Ryan’s Daughter is a 1970 British epic romantic drama film directed by David Lean and written by Robert Bolt. Loosely inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel Madame Bovary, the film stars Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles as a married Irish couple whose lives are upended when the wife begins an affair with a British officer during World War I. Set in a remote coastal village in Ireland between August 1917 and January 1918, the film explores themes of love, betrayal, and political unrest amid rising nationalist tensions. The supporting cast includes John Mills, Christopher Jones, Trevor Howard, and Leo McKern.

Plot

In August 1917, Rosy Ryan, the only daughter of pub owner Thomas Ryan, grows restless in the quiet Irish village of Kirrary on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. The village is strongly nationalist, hostile to the British soldiers stationed nearby. Although Thomas outwardly supports Irish independence, he secretly acts as an informer for the British. Rosy, yearning for excitement, becomes romantically involved with the village schoolteacher, widower Charles Shaughnessy. Despite his warnings that he cannot offer her a passionate life, they marry and move into the schoolhouse, where his emotional reserve and lack of physical affection disappoint her.

Awards