You might expect that a film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne would be a Western. However, The Quiet Man, nominated for Best Picture of 1952, is a gentle film that evokes the simple pleasures of life in the Irish countryside. You might think that such a film, given the pedigree of its cast (more on them later), would attempt, in some way, to depict the Irish people in non-stereotypical ways. However, The Quiet Man is one of the drinking-est movies ever. Hardly a moment goes by, it seems, without someone hoisting a pint. You might even think that the film's gorgeous co-star, Maureen O'Hara, would be able to transcend the long-standing images of redheads as being fiery and temperamental. Yet you'd be wrong there too, as the actress plays--or is forced to play?--to type most of the time.
Despite all of this, I still found The Quiet Man to be a charming, beautiful film. The color cinematography is so luscious that it will make you yearn for a vacation to the Emerald Isle. I don't know that the Irish landscape has ever been more lovingly depicted on film. Ford's cinematographers, Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout, deservedly won Oscars for their work here. Ford also won the award that year for Best Director, but this film is very different from the films he made in genres that were more familiar territory: westerns and war movies. This movie is a character study, really a study of several characters.
Wayne plays Sean Thornton, a boxer who has accidentally killed a man in the ring. He has retired to Ireland, the place of his mother's birth and where he himself was raised as a young boy, with plans to purchase her family's home and begin a new life. Having lived in Innisfree until his family moved to America, Sean knows several of the people in town. One of the first of his old friends he meets is Barry Fitzgerald's Michaeleen Flynn, who never refuses a drink regardless of the occasion. Flynn becomes Sean's unofficial envoy into the village life of Innisfree, trying to help him achieve his goal of purchasing his mother's house and winning the hand of O'Hara's Mary Kate Danaher.
Naturally, there are complications. The ancestral land is now owned by the Widow Tillane (played with a fun sense of archness by Mildred Natwick), and another landowner, Squire "Red" Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen), thinks he has a right to purchase the land before Sean gets it. The widow, however, has her heart set on courting Squire Danaher and gives the property to Sean in hopes that Red will forget about the land and focus on her instead. You know, of course, that doesn't happen, and when Wayne's Sean and O'Hara's Mary Kate meet and the romantic sparks fly, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that Red is the biggest obstacle they will face in their courtship.
You'd fall in love with O'Hara too if your first sight of her was as vivid as Sean's. Ford has O'Hara herding sheep the first time Wayne's character sees her. She's in vibrant blue and red, and her red hair glistens brightly in the sun. She's quite a vision. Throughout the movie, in fact, it's tough to take your eyes off O'Hara. She is almost always clad in bright colors which showcase her beauty. My personal favorite is when she wears green. If you'd forgotten just how stunning she was, watch this movie and all will be revealed.
The romance between Sean and Mary Kate has its comedic elements. The first time he kisses her, for example, she slaps him. When he refuses to take her bonnet in a town race--choosing the widow's bonnet instead--Mary Kate fumes. When their matchmaker, Michaeleen, takes them for their first carriage ride after they are allowed, finally, by her brother to court, he gives them the rules for appropriate behavior, including "no patty-fingers." No, I don't know what that is, either, but doesn't it sound funny? My favorite line about their relationship, though, also comes from Flynn. He tells Mary Kate: "Have the good manners not to hit the man until he's your husband and is entitled to hit you back." She refuses Sean after they married until her dowry can be provided; she's a very traditional bride in many ways. She even tries to leave town on the train at one point, only to have him drag her--literally at times, by the hair--back to town. I'm certainly not condoning violence against women, but the scene is played for laughs, and Sean gets what's coming to him soon afterward anyway.
One of the centerpieces of the film is the fight between Wayne and McLaglen, a character actor who appeared in many Ford films. The two men, ostensibly using so-called Marquis of Queensbury rules at all times, punch each other through the Irish countryside and into town. They even take a short beer break before continuing the slugfest. The entire town shows up for the match, and Michaeleen starts taking bets on which man will win. I won't ruin it for you, but I think it wouldn't take much to guess how a somewhat traditional Hollywood picture of the 1950s might end.
The supporting cast is first-rate, particularly McLaglen, Natwick, and Fitzgerald. I'd also like to point out how good Ward Bond is in the role of Father Lonergan. Given his usual tough guy roles, it's refreshing to see Bond here as the fishing-loving parish priest who doesn't mind taking a drink now and then. He and Natwick and Fitzgerald have a great time plotting a way to get Mary Kate and Sean married so that the widow and Red can finally be together.
It's the stars, though, who stand out here. Wayne is charming and witty, still masculine but not a man who resorts to violence (at least, at first) to deal with his problems or issues. I liked this performance. He was often an underrated actor, and The Quiet Man shows that he didn't need all of the macho posturing in order to be intriguing on film. In fact, despite a few on-screen implications by some of the townspeople, Wayne's Sean manages to convey a consistent sense of strength and security.
O'Hara is the real find there. She's as fiery as you'd expect a redhead to be, I suppose, but you have to admire the ferocity with which she tackles some of her scenes. When she "returns" Wayne's kiss, she's more aggressive with him than he has been with her. And there's a fire in her eyes whenever she has to confront her brother over the promised dowry of furniture and money. You won't be able to take your eyes off her when she's on screen. It makes perfect sense that Wayne's Sean would be immediately drawn to her. So are we.
I also want to mention briefly that this is one of the few films I've seen that has characters speaking in Gaelic, the native language of Ireland. O'Hara speaks a few words to the priest, apparently about the wedding night, and those lines are not translated into English. We are allowed to be as "shut out" of information as someone like Sean would be at that moment. I was happy to see that the original language of this beautiful country was allowed into the script and even happier that there were no subtitles to ruin the impact those words have on a viewer.
No comments:
Post a Comment