Product: Ryan's Daughter (Two-Disc Special Edition) (2006)
Rating: 5.0
Superb movie
I am happy "Ryan's Daughter" is coming out on DVD (finally!) and I agree with the other reviewers that it is one of Lean's masterpiece's of epic scope. But so far, all the accolades have been saved for "Kwai," "Lawrence" (above all), and "Zhivago." Much less is said about "A Passage to India," Master (Sir) Lean's consummate masterpiece, based on the E.M.Forster novel, perhaps because he made his own version of the story (changing beginning and ending). It is a movie where even the most minute character is developed, and a message for humanity ("only connect"), in ascending scale, is given in compelling dramatic fashion. I saw "Ryan's Daughter" when it came out in the big screen, and it is a dazzling romantic tragedy, fabulously photographed, and brilliantly acted. Can't wait to own the DVD and treasure it as I have all the other epics, five in all--the only epics, as a whole, that elevate the much-worn format in the 20th century. MY admiration increases every time I watch it, saying to myself what were those "high-brow" critics at the Algonquin Hotel, in New York, in 1970, thinking when the movie came out, making outrageous comments that the sensitive Lean took to heart and stayed away from moviemaking for fourteen year? Thanks to this edition, and the upcoming blu-ray, people at last can see it in all its magnificence. Encouraging to see all these comments from new and old viewers who feel as I do, and perhaps even higher, about this movie--which becomes better with time. Note on 9/20/2012: I have seen the DVD, many times, analyzed it, and written about it in great detail. My opinion of the movie stands, and I am happy to see that many reviewers before and after it have given it high marks. The admittedly slow-paced movie combines a perfectly structured plot, charactizations, expecially from the likes of Leo McKern, John Mills, who, as know, won an Oscar for his role as the mute lover of Rosie Ryan, Trevor Howard, who was nominated for an Oscar, and just about everyone in the village crowd. Despite his brawls with Lean, Robert Mitchum, playing against character, managed an almost perfect performance, first as the sexually limp husband, then rising to a giant on the screen in the final exit from the village mob; and even Christopher Jones has a stunning visual presence, though I wish they had allowed him to speak in his own voice, rather than in dubbed monosyllables. Sarah Miles could not have been more expressive of a woman wrapped in fantasy and then having a cruel awakening, after betraying both husband and lover. An intimate epic, with classic tragic contours, but also one of genuine spectacle in the storm sequences, unequalled since then, since no computer generated images can duplicate an actual filming of a natural event of such magnitude. This film offers many pleasures to the the cineaste, whether a university professor or "man on the street," as Lean used to say. Add the vast landscape of western Ireland photographed by award-winning Freddie Young, and you have a stunning epic of drama, adventure, and a delicately woven plot. Modelled on Madame Bovary, by Flaubert, this is a woman's story, but no less that of a man, or men plus a crowd, maddened to a rage knowing this woman, Ryan's "princess" daughter, dared to dream of a flight to a world of freedom and romance, but paying for her dream at the end. Again, try the movie, if you want to taste this condemned (by some) masterpiece by David Lean.