Ryan's Daughter

Sometimes unfairly described as something like David Lean's gravestone, Ryan's Daughter was the film that stopped the legendary director from making any films for fourteen years. Lean was apparently so distressed by Pauline Kael's scathing review of Ryan's Daughter that he lost faith in his ability as a filmmaker - seeming to forget that he was the guy who gave us such untouchable classics as Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Perhaps he really had dug his own grave... his previous film, Doctor Zhivago, had continued his penchant for epic historical adventures and had impossibly held up as a worthy successor to the exemplary Lawrence of Arabia. There isn't really much else you can follow that with, he was probably doomed no matter what he made next - especially if it was a three-hour drama that took place in a quiet village on an Irish shoreline. Ryan's Daughter isn't without it's faults, but I think it still stands up as a really solid piece of filmmaking from one of the great masters.

Rural Ireland, 1916. WWI is in full swing and the British still occupy the Emereld Isle. The daughter of the title is Rose (Sarah Miles), a wayward young woman whose free spirit makes her a less than ideal match for Charles Shaughnessy (Robert Mitchum), the town's reserved school teacher. Nonetheless, the two enter into a marriage and Shaughnessy reveals himself to be a practical and caring husband. Rose however is unfulfilled by the marriage, despite her initial hopes. She can't handle that this is all theremight be to her life, and she embarks on an affair with a British Major (Christopher Jones) stationed near the village. Where Shaughnessy's lovemaking is brief and without romance, the Major's is thrilling and passionate. Rose's world is about to change forever though as Irish Nationalists are planning an uprising against the British, and her adultery with the enemy won't be tolerated by the insular villagers.

As much as this is a slow and thoughtful piece of drama, there is still quite a lot in it that makes the film a memorable experience. Lean takes the small story of a love triangle and gives it the epic Lean treatment, playing it out against the backdrop of the Easter Uprising and taking in wide panoramic shots of West Ireland. The coastal village is a windy, desolate and lonely place - about as warm as the villagers themselves. The town idiot, Michael (John Mills in a wordless Oscar-winning role), flits around the village at the cruel mercy of the townsfolk, his dialogue-free role an extension of Lean's talent for clear visual storytelling. There's an effortlessly powerful scene where Shaughnessy confesses to Rose his knowledge of her affair, he does nothing and she simply runs out of the house and up onto the heath, embracing the Major as the music swells romantically- and then we cut back to Robert Mitchum in silence, watching through the window with that sad face of his. It's quietly devastating. There's just something magical and elegant about the way that Lean can move things forwards so organically with minimal dialogue. To be honest, nothing much really happens in this story that justifies it's three hours of runtime, but you don't really feel it because Lean is a true master of pace. Witness the scene where Rose and the Major meet in Ryan's pub, a tour de force sequence that changes the direction of each character's life without a single word.

The historical element of the story is underplayed for the most part, mostly exploring the awkward spot that WWI put Ireland in through a few snatches of dialogue and the way the actors play off each other. It was a situation where it was treasonous for the Irish to support the Germans, though many of them wanted to because of the hatred they had for their British occupiers. The film doesn't really tackle this head on with any of the leading characters, but the character of Ryan (Leo McKern), an Irish nationalist with braggartly tendencies, perhaps represents the difficulty in representing anti-British sentiment in a 1970s British film. The other most interesting character is Father Collins (Trevor Howard), the tough but loving priest who keeps the town in line by policing idle hands and idle minds, and acts as Rose's conscience. His realistically supportive stance throughout the uprising is a keen reminder of the church's role in small communities like this.

Of the three lead performances Robert Mitchum's is the most effective, his Irish accent is a little clipped but still sounds natural in his mouth and suits his character. Shaughnessy is a far cry from Mitchum's usual toughened, hard-edged characters, revealing himself to a be a quiet but good man - solid, unvindictive and perhaps too understanding for his own good. The end of the film's first half ends with Shaughnessy bashfully asking his wife if she'd ever be unfaithful before cutting to the intermission. It contrasts with the big pre-intermission climaxes in Lean's previous three epics, but Mitchum carries off the dramatic cliffhanger beautifully.

Sarah Miles on the other hand is well cast but falls a little short of what the role requires... her accent is inconsistent (sometimes she doesn't even attempt one) and her performance in the village ostracization scenes doesn't really move beyond a mild sense of trauma. The Major, played by newcomer Christopher Jones, is a mysterious portrait of damaged youth - a characterisation perhaps born out of neccessity due to the fact that Jones was apparently completely unable to play the part. This led to a lot of his dialogue being excised from the script, and Lean uses this to his advantage by contrasting the taciturn character with the voiceless Michael... both have difficulty walking and say nothing, but one is a war hero and the other a pariah. Both are outcasts of a kind, though their kinship is eventually revealed as superficial and driven by unchangeable forces.

I'll warn any fans of Lean's bigger, better-known work that this is a slower film that concerns itself more with character-based drama. It is however an ultimately rewarding experience, helped in spades by Lean's expert use of framing and breathtaking cinematography, and it doesn't deserve the poor reputation it recieved upon release.

DIRECTOR: David Lean
WRITER/SOURCE: Robert Bolt, loosely based on the novel Madame Bovery.
KEY ACTORS: Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Trevor Howard, Christopher Jones, Leo McKern, John Mills, Barry Foster, Evin Crowley

RELATED TEXTS:
- Robert Bolt's screenplay was initially an adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's classic novel Madame Bovery. At Lean's suggestion he reworked it into a new setting with some different characterisations.
- Jim Sheridan's The Field owes a lot to Ryan's Daughter in terms of atmosphere, setting and character dynamics. The character of Bird in particular (played by John Hurt) seems to be a homage to John Mills' Michael.
- Other tales of isolated village life in the UK include How Green Was My Valley, Straw Dogs and The Molly Maguires. Straw Dogs and The Molly Maguires both examine the darker side of these kinds of communities, much like Ryan's Daughter.
- Lean's follow-up film (his last) was A Passage to India, which is closer in feel and tone to Ryan's Daughter than any of Lean's other films.
- The film shares some thematic similarity with The Painted Veil, a classic novel by W. Somerset Maugham, which was also adapted into a film as The Painted Veil with Greta Garbo in 1934 and later with Edward Norton as The Painted Veil in 2006.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Supporting Actor (John Mills) and Best Cinematography. Also nominated for Best Actress (Sarah Miles) and Best Sound.
BAFTAs - nominated Best Actress (Miles), Best Supporting Actor (Mills), Best Supporting Actress (Evin Crowley), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Direction, Best Soundtrack, Best Editing and Best Film.
Golden Globes - won Best Supporting Actor (Mills). Nominated for Best Actress (Miles) and Best Supporting Actor (Trevor Howard)