hyped garbage

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

David lean would be my choice for a desert island film theatre. His films can be seen time and time again, yet they last and will do so forever. He is a heck of a story teller, and this piece of cinema , may have its critics, well to hell with them. I have seen this masterpiece 5 times, and will never tire of it. Rather than write a lengthy tell all, this work is best enjoyed, by simply watching , and not knowing anything adds to the enjoyment. Ireland in the first world war years, was a very interesting place historically. Lean captures this superbly in this epic.

As one would expect, David Lean made great use of the vast, stark expanses of Ireland by the sea in this story about a troubled love set against the politics of Irish independence. The result is a moody, languid film that focuses on the relationship between the passion-starved wife of a small school and an English major temporarily assigned to the region.The trivia notes on this site detail the many problems during the production of "Ryan's Daughter". Still, the final product is a fairly successful story that revolves around the forces of religion and conformity in the small town, where the church--through the parish priest (Trevor Howard)--is the supreme authority on all matters. The film also has something to say about mob rule.The wife (Sara Miles), though discontent in her marriage to the teacher (Robert Mitchum), still manages to love her husband. But she feels a compulsion that sets her in opposition to the priest, the town, and propriety. John Mills won the Oscar for his poignant portrayal of the town idiot, a performance that echoes Charles Laughton's Quasimodo.My only complaint is the soundtrack, which is often jarring and intrusive. This film is uncompromising in its depiction of human nature, which is understandably exaggerated within the confines of the small, insular community perched along the raw, windswept coastline. It engages the viewer and transports him to another time and place, where (and when) ethics were etched in black and white.

David Lean's eye for landscapes and skies is put to good use on the western shores of Ireland in a picture that surpasses his more well-known masterpiece Dr. Zhivago. The latter film deals with ideas like infidelity, shell-shock, and the national revolutions that accompanied the Great War, but in an almost absentminded way that reflects the uncertainties of its titular protagonist. Ryan's Daughter offers a cast of characters rich enough, both collectively and individually, to encompass all manner of contradictory and complex reactions to national pride, personal desires, betrayal, and forgiveness. Actors like Robert Mitchum, Leo McKern, and Trevor Howard convey deep meaning and feeling under steadfast exteriors.

In retrospect the problems in this film grow larger than they were at the time. Though Mitchum plays the passionless schoolmaster, in real life he was said to have a low or average libido. (Some said because of marijuana, for which he was arrested) It was not long after that at Cannes that he staged the famous topless shot with an actress, perhaps to put his female admirers more at ease, that the sexy leading man lived up to the billing.The wedding night scene in this picture then becomes an incredibly bad inside joke. What curious casting, Mitchum, who looks every bit a man, plays the mooshy schoolmaster, and Jones, a pale flower of a man, can barely stand up, exudes the passion Rosy is seeking. Then of course Sarah Miles was an actress whose reputation tended to proceed her. Audiences looking at this in retrospect are laughing at her school girl shtick. Trevor Howard gave one of his most awkward performances. John Mills served to provide the cutaways whenever the action grew too tense, (not often). I saw one shot in the film which made sense, the Major looks out the window of the lorry at the Irish coastline, and Lean gives us a shot of his view, the light off the ocean, a small island, the view of a military man thinking about the land as an obstacle, an impediment. Good counterpoint.Like Kipling's Light Brigade, this film rode into the valley of film death. I turned it off rather than watch the carnage.