Ryan's Daughter - Reception

Reception

Upon its initial release, the film received a hostile reception from the critical community. Roger Ebert felt that "Lean's characters, well written and well acted, are finally dwarfed by his excessive scale."

Many attribute the bad reviews to critics' expectations being too high as Lean had directed three epics in a row before Ryan's Daughter. The preview cut, which ran to over 220 minutes, was criticized for its length and poor pacing; Lean felt obliged to remove up to 17 minutes of footage before the film's wide release, and the missing footage has not been restored or located. Lean took these criticisms very personally, and claimed at the time that he would never make another film.(Others dispute this, citing the fact that Lean tried but was unable to get several projects off the ground, most notably The Bounty.) The film was moderately successful worldwide at the box office and was one of the most successful films of 1970 in Britain, where it ran at a West End theatre for almost two years straight.

The film has also been criticised for its perceived depiction of the Irish proletariat as uncivilised compared with the occupying British forces and the Catholic Church. An Irish commentator has since described them in 2008 as ".. the local herd-like and libidinous populace who lack gainful employment to keep them occupied." Some criticised the film as an attempt to blacken the legacy of the 1916 Easter Rising and the subsequent Irish War of Independence in relation to the eruption of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland at the time of the film's release, but approval of the project had started years before the Troubles. The depiction of the mob stripping and cutting the hair off Rosy, while gratuitously holding and punching her husband brings to mind the historical examples of 1944's liberated France, where after Liberation, women accused of having slept with German soldiers were often mistreated.

Since the film's release on DVD, Ryan's Daughter has been reconsidered by many critics, now claimed by many to be an overlooked masterpiece, countering many of the criticisms such as its alleged "excessive scale". Other elements, like John Mills' caricature of 'the village idiot' (an Oscar-winning performance) have withstood the test of time less well. The film is still not as widely accepted as Lean's other epics and its critical reputation remains mixed at best. It stands out from his previous work, being characterized by a slower pace, more expansive and allegorical directing, with less dialogue than in previous films, though the film builds tension, albeit slowly.