Product: Ryan's Daughter (Two-Disc Special Edition) (2006)
Rating: 5.0
Oh! the sensuality of it all
Ryan's Daughter is a wonderful, sensual love story set on the rugged, west sea coast of Ireland. It is about community, religion, tradition, youth, discovery, sex, war and infidelity. And Sarah Miles is very [attractive] in her roll as the disillusioned Rose.Rose is a young woman who is trying to come to terms with adulthood and sexuality in the small world of an Irish village. There arn't many good young men around so she has her sights set on an older, single, male schoolteacher, played by Robert Mitchum. Well, after a fanciful marriage and still a virgin, Rose discovers that the teacher isn't such a hot lover, which leaves Rose a bit disappointed."There must be more." She tells her priest, played by Trevor Howard."Be careful what you ask for Rose." he tells her, "Because as sure as hell you'll get it."And then the movie starts.When this film first came out, I was so spellbound by it that I went to the cinema to see it repeatedly, unlike any other movie. I became totally absorbed in the sheer epic of such a simple love story: the photography, the sensitivity, the location and the characters. Why couldn't other film-makers tell a story with such grace, style and sensuality? Well, I found out that other film-makers didn't have the big budgets that Director David Lean had. So I wonder, could David Lean have made a film on a small budget? Thank God he didn't. We have been left such a rich legacy of fine films from this master craftsman.Critique Pauline Kael panned Ryan's Daughter so badly when it first came out and David Lean took it so hard and personally, that he didn't make another film for fourteen years. Perhaps Ms Kael wasn't sensitive but Mr. Lean's sensitivity shows through more in this film than with most others he's made. Thank you for your artistry Mr. Lean.Recently, while on a trip to Western Ireland I made a pilgrimage to the end of the Dingle Peninsula where they filmed Ryan's Daughter. Unbelievably the schoolhouse is still standing where they built it for the movie in 1969, in a farmer's field, on the hillside overlooking the sea. And it's still in good shape, as if the film crew had left it standing yesterday.