Review of Ryan's Daughter (1970) by Harry W — 03 Nov 2014

Although it received notoriously mixed reviews, as Ryan's Daughter was a David Lean film I had to get a look at it.

Romantic dramas are certainly not one of my more favourable genres, and so one which has been criticised for being slow and long has a limited chance to reach me. Yet considering that David Lean is the creator of this one, I trusted that he would put a certain level of strength into it on some level.

Ryan's Daughter is a film with a story which is actually very simple. The fact is that David Lean uses his Academy Award winning directing abilities to try and elevate it into something much more. I can certainly admit that his ambitions are grand, but they are somewhat flawed. The scale of the film is never as large as it wants to be as one of the intended themes of the story is the nature of people in Ireland during 1916, the time of WWI. The political context of the film is never expanded upon as much as it should be, and so the time and setting of the film is one bound to leave the viewers puzzled. The political elements of Ryan's Daughter are largely a subplot in conjunction to the romantic story which itself doesn't really go all that far. There is little conflict or insight that comes as a result of it, so the fact that it is the most central aspect of the story leaves it as a melodramatic and misguided bore. Ryan's Daughter is a slow and easy film to watch, but the actual level of enjoyment that comes from it is rather inconsistent in total.

The pacing at the start of the film is rushed in the sense that it takes very little time before Rosy Ryan expresses her love for Charles Shaughnessy. There is little context as to why she feels this way, and the fact that the film just rushed to the point without justifying it with sufficient writing makes it seem rather lazy. Then they are married in the blink of an eye, so there is no pauses there. This is odd considering the majority of Ryan's Daughter features a very slow pace, a pace so slow that many critics have derided the film on that basis. Considering that the story moves along rather fast but the pace of the film is actually slow, it is really a strange experience in terms of story development. Considering that the basis for the story is primarily melodrama, it has a limited capacity for how wide its success will be. It just didn't do it for me in the end, and even though the script had potential and some interesting characters, there simply was not enough originality in the material for it to stand up as a truly solid film.

There is no denying just how well Ryan's Daughter succeeds from a stylish perspective. The scenery for the film is just gorgeous with a lot of versatile imagery making its way into the film. It gives Ryan's Daughter a beautiful sense of colour, and it is all captured with spectacular cinematography which assists the scale of the film in being somewhat along the lines of its epic ambitions. It all looks beautiful with the lush Irish countryside making the story feel very legitimate, combined with the production design and costumes to assist the time period of the film in coming to life. Ryan's Daughter is a very memorable visual experience, and it is a treat for the ears as well thanks to a beautifully composed musical score which gives the film a sense of atmospheric poetry. It's a stylish treat on the eyes and the ears, so David Lean does manage to succeed in turning Ryan's Daughter into a spectacle, even if it is an inconsistent one. One scene in particular which was done excellently was the storm scene. David Lean waited a year for the perfect storm to shoot the one particular scene, and the entirety of it is powerfully crafted and strong looking. The scale of the film is not a problem as much as many critics would claim it to be, and it is actually one of the better elements of the film because a lot of the stylish aspects help to transcend some of the story limitations.

The way that Ryan's Daughter depicts Major Randolph Doryan dealing with PTSD is terrific. The film depicts him facing it during scenes where even the most minor things trigger him into flashbacks which shake him up. The imposed imagery and sound effects during these scenes coupled with the performance of Christopher Jones depict a lot of strong shell shock and give a more realistic and complicated edge to the character. During a time when mental health issues were not to commonly explored in cinema, Ryan's Daughter has the distinction of maintaining a strong depiction of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ryan's Daughter is not a film with heroes or villains. It is about numerous characters in a society who are all led by their emotions through many different experiences. While there is quite a lot of melodrama in the film, a lot of what happens is realistic and is dramatic purely on a subtle level. While it is unable to establish a great balance between spectacle and characters, the actors in the film all do their part.

Sarah Miles delivers a truly memorable leading performance in Ryan's Daughter. Her leading performance is one where her actions may leave audiences puzzled as to how to feel for her. Either way, she always is able to stir up a certain level of sympathy through her strong emotional expression in her line delivery and her physicality. She has the stare of someone with confusion and sadness so severe that it is almost myopic, and her interactions with the other cast members show her skill for projecting vulnerability in the part. Sarah Miles does a fine job as the titular daughter of Tom Ryan in Ryan's Daughter, and her effort is easily memorable.

Robert Mitchum takes on a very different character to his usual persona in Ryan's Daughter. He is more easygoing, and in the process he establishes a likable persona. His restrained and gentle performance as well as strong chemistry with Sarah Miles pay him a lot of credibility as an actor as he takes a different step with his career in Ryan's Daughter. In the part of Charles Shaughnessy, Robert Mitchum delivers a smooth and likable performance with a lot of wisdom and sophistication as well as a flawlessly articulated accent, with acting talent that can only come from years of experience and hard work. Robert Mitchum is terrific in Ryan's Daughter.

John Mills who won an Academy Award for his performance makes an ambivalent presence in Ryan's Daughter. Michael isn't a character relevant to the actual story enough in many ways. The fact that he is the village idiot and the victim of the narrow minded village people taking joy in mocking him is strictly present to stereotype the people of Kirrary. His relevance to the film is minimal, and considering the complex romantic themes of the film causing characters to commit unjust actions, he remains the innocent character hidden from the drama. In that sense, he is the only character who viewers should be able to find consistent sympathy for if they don't find the one-dimensionality of him to be a simple stereotype. His presence seems to be a mix of mostly sentimental value with a light touch of humour. I didn't find him that funny, but I certainly felt sympathy for him. Although, the scenes featuring him intending to be comedy were simply unnecessary and did nothing for the movie. The character Michael is largely irrelevant to the story and is more of a sentimental distraction who is also partially used for poor attempts at comic relief. I'll admit that John Mills does his part in the role by crafting a likable and sympathetic figure out of him, as well as being engaged in the role physically with a slumping walk and a consistent puzzled expression on his face, but it is hardly Academy Award calibre. It's clear that the sentimental ploy of the character effectively reached the voters of the Academy Awards as well as the Golden Globes, but today it would be criticized for being largely an offensive caricature. The character itself is written poorly and John Mills simply does what he can with the part which ends up being a decent product of physical acting, but by today's standards it is easier to pick up on the flaws with him.

Christopher Jones delivers a decent supporting performance as Major Randolph Doryan as well, and Trevor Howard makes a fine effort to.

But despite a strong cast and stylishly atmospheric direction from David Lean, Ryan's Daughter is a poorly paced, melodramatic and overlong romantic drama which falls short of originality and sufficient writing.