Ryan's Daughter - David Lean's forgotten classic?

[Yonathan Gal]

I'm a big Lean fan, I love all the obvious ones - Lawrence, Zhivago, Kwai etc... but what about Ryan's Daughter? You can't even get the video in this country, and what's all the bad reviews for? I watched it again last night, a truly magnificent film!!

http://www.the900thdimension.com/reviews/films/reviews/ryansdaughter.shtml

Most of his films have got great dvd treatmnet, now Paramount should do something with this forgotten gem!! Who agrees? :)

[Mike]

I think it's a right load of cobblers myself with all the rich texture of a particularly bad Mills and Boon novel but there you go.

Paramount can't do anything with it because it's an MGM film. Warners may well do a special edition of it at some point I suppose.

[jonathan.e]

Didn’t like it at all myself. Knowing that Sarah Miles..ahem..."manufactures" her own tipple doesn’t help it’s watchability either.

[Panavision]

Nice film, stunning, and I mean STUNNING!!! Photography. I would like it in my collection. It's my least favourite Lean, though.

[John Nelson]

Originally posted by Panavision
Nice film, stunning, and I mean STUNNING!!! Photography. I would like it in my collection.

You would say that, it was shot in Super Panavision 70mm :D:nuts:

-- J.

[Michael Brooke]

Anything directed by David Lean and photographed by Freddie Young in Super Panavision 70 is going to look stunning by definition - but is the rest of the film any good?

[John Nelson]

IIRC, the reviews of the time called the film slow and self-indulgent. Pauline Kael in particular ripped into RD, which upset David Lean so much he didn't make any more films until Passage To India, 14 years later.

Still, I like the film too, even if it's not exactly Die Hard :) One that I would like to see on the big screen sometime, and I'd definitely add it to my collection if it comes out.

-- J.

[Cap'n Al]

Like <i>Dr Zhivago</i>, it's beautiful to look at but dramatically inert; the overall experience is not unlike listening to an album by a band that's been so drenched in choirs and orchestras that you can't actually hear a tune under all the noise. <i>A Passage to India</i> is a far superior work, and it's a shame that Lean never got to make <i>Nostromo</i> as a result.