Ryan's Daughter (1970)
I wonder how director David Lean felt watching his three hour, fifteen minute epic love story ruined by Maurice Jarre’s French carnival music. It’s an Irish take on Madame Bovary, filmed on location in Ireland, full of coastal landscapes, and Jarre wrote a nearly constant soundtrack as if the film was about a carnival troupe in Paris. It didn’t make any sense; I’m not blowing things out of proportion by saying it ruined the movie. Lean was also so displeased with one of his leads, Christopher Jones, that he opted to dub in all his lines with another actor! However, it did win two Oscars in 1970, and it was wildly popular at the box office. Robert Mitchum heaped praise on his director and remembered Ryan’s Daughter as one of his finest roles, so the experience, like most, had its ups and downs.
Sarah Miles is a simple Irish country lass who has a massive crush on the schoolteacher, Robert Mitchum. He’s cautious with her, warning her that he’s dull and middle-aged, and if they were married, she’d get bored. She swears she loves him—who wouldn’t; it’s Robert Mitchum!—and they get married. She tells her true feelings to the priest, Trevor Howard: she wants all her romantic fancies to be fulfilled by her marriage. She’s read too many romance novels and thinks her wedding night will transform her into a different person. Trevor is disgusted by her preoccupation with the bedroom and warns her to be careful what she wishes for; marrying a good man and finding happiness in her marriage should be her goal. Well, Sarah doesn’t listen to Father Trevor Howard, and when she’s disappointed by her husband’s bedroom skills, she thinks her life is meaningless.
An English shell-shocked soldier arrives in town: Christopher Jones. Sarah has no interaction with him, knows nothing about him, but when she sees him have a PTSD-episode, she immediately wraps her arms around him and kisses him. That makes total sense, right? If someone is having a hallucinatory seizure, the best thing to do is shock him with sudden movements and unexpected behavior. And if you see someone behaving like that, it’s a clear clue he’s going to be dynamite in the bedroom, right?
Ryan’s Daughter doesn’t make sense for many reasons. It wasn’t an arranged marriage; Sarah was crazy about Bob when she married him. And for goodness sake, it’s Robert Mitchum! How would anyone in the audience believe that he’s so disappointing in the bedroom that his wife has to take a lover or she’ll die? Then, for absolutely no reason and no symbolism, John Mills plays the village idiot and is always around. No one in town is kind to him, including Sarah, but she’s inexplicably kind to the shell-shocked stranger? They both have a mental problem, but she’s indiscriminately nice. And of course, there’s the music.
Sarah Miles is a simple Irish country lass who has a massive crush on the schoolteacher, Robert Mitchum. He’s cautious with her, warning her that he’s dull and middle-aged, and if they were married, she’d get bored. She swears she loves him—who wouldn’t; it’s Robert Mitchum!—and they get married. She tells her true feelings to the priest, Trevor Howard: she wants all her romantic fancies to be fulfilled by her marriage. She’s read too many romance novels and thinks her wedding night will transform her into a different person. Trevor is disgusted by her preoccupation with the bedroom and warns her to be careful what she wishes for; marrying a good man and finding happiness in her marriage should be her goal. Well, Sarah doesn’t listen to Father Trevor Howard, and when she’s disappointed by her husband’s bedroom skills, she thinks her life is meaningless.
An English shell-shocked soldier arrives in town: Christopher Jones. Sarah has no interaction with him, knows nothing about him, but when she sees him have a PTSD-episode, she immediately wraps her arms around him and kisses him. That makes total sense, right? If someone is having a hallucinatory seizure, the best thing to do is shock him with sudden movements and unexpected behavior. And if you see someone behaving like that, it’s a clear clue he’s going to be dynamite in the bedroom, right?
Ryan’s Daughter doesn’t make sense for many reasons. It wasn’t an arranged marriage; Sarah was crazy about Bob when she married him. And for goodness sake, it’s Robert Mitchum! How would anyone in the audience believe that he’s so disappointing in the bedroom that his wife has to take a lover or she’ll die? Then, for absolutely no reason and no symbolism, John Mills plays the village idiot and is always around. No one in town is kind to him, including Sarah, but she’s inexplicably kind to the shell-shocked stranger? They both have a mental problem, but she’s indiscriminately nice. And of course, there’s the music.
I think I’ve criticized the movie enough; it’s time to talk about the good parts. And by that, I mean Robert Mitchum. A notorious ladies man in real life, and a tough, macho man for twenty-five years onscreen, he plays against type as the soft-spoken intellectual schoolteacher. As you might suspect, he wasn’t the first choice to play the role, and when offered it, he was a bit reluctant because of a personal crisis, but at the end of the day he was excellent. He puts on a flawless Irish accent, and his tender expressions are so beautiful and heart-wrenching. I can’t imagine anyone watching this movie and not falling in love with him.
As you might be able to tell, I didn’t like Ryan’s Daughter. I’m desperately in love with Robert Mitchum, so watching a movie where he becomes a cuckold isn’t my idea of a good time. I absolutely despised Sarah Miles’s character, and Christopher Jones had no character written to despise, but the fact that he didn’t care about possibly destroying a married woman’s reputation in a very small town didn’t speak very highly of him. And, I know this sounds silly because sex scenes in modern movies are rampant, but when I see a classic movie star doing something he or she would never have been able to do during the Hays Code, I feel a little embarrassed watching the scene. Robert Mitchum’s roles during the 1950s alluded to sex scenes, but in Ryan’s Daughter, the camera does not pan to the window, and it’s a bit embarrassing.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sex scenes and violence, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Juhi Thaker" for posting!
More Robert Mitchum movies here!
As you might be able to tell, I didn’t like Ryan’s Daughter. I’m desperately in love with Robert Mitchum, so watching a movie where he becomes a cuckold isn’t my idea of a good time. I absolutely despised Sarah Miles’s character, and Christopher Jones had no character written to despise, but the fact that he didn’t care about possibly destroying a married woman’s reputation in a very small town didn’t speak very highly of him. And, I know this sounds silly because sex scenes in modern movies are rampant, but when I see a classic movie star doing something he or she would never have been able to do during the Hays Code, I feel a little embarrassed watching the scene. Robert Mitchum’s roles during the 1950s alluded to sex scenes, but in Ryan’s Daughter, the camera does not pan to the window, and it’s a bit embarrassing.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sex scenes and violence, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Juhi Thaker" for posting!
More Robert Mitchum movies here!