Ryan's Daughter

Ryan's Daughter (1970) is David Lean's sweeping romantic drama, available to watch online on iFILM. The setting: a windswept Irish village on the Atlantic coast in 1916.

Rosy, the publican's daughter, marries Charles — the older, mild schoolteacher she imagined would turn out to be more than he is. The marriage cools fast. Then a shell-shocked British officer arrives to garrison the area, and Rosy discovers what her quiet life had been missing. All of it unfolds against the aftermath of the Easter Rising, guns bound for the IRA, and neighbours who miss nothing.

This was Lean's third epic with screenwriter Robert Bolt, following Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. Freddie Young's photography turned the Dingle Peninsula into a character of its own and took home the cinematography Oscar; John Mills picked up a second, playing the village's mute outcast without a line of dialogue. Critics savaged the film's scale on release, yet its reputation has warmed considerably since. Three and a half hours for viewers who love big, unhurried cinema. Stream Ryan's Daughter (1970) online on iFILM.