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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 3:30:02 GMT
Essays, comments, images … as always... encouraged and welcome !   |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 3:37:04 GMT
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 3:40:47 GMT
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 10, 2019 3:45:20 GMT
Would have preferred James Mason in the Mitchum role.....yet Mitchum is pretty good playing against type.
Trevor Howard is the heart of the movie - another great performance by him.
Absolutely beautiful-to-look at movie - I always name it among the top 5 movies to be seen on the big screen.
Is the plot worthy of a 3 hour running time? Who cares...in Lean's hands I'm immune to such criticism.
Cinema viewings - 2
TV/DVD - about 10
8/10
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 3:49:16 GMT
 "Robert Mitchum was widely felt to be badly miscast as a timid, frigid Irish schoolteacher. Director Sir David Lean believed that casting against type made movies more interesting." (IMDb) Lean was right (imo)!  "As problematic as the production was, Robert Mitchum said that he felt his performance in the movie ranked amongst his best, that Sir David Lean was one of the best directors with whom he had worked, and that he regretted the movie was so poorly received." |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 3:55:11 GMT
Speaking of Trevor Howard  "Robert Bolt wrote the part of Father Collins with Sir Alec Guinness in mind. Guinness, a staunch Catholic, sent Director Sir David Lean a long list of objections he had to the character's portrayal. Lean reportedly said "Thank you for being so frank", and then offered the part to Trevor Howard, who accepted."  |
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 10, 2019 4:00:39 GMT
Despite some of the most horrendous (and misinformed) reviews I've read, I believe the film made a healthy profit.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 4:16:05 GMT
More on John Mills "Sir John Mills was the first actor cast in this movie. He happened to be vacationing in Rome when Sir David Lean and Robert Bolt began developing the project. Lean (who lived in Venice at the time) met Mills in Rome and offered him the role of the village idiot. Mills accepted, though he remarked that he felt the role was "typecasting". "  |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 4:18:38 GMT
Despite some of the most horrendous (and misinformed) reviews I've read, I believe the film made a healthy profit. all I could find n the on the $$$ was "This movie was the fourth most successful movie at the U.S. box-office in 1970, taking in over thirteen million dollars ".
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Post by bravomailer on Sept 10, 2019 4:23:51 GMT
I lifted this from my posts on Delon's thread on recent viewings:
Critics didn’t care for Lean’s follow-up to Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. I did. If there’s any flaw it’s the similarity with Zhivago and the soundtrack, which while enjoyable isn’t Jarre’s best work.
The film depicts village life better than any other except maybe The Last Picture Show. Beneath the incredibly beautiful setting and cinematography are themes of faithlessness, infirmity, treachery, powerlessness, and dashed hopes – Ireland under the British. Events take place during World War One. There’s a collision between partners in an unconsummated marriage (Mitchum and Miles), a British officer (Jones), and the villagers’ nationalist aspirations.
Lean’s famous transition shot in Lawrence of Arabia has a match going out, then the desert sun rising. He inverts this here. Jones’s character watches the sun go down as he holds a blasting cap near a case of explosives. The sun slips beneath the horizon, the camera shifts to Mitchum and Miles. Mitchum lights a lamp and an explosion sounds in the distance.
The village idiot I took to be the encapsulation of the village - mentally deficient, incapable of refinement. The film is quite harsh on village life. The mobs are quick to condemn and attack but never realize they're attacking the wrong person. It was just someone who'd violated their norms. As for their nationalist aspirations, they are incapable of meaningful opposition, in part because of their prejudices, in part because of the treachery of the pub owner, Ryan. Intelligent people, Mitchum and Miles, get out. Mitchum leaves his Victrola with Mills.
Two of the actors in the village later had roles in Barry Lyndon - one as Barry's mother, the other as the highwayman Captain Feeney.
The storm sequence is spectacular. I see that Lean waited a year for a suitable gale, and it was worth it. I also see that Jones was in a dark mood because his former girlfriend was murdered during filming – Sharon Tate. I thought he did well as the British officer haunted by his experiences in France.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 5:00:36 GMT
I see you lifted from the best !  Another nice write up .. thanks ! |
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Post by mikef6 on Sept 10, 2019 5:06:54 GMT
Here is what I had to say way back when.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 5:12:42 GMT
"I could go on like this – one sentence heaping scorn, the next praising. Sometimes, as with Mill’s performance, doing both at once. " <--- well put !  Thanks for sharing your review ! mikef6 |
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Post by teleadm on Sept 10, 2019 8:40:16 GMT
Only seen it once, in the mid 1980s, and knowing about all the bad reviews that was available at the time, I still liked it.
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Post by vegalyra on Sept 10, 2019 13:50:19 GMT
My only concern is why this is the only "widescreen" era Lean film that hasn't been given a proper blu-ray. It deserves a release just based on the Freddie Young cinematography.
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Post by marshamae on Sept 10, 2019 14:06:29 GMT
I haven’t seen the film but I want to comment on the score. Three Maurice Jarre scores to Movies by Lean, and by the third one , they start to have more than a family resemblance .
Even the greatest composers for screen seem to have this problem . Off screen too.
Leonard Bernstein- after West Side Story he wrote several pieces but tge best known ,Chichester Psalms still sounded like West Side Story. It took the great upheaval of Mass to shake Bernstein into a new direction.
Ennio Morricone- after tge brilliant score for the Untouchables Morricone virtually repeated tge score for Bugsey.
David Amram- everything he did for film sounded like Manchuria candidate.
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Post by Toasted Cheese on Sept 10, 2019 14:09:18 GMT
Never forgot this film when I saw it in on a giant Cinerama 70mm screen in the mid 70's during a re-release when I was about 8yrs old. We only ended going by chance because a re-release of Fiddler On The Roof was sold out. My older sister and her silly friend were a bit bored by it if I recall, but I was enraptured by the sheer quality and beauty of it, even if very adult themed. My folks were stunned as well. A cinematic experience I have never forgotten and have since seen on vhs and on 35mm a couple of times in the early 00's, but not the same experience as it really begs to be seen as it was meant to be seen, in glorious 70mm. The film's story is told visually and many critics at the time were caught up in the new wave of more gritty, contemporary and social commentary late 60's early 70's cinema and thought they could tell a master how to make a film. Kael was being a bee with an itch. The casting is perfect to my mind and comments about Mitchum who was cast against type wasn't of any relevance to me and it was the first time I saw him and was very impressed by his portrayal.  |
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Post by Toasted Cheese on Sept 10, 2019 14:19:46 GMT
I lifted this from my posts on Delon's thread on recent viewings: Critics didn’t care for Lean’s follow-up to Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. I did. If there’s any flaw it’s the similarity with Zhivago and the soundtrack, which while enjoyable isn’t Jarre’s best work.The film depicts village life better than any other except maybe The Last Picture Show. Beneath the incredibly beautiful setting and cinematography are themes of faithlessness, infirmity, treachery, powerlessness, and dashed hopes – Ireland under the British. Events take place during World War One. There’s a collision between partners in an unconsummated marriage (Mitchum and Miles), a British officer (Jones), and the villagers’ nationalist aspirations. Lean’s famous transition shot in Lawrence of Arabia has a match going out, then the desert sun rising. He inverts this here. Jones’s character watches the sun go down as he holds a blasting cap near a case of explosives. The sun slips beneath the horizon, the camera shifts to Mitchum and Miles. Mitchum lights a lamp and an explosion sounds in the distance. The village idiot I took to be the encapsulation of the village - mentally deficient, incapable of refinement. The film is quite harsh on village life. The mobs are quick to condemn and attack but never realize they're attacking the wrong person. It was just someone who'd violated their norms. As for their nationalist aspirations, they are incapable of meaningful opposition, in part because of their prejudices, in part because of the treachery of the pub owner, Ryan. Intelligent people, Mitchum and Miles, get out. Mitchum leaves his Victrola with Mills. Two of the actors in the village later had roles in Barry Lyndon - one as Barry's mother, the other as the highwayman Captain Feeney. The storm sequence is spectacular. I see that Lean waited a year for a suitable gale, and it was worth it. I also see that Jones was in a dark mood because his former girlfriend was murdered during filming – Sharon Tate. I thought he did well as the British officer haunted by his experiences in France. I really like Jarre's score. It doesn't contain ethnic Irish sounds, but still flows with the truth of beauty of the presentation and I think complements the film wonderfully. I find Ryan's Daughter superior to Doctor Zhivago which I saw 3 times in the 80's in 70mm. Lean apparently regretted not actually filming DZ in 70mm, but he made up for that with RD.
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Post by mattgarth on Sept 10, 2019 19:43:13 GMT
Despite some of the most horrendous (and misinformed) reviews I've read, I believe the film made a healthy profit. Profit indeed -- lines were around the block in England and in America. But for super-sensitive Lean, it did not matter that the film was appreciated by audiences. It was all those negative reviews that sent him into a 14 year career snit that finally ended with PASSAGE TO INDIA in 1984.
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Post by Dirty Santa PaulsLaugh on Sept 10, 2019 20:37:28 GMT
David Lean knew out to fill up a movie screen. But as gorgeous as it is, Ryan’s Daughter lacks a compelling narrative or interesting characters. And Christopher Jones is not a good actor. Too bad someone like Peter O’Tool or Michael Caine could not have played the major. Mitchum is miscast as well.
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