post office, etc. 200 workmen built it all using slate and 20,000 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.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Father Collins wears a traditional black garment with white "dog collar" but apparently in the period this film was set, the law forbad a catholic priest to dress this way.

Quotes:

Mrs. McCardle: [on Rosy] There's loose women, and there's whores... and there's British soldier's whores!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Extras: Kate Winslet (#1.3)" (2005)

Human longing for life, bare and simple on the screen

I love this movie. Saw it again last night on the big, wide screen at the Astor, from a beautiful new print. There is much to deserve love: the artistry of the film making; unspeakably fine cinematography; superb use of music and sound (hearing nothing but the wind in the trees during the forest scene is breathlessly sensual); and major and minor characters who each in their own way reflect the eternal enigma of human longing for life and transcendence. The film's evocation of human lives caught up in the inexorable forces of nature and history at this particular moment and place is profoundly arresting. There's a timelessness about this movie which makes the criticisms I've heard - about miscasting, stiff acting and the like - melt away into irrelevance, or even shows them to be virtues. I love the way the film maintains narrative integrity but has a foreordained, mythical quality as well: the overwhelming, all-penetrating power of nature and fate seems to make the human doings at once piercingly real and immediate, yet disconnected, almost surreal. But the touches of humour and sharp, immediate visual detail (often wittily drawn from the visual history of paintings and caricatures of village life) save us from any kind of authorial portent or angst: the greatest wonder of this artful work is that there is nothing between us and the story, except perhaps the icy whip of the ocean wind gainst our faces. The range of characters both in kind and in how we experience them is enlivening - from the formidably down to earth Father Collins, to the captivatingly tragic and symbolic figure of Doryan. And Michael the retarded angel is the ultimate figure of grace.