Ryan's Daughter

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#1 Post by **Jeff** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:00 am

Released February 7, 2006:

Ryan's Daughter Two-Disc Special Edition DVD (1970)

An epic tale of forbidden romance, Ryan's Daughter stars Sarah Miles as Rosy Ryan, a lovely, headstrong Irish lass who cannot forsake her passionate romance with a handsome British officer (Christopher Jones). When her illicit affair leads to a charge of treason, it is the devotion of her reserved schoolteacher husband Charles (Robert Mitchum) that proves to be the greater love. Academy AwardÂ®-winning director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago) and screenwriter Robert Bolt frame this brooding romance set during the 1916 Irish Rebellion and within the expansive beaches, craggy cliffs and heathered hills of Ireland's Dingle Peninsula. Freddie Young's lush cinematography and John Mills' memorable portrayal of the town simpleton won Academy Awards.

Special features include:

The Making of Ryan's Daughter: A Three-Part 35th-Anniversary Documentary
Storm Rising
Storm Chaser
The Eye of the Storm
Two vintage documentaries
Ryan's Daughter: A Story of Love
We're the Last of the Traveling Circuses
Commentary by cast, crew, biographers, current directors as well as Lean's and
Mitchum's families
New digital transfer from restored 65mm picture and audio elements
Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
Theatrical trailers
Languages: English & French
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish (Feature Film Only)

Lino · #2 Post by **Lino** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:50 am

Yay! My favorite Lean finally gets announced! Hurrah! Nice way to start the day - thanks, Jeff!

tryavna · #3 Post by **tryavna** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:27 am

Very good news! Now we'll have all of Lean's pictures from his international period (from Summertime to Passage to India). Now if only MGM/Sony would make good on their promise to release that collection of David Lean's British films they've been promising for a year or more.

dx23 · #4 Post by **dx23** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:28 pm

Cover Art at dvdanswers.com:

http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?r=0 ... &n=1&burl=

Lino · #5 Post by **Lino** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:48 am

I'm a bit underwhelmed by the picture they chose to go with. There were so many beautiful posters at the time. And where is that gorgeous seascape of Ireland that features so prominently in the film?!

Gordon · #6 Post by **Gordon** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:56 pm

Normally, I am all for original poster art being used as DVD cover art, but that cover is pretty cheesy and doesn't reflect the tone and nature of the film. Not a big deal, though; as long as the transfer is gorgeous and the extras are of a high standard, then the $26 tag will be justified.

Lino · #7 Post by **Lino** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:37 pm

Honestly, which ones do you guys prefer? The one that is being used as the DVD cover:

or maybe these ones?

rgross · #8 Post by **rgross** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:43 am

Ryan's Daughter is definitely a film I will have to revisit, perhaps with a rental of this before considering a purchase. When I first saw it on its release my reaction was negative. I thought it was much ado about little with all the scenery, the loud neverending music, suns sinking into the ocean etc.

To me Lean rose to a peak with Bridge on River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia (ignoring his earlier films for the moment) and slid down a little with Doctor Zhivago and then further down to Ryan's Daughter.

Having not seen Ryan's Daughter for so many years this opinion may change on re-viewing, but my in a nutshell take on it was that all of Doctor Zhivago's production faults was transferred to a story and situation that couldn't support them.

Maybe, when the disc comes out, I will find that I have mellowed in my old age and will be swept up by the story.

Lino · #9 Post by **Lino** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 8:17 am

I don't know why it seems a general consensus that both Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter represented the beginning of the artistic downfall of Lean.

People's biggest complaint seem to be that he overdid the visuals to faulter the film's weak scripts. And this general persepective seems to have lasted until today, amazingly.

Well, I have this to say: Lean was alone in his craft in what filmmaking is concerned. There will not be another one like him ever again and everytime some director tries to emulate him, the final result falls way too short of the real deal. He was a storytelling virtuoso and I just can't believe when I read that both those films I mentioned above are tagged as "bad" or "much ado about very little". What?!

Maybe the real reasons about that is that whilst in Lawrence of Arabia the war thing was much more important, the exact opposite happened in the following Doctor Zhivago, where this time the love story took the main focus and the russian revolution was merely the background to which it happened. And if you've read the book, this is exactly what happens and at least you can't fault him for not being faithful to the source material this time. And there are so many lasting visuals on display that it seems almost sinful to dismiss it completely.

As for Ryan's Daughter, the first time I saw it I was hooked forever and it still seems amazing to me how he could come up with such an epic given the small-town nature of the story. And to me this is his real gift: the way he in his later films was able to tell intimate stories in such a detail and with such a knowledge of the human spirit using the broadest of canvases he could get. And boy, were they big!

You see, Lean made films for the audience and they always loved him for that. It was just a shame that he paid so much attention at what critics had to say. They did some irreparable damage to him.

I think it's about time for a real reassessment of this later works. Let's just hope that this new DVD does just that.

tryavna · #10 Post by **tryavna** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:21 pm

I've always felt that Ryan's Daughter is indeed a bit overblown -- or perhaps just over-long. The main problem is that, essentially, Lean has material for a compelling 2-hour drama that he extends into a 3-hour-plus faux-epic. And I'm not exactly sure why. Dr. Zhivago is an epic because the book was already a sweeping account of the times and because the film attempts to touch upon the key developments of the Russian Revolution. Perhaps Ryan's Daughter is a sort of anti-epic that consciously refuses to give us the reasons for its sweep. (It never touches upon the historical circumstances of the Irish rebellion in the same way that Dr. Z does the Revolution.) But I don't think that Lean intended for us to enjoy this film on that ironic level. So it just perplexes me. And I'm one of the people who will be buying it early on....

But as far as Lean's supposed decline goes, I always point to Passage to India, which I think is an almost total success (except for Alec Guinness' miscasting as a Hindu brahmin and its slow-paced finale). It seems to have the more restrained tone that Ryan's Daughter should have had.

Lino · #11 Post by **Lino** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:54 am

Been watching my TCM taped Ryan's Daughter in antecipation of the upcoming Warner DVD and it never ceases to amaze me how every frame composition is so perfect. Anyway, just taking this opportunity to recommend this book here below about Lean. It's really one of the very best ever written about a film director and every bit of its mammoth 800 page content is filled with amazing depth about him and his oeuvre. A must buy, no less.

kieslowski_67 · #12 Post by **kieslowski_67** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 3:08 pm

Finally! Given Warner's reputation, they sure will do a great job with the transfer.=D> =D> =D>

Fantastic DP work by Freddie Young and score by Jarre. Movie might be a a tad too long and second half's depiction of Irish rebellion does not mesh so well with the love story in the first half. Superlative performances abound and I cannot figure out why Christopher Jones did not become a bankable star after this. He has all the charisma that guys like Tom Cruise totally lack. A flawed masterpiece.

Lino · #13 Post by **Lino** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 3:47 pm

kieslowski_67 wrote:I cannot figure out why Christopher Jones did not become a bankable star after this

If you read the book I mention above, you'd see that the main reason for that is that Jones was not a very good actor to begin with. Lean had so many problems with him during production (mainly due to the actor's extreme lack of self-confidence) that he finally said for him to downplay his role so as to make it easier for him to go ahead with the playing.

This also came as a surprise to me when I first read it because I had the same exact reaction to him as you - which once again serves as a testimony to Lean as a very good actor's director.

If I'm not mistaken (and imdb.com might confirm this) he did very little acting after this. No wonder. His contribution to the story is vital, nonetheless and he achieved great results with little effort.

kieslowski_67 · #14 Post by **kieslowski_67** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 5:46 pm

Annie Mall wrote:
kieslowski_67 wrote:I cannot figure out why Christopher Jones did not become a bankable star after this
If you read the book I mention above, you'd see that the main reason for that is that Jones was not a very good actor to begin with. Lean had so many problems with him during production (mainly due to the actor's extreme lack of self-confidence) that he finally said for him to downplay his role so as to make it easier for him to go ahead with the playing.

This also came as a surprise to me when I first read it because I had the same exact reaction to him as you - which once again serves as a testimony to Lean as a very good actor's director.

If I'm not mistaken (and imdb.com might confirm this) he did very little acting after this. No wonder. His contribution to the story is vital, nonetheless and he achieved great results with little effort.

Annie, Thanks for your reply. I heard that story before. Well, Tom Cruise was not a decent actor to begin with and that did not prevent him from becoming one of the biggest bankable stars of all time. I talked to lots of people about "Ryan's daughter" and Chris Jones's role was always the hot topic. My wife told me that lots of her girlfriends in college all went nuts over him after catching the movie on the big screen in the mid 80s.

tryavna · #15 Post by **tryavna** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 1:05 pm

Annie Mall wrote:
kieslowski_67 wrote:I cannot figure out why Christopher Jones did not become a bankable star after this
If you read the book I mention above, you'd see that the main reason for that is that Jones was not a very good actor to begin with. Lean had so many problems with him during production (mainly due to the actor's extreme lack of self-confidence) that he finally said for him to downplay his role so as to make it easier for him to go ahead with the playing.

This also came as a surprise to me when I first read it because I had the same exact reaction to him as you - which once again serves as a testimony to Lean as a very good actor's director.

If I'm not mistaken (and imdb.com might confirm this) he did very little acting after this. No wonder. His contribution to the story is vital, nonetheless and he achieved great results with little effort.

IIRC, Jones' voice is actually dubbed in the final cut. Apparently, Lean felt he had no other option -- even after cutting back on Jones' total amount of dialogue.

Gigi M. · #16 Post by **Gigi M.** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:25 am

Man... 13 people on a commentary. That must be a record!!!

Lino · #17 Post by **Lino** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:02 am

206 minutes? I was under the impression that it was less though it's been awhile since I've watched it. Imdb says this:

Runtime: 195 min / Sweden:202 min

What gives? A typo, perhaps?

Lino · #18 Post by **Lino** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:42 am

Hmm...I've been doing some reading at home (picked up the BIG Lean book from the shelf) and some maths too and the 206 minutes time might be correct after all. Here's how: this film originally had an Intermission and I'm pretty sure that it also got an Overture, much like the previous Doctor Zhivago. So, if you put it all together, you got the 206 minutes duration time.

If all this is confirmed as correct, it will be the very first time that this complete version of Ryan's Daughter is released in the home video format. So, big, big kudos to Warner for doing that!

tavernier · #19 Post by **tavernier** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:45 pm

Annie Mall wrote:Hmm...I've been doing some reading at home (picked up the BIG Lean book from the shelf) and some maths too and the 206 minutes time might be correct after all. Here's how: this film originally had an Intermission and I'm pretty sure that it also got an Overture, much like the previous Doctor Zhivago. So, if you put it all together, you got the 206 minutes duration time.

That sounds about right!

tavernier · #20 Post by **tavernier** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:36 pm

Here's the lowdown on this set:
- the movie is spread out over both discs, 1:47 on disc one, 1:38 on disc two. There's entrance music, an intermission, an entr'acte, and closing music.
- the commentary, with 13 different people, is a jumble with some occasional insights (I didn't listen to all of it yet)
- on disc two, there's the new "Making of" doc (48 minutes) and two vintage docs ("We're the Last of the Traveling Circuses," 20 minutes, and "A Story of Love," 6 minutes)
- the 5.1 audio is nicely spaced but it would be nice to hear the original audio
- oh, yes: the transfer is simply amazing! Lean was a master stylist, and it shows again here.

Lino · #21 Post by **Lino** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:03 am

Fantastic news! This will be a treasured addition to my DVD collection. I simply cannot wait to own it! Maybe now people will start to regard this film as highly as it deserves.

Lino · #22 Post by **Lino** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:35 am

My heart is weeping tears of joy after reading this review on the Beaver:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... review.htm

Thank you so much, Warner!

Gigi M. · #23 Post by **Gigi M.** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:43 pm

Here's another review you might like Annie even dough you may not agree with this guy. Ryan's Daughter might be an imperfect film, however, is far from being as bab as this guy says.

DVDTOWN

Lino · #24 Post by **Lino** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 3:43 am

Yeah, I have read that one before but didn't care much for what he had to say so I dismissed it completely.

tryavna · #25 Post by **tryavna** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:48 pm

Hey, Annie, be sure to check out DVD Savant's review. He presents a fantastic reassessment of the film that's got me itching to check out the new DVD.

He still hasn't convinced me that all 3 and 1/2 hours are necessary for the story Lean wants to tell. (I just watched Nowhere in Africa last night and found it to possess the sort of epic sweep without the epic length that might have suited Ryan's Daughter.) But based on Savant's glowing review I'm certainly willing to reassess my own opinion of a film I haven't seen in close to a decade.