242. The Quiet Man (1952)

Directed By John Ford

Synopsis

John Wayne is a yank that comes to Ireland back to the town where he was born. He falls in love with a feisty redhead whose brother is quite intractable. This eventually leads to Wayne getting married to the girl but with the brother withholding the dowry. This goes on to a pretty good fight scene.

Review

John Ford is definitely a man's director, even in what is supposed to be a romantic film the focus is all on drinking, male bonding, fighting and dragging a woman around. Actually the woman is the least three-dimensional of the characters in the film.

That said it is still a pretty entertaining film, the image of Ireland show in it is completely fictional of course, this is Hollywood making a fairytale, and definitely not a true to life portrayal of life in Ireland. The IRA lives happily with the Anglican vicar who lives happily with the Catholic Priest.

But there is a sense of joy to the film which erases its problems which are quite apparent to a modern audience, Ford manages to instil the film with a very good pace that keeps you interested and with a great collection of secondary characters that add colour to the whole thing. Good film.


Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was something of a departure for Wayne and Ford, who were both known mostly for their Westerns. It was also a departure for Republic Pictures, which was given the chance to back Ford in what was considered a risky venture at the time. It was the first time the studio, known for low budget B-movies, put out a film receiving an Oscar nomination, the only Best Picture nomination the studio would ever receive.

Ford read the story in 1933, and soon purchased the story for $10. It took over 12 years for the film to be financed and made. Small Republic Pictures agreed to finance the film with O'Hara and Wayne with Ford directing, only if all three agreed to film a western with Republic. All three agreed and after filming Rio Grande they all left for Ireland to start shooting. John Wayne would eventually describe the movie as the favorite of his long career.

One of the conditions that Republic Pictures placed on John Ford was that the film came in at under two hours total running time. The finished picture was two hours and fifteen minutes long. When screening the film for Republic Studio executives, Ford stopped the film at approximately two hours in: on the verge of the climactic fight between Wayne and McLaglen. Republic executives relented and allowed the film to run its full length. It was one of the few films that Republic filmed in Technicolor; most of the studio's other color films were made in a more economical process known as Trucolor.

The film employed many actors from the Irish theater, including Barry Fitzgerald's brother Arthur Shields, as well as extras from the Irish countryside and is one of the few Hollywood movies in which spoken Irish can be heard.

The story is set on the Isle of Innisfree, an island in Lough Gill, County Sligo. Many scenes for the film were actually shot in and around the village of Cong, County Mayo and on the grounds of Cong's Ashford Castle. Cong is now a wealthy small town and the castle a 5-star luxury hotel. The connections with the film have led to the area becoming a tourist attraction.

The whole thing is on youtube, here's part 1: