Ryan's Daughter - Production

Production

Robert Bolt's original idea was to make a film of Madame Bovary, starring Sarah Miles. Lean read the script and said that he did not find it interesting, but suggested to Bolt that he would like to rework it into another setting. The film still retains parallels with Flaubert's novel– Rosy parallels Emma Bovary, Charles is her husband, Major Doryan is analogous to Rodolfo and Leon, Emma's lovers.

Lean had to wait a year before a suitably dramatic storm appeared. The image was kept clear by a glass disk spinning in front of the lens. Leo McKern was injured and badly shaken while filming the storm sequence, nearly drowning and losing his glass eye. He also disliked the amount of time spent working on the project, and afterwards claimed he would never act again (indeed, he did not act in films or television for several years). His comment on the experience was, "I don't like to be paid £500 a week for sitting down and playing Scrabble."

Reportedly, Robert Mitchum was initially reluctant to take the role. While he admired the script, he was undergoing a personal crisis at the time and when pressed by Lean as to why he wouldn't be available for filming, told him "I was actually planning on committing suicide." Upon hearing of this, scriptwriter Robert Bolt said to him "Well, if you just finish working on this wretched little film and then do yourself in, I'd be happy to stand the expenses of your burial."

Mitchum clashed with Lean, famously saying that "Working with David Lean is like constructing the Taj Mahal out of toothpicks." Despite this, Mitchum confided to friends and family that he felt Ryan's Daughter was among his best roles and he always regretted the negative response the film received. In a radio interview, Mitchum claimed (despite the difficult production) Lean was one of the best directors he'd worked with.

Christopher Jones and Lean clashed frequently. Sharon Tate, a friend of Jones' with whom he later claimed he was having an affair, was killed by Charles Manson and his followers during filming, devastating the actor. Jones and Sarah Miles also grew to dislike one another, leading to trouble when filming the love scenes. Gerald Sim's Captain Smith character was virtually a bit part in the script, but because of difficulties with Jones' high-pitched voice, which was deemed unsuitable and in need of dubbing, his scene was re-written so that Sim would speak most of the dialogue in the scene.

Ryan's Daughter was the last feature film photographed entirely in the 65mm Super Panavision format until Far and Away (1992), which was shot largely at the same locations. Owing to bad weather, many of the beach scenes were filmed in Cape Town, South Africa.

The village in the film was built by the production company from stone so that it could withstand the storms. Villagers from the town of Dunquin were hired as extras. The area was at the time economically destitute, but the amount of money spent in the town – nearly a million pounds – revived the local economy and led to increased immigration to the Dingle Peninsula.

In the scene before Doryan commits suicide, there is a cut from a sunset to Charles striking a match, which is a sly allusion to Lawrence of Arabia with its famous cut from Peter O'Toole blowing out a match to a sunrise in the desert.