Kat's Film Reviews: The Quiet Man

Thursday, May 15, 2003

The Quiet Man

I know I'm going to get hate mail because of this review. This film won two Academy Awards, best director and best cinematography, and was nominated for five others. I fully recognize John Ford's genius, but I recognize it in a different way than I think others do (based on how popular and well-liked this film seems to be). I think Ford took a ridiculous premise and an abhorrent ideology and made a semi-OK film somehow. A man retires to Ireland, where his parents came from before they moved to America, and has to learn that things work differently in his adopted country. The problem is that this man, played not ably at all by John Wayne (more wooden acting I've not seen since Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing), was a boxer and killed a man in the ring so he doesn't want to fight in Ireland. Sounds like a good idea to me. But, everything that happens pushes him towards doing just that. And everybody is happy once he does! As you recall, I had a similar problem with Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. This is even worse -- fighting seems to be all these people live for, and it doesn't much matter that the reasons for starting a fight are noble sentiments, namely loyalty and honor. It's not very noble to physically hurt another person. Especially when there's no reason for it other than that it's tradtional and expected. I suppose this is my main problem with Westerns as well (Ford was one of the premier directors of Westerns in their heyday), but my pacifist attitude is a discussion for another time. The only things I did like were Maureen O'Hara's and Barry Fitzgerald's acting. Fitzgerald was a hoot and nearly saved the film for me. I'll have to leave this review on a negative note (are you surprised?). The folks behind the DVD transfer for some reason didn't feel it worthwhile to restore the film before the transfer. The colors are muddy and washed-out in places, and you're treated to the pan-n-scan version not the widescreen version, so that famous cinematography is wasted.

year: 1952
length: 129 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045061/combined

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