Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
Not quite a mistire but it's no masterpiece.
Indyfreak - wrote on 03/19/2020
RYAN'S DAUGHTER has entered film history as a sort of misunderstood classic or a flawed masterpiece. Hugely successful at the box office during its run but maligned by critics, led by the hateful Pauline Kael, it made director David Lean quit the film business for fourteen years.
Having seen it, yeah the critics were too mean. But I kind of get what they're driving at. The movie is lavishly made and it's clear David Lean wanted to make a glorious romantic epic in the vein of his earlier hit DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. Except moving the action from revolutionary Russia to 1910s Ireland.
The story concept is tantalizing if salacious for this genre: a stubborn Irish woman (whoops tautology) has an affair with a British officer, a severely taboo relationship given the tensions between the English …
