Review of Ryan's Daughter

David Lean is not at his absolute best here - go to Lawrence of Arabia for that - but there's still plenty worth seeing here. Above all the wonderful cinematography, capturing the colours and scenery of the west coast of Ireland in the most vivid and alluring manner. There's some wonderful acting, especially by Trevor Howard as the priest. Robert Mitchum, too, is surprisingly good as the long-suffering but ultimately noble husband. There's some disappointments, though; Sarah Miles, who is meant to be playing a girl in her late teens as the story starts, clearly looks to be pushing 30, which rather spoils the credibility of her ingenuous character. And then there's poor Leo McKern's attempted Irish accent (which rather underlines the lack of Irish actors in this drama) - a pity because he gives a reasonable performance and suffers for his art in the spectacular storm scene. Minus points, too, for Jarre's score which reaches the height of ineptitude when the villagers pursue the British truck in the second part of the film: he can't think of anything better here than a jolly jape theme.

In sum, not the greatest Lean film, but even so this is far better than a lot of the 'best' films by other directors, and definitely worth seeing for the spectacular storm sequence.