The visuals are beautiful even for a David Lean film - the cliffs, the wind, the coast, the town. The authenticity level is low. This didn't seem to matter for Lean's earlier movies but something about this one does - maybe it's because it's a 1970 movie, shot in Ireland, where there's heaps of good actors. None of the leads are Irish - Mitchum, Miles, Leo McKern, Trevor Howard, John Mills. Mills' village idiot performance now reeks of Simple Jack-ness.
Because the film takes so long for such a simple story the mind has a chance to wander and contemplate the casting.Robert Mitchum in the lead. Hmm... The producer thought Gregory Peck would've been better. Alec Guiness could've worked (he had an innate sexlessness - you'd understand his wife cheating). But as the film went on I warmed to Mitchum - he's big and lumbering and looks dopey, like a St Bernard. It's fine work.
Sara Miles in the lead... she can act, she's fine... I constantly got the sense though that they did this for Julie Christie. Maybe because I'd just seen Zhivago but that's what I felt. I can't criticse her performance. I just wish Julie Christie had played it.
Barry Foster is effective as an IRA man. It helps he has a juicy role, shooting policemen and importing guns, but he does have a great presence. So too does Christopher Jones. Too cool for school, yes, but he has a great look. His voice was dubbed but it doesn't matter. The townsfolk aren't really depicted with much nuance - the women are shrill harpies and the men yell.
I quite like this film. It was unduly criticised at the time. It looks gorgeous even on the small screen - that storm sequence! I'll have to see it on the big screen one day. Dramatically it's satisfactory, building to a good old head shaving of the town harlot.
The main flaw is a super simple story is dragged out far too long for characters who aren't complex. Old low sex drive man, hot for it wife, traumastised soldier... we've seen these before. There's none of the freshness of Kwai's Colonel Nicholson or TE Lawrence, or the subplots of those films or the epic sweep of Zhivago who goes through so much and those colorful characters. What's there is fine, but just do it at two hours, guys.
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