Ryan's Daughter

David Lean's melancholy 1970 romance never achieved the reputation enjoyed by the director's epic dramas such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. In fact, as critic Richard Schickel (who himself admits to calling the movie a euphemism for “crap”) points out in one of the bonus featurettes, the attacks of reviewers were “immediate and ferocious.” Therefore Ryan's Daughter, featuring Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles in a tale of adultery set against the backdrop of the 1916 Irish Rebellion, seems an unlikely candidate for the deluxe treatment it's been accorded in this remarkably comprehensive special edition. An oddly cast but surprisingly effective Mitchum plays a stolid schoolmaster whose younger, beautiful wife Rosy (Miles) carries on a passionate but illicit relationship with a British officer (Christopher Jones) in command of the occupying troop stationed in her small village. When word of the affair leaks out, Rosy is branded an adulterer, and accused of being an informer as well. Digitally remastered from original 65mm film elements and audio-enhanced to Dolby Digital 5.1 specifications, what really makes this “special edition” worth having are the various supplemental features, including nearly 90 minutes of new material: three featurettes written, produced, and directed by Laurent Bouzereau (Miles makes significant on-camera contributions to these, as does Lean biographer Stephen M. Silverman, and a host of others, including Mitchum's daughter Petrine and Lean's widow Sandra); representation of Lean and screenwriter Robert Bolt in “We're the Last of the Traveling Circuses” footage originally shot for a Barry Brown-produced BBC documentary on the film; and a six-minute production featurette narrated by Gregory Peck. In addition, the commentary track boasts 13 participants, including distinguished directors John Boorman and Hugh Hudson. It's taken 35 years, but Ryan's Daughter has finally gotten the respect some thought it deserved all along. Recommended. (E. Hulse)