‘The Quiet Man’ screens this weekend in Petaluma
It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day.
For some that means drinking Guinness and wearing green. For others the holiday is all about corned beef and cabbage, Irish music, green hats and jokes about leprechauns.
But for many others, St. Patrick’s Day mainly means that it’s time to watch “The Quiet Man” again.
For years now, cable television stations and movie revival houses have marked the 17th of March by screening the 1952 John Wayne-Maureen O’Hara classic - among other shamrock-flavored films (see sidebar). This year, thanks to Boulevard Cinemas’ popular Flashback series, Petaluma jumps aboard with two screenings of “The Quiet Man” on St. Patrick’s Day itself (followed by two more the following Wednesday).
The film’s indelible popularity makes sense.
The spirited comedy-romance, directed by John Ford, does still hold up, dramatically anyway, for its charming small town setting and magnificent all-through-the-town fist-fight-brawl at the end - if not so much for its eye-poppingly flippant misogyny and baffling political references. Often listed as one of the most romantic films ever made, “The Quiet Man,” featuring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara and the green hills of Ireland, has also been called one of the most uncomfortable, sexist and insidiously creepy movies to ever be called “romantic.”
In the wake of the Me-Too movement, and the vast consciousness-raising conversations we’ve been having about Hollywood’s decades-long depictions of women as mere doormats and sex objects, watching “The Quiet Man” now is a very different experience than it was a mere ten years ago, when some of its scenes could at least be viewed through the lens of that-was-then/this-is-now.
So, is there still a place for “The Quiet Man” on St. Patrick’s Day, 2019?
Probably, but not quite the same place it’s held for the last 67 years.
Produced by Republic Pictures, better known for black-and-white westerns than for lush, colorful Irish romances, the film was reportedly only given the green light after Ford, Wayne and O’Hara all agreed to first make the low-budget cavalry-and-Indians picture “Rio Grande.” The trio literally flew directly from Utah, upon completing the western, to County Mayo, in Ireland, where a month of exterior shots were filmed before heading to Hollywood for the interior scenes. It turns out to have been a good deal for all involved.
“Rio Grande” did well at the box office, and “The Quiet Man” did even better, becoming Republic’s most successful film, and garnering the company its one and only best film Oscar award. Ford won Best Director for the film as well, and the movie itself was nominated for Best Picture. It lost, bafflingly, to Cecil B. Demille’s over-the-top circus epic “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Today, of course, there are no holidays in which millions of people watch “The Greatest Show on Earth,” so in one way “The Quiet Man” did win out after all.
The plot follows Shawn Thornton (Wayne), an American boxer who has sworn off fighting after a tragedy in the ring. He returns to the tiny Irish town of his birth, eager to settle down. After making an enemy of a local landowner, Squire Will Danaher, who he outbids in a sale of his former childhood home, Thornton promptly falls in love Danaher’s sister, the fiery and self-empowered Mary Kate (O’Hara). The romantic fireworks are mutual, setting up a series of conflicts between Thornton and Danaher, with Kate caught in the middle. And sometimes the battle is between the two Danahers, with Thornton in the middle. The chemistry between Wayne and O’Hara (who made a total of seven pictures together) is electrifying.
The late-in-the-movie shot outside of the couple’s cottage, with O’Hara whispering something playfully suggestive into Wayne’s ear, provoking a delightedly surprised look on his face, followed by the couple scampering excitedly back to the cottage (presumably for a bit of afternoon delight), is arguably one of the sexiest moments in movie history. It’s definitely the steamiest movie moment ever involving John Wayne. There is also an onscreen kiss between the two that is arguably the hottest kiss of either actor’s career. Thirty years later, that kiss would be memorably “sampled” in Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,” in a scene where the impressionable alien watches “The Quiet Man” and telekinetically inspires his human friend Elliot to kiss the adolescent girl of his dreams.
The movie also boasts gorgeous Technicolor cinematography by Winton C. Hoch (who won an Oscar for it), a memorable musical score based on classic jigs and reels of Ireland, and one of the best and longest fistfights ever captured on celluloid. Its supporting cast is filled with great character actors, and screenwriter Frank Nugent gives them delightfully quotable things to say. In other words, there are a lot of reasons to love “The Quiet Man.”
But the film clearly remains the product of a distinctly different time, deserving of its reputation as a “problematic” classic, even a “guilty pleasure.”
One could argue that the movie’s popularity, despite its flaws, is precisely because it so distinctly represents a different time, when very different attitudes about love and marriage were the norm. The scene where Wayne drags O’Hara home is among the film’s most charming, while other scenes – such as the gasp-inducing line, “Sir! Sir! Here’s a good stick to beat the lovely lady!”– still somehow make people laugh, even as they sit squirming in their seats.
Despite such points, both John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara cited “The Quiet Man” as one of the films they were proudest of, and O’Hara, according to members of her family, was allegedly listening to the film’s soundtrack as she died, at age 95, in October of 2015. O’Hara, for what it’s worth, always named “The Quiet Man” as her personal favorite film, often arguing that the film was not at all sexist, since her iconic character - confident, self-aware and strong, all the way to that very last whispered invitation - was every man’s equal and anything but a victim.
So will “The Quiet Man” still be a favorite St. Patrick’s Day film in another ten years? Who knows?
For now, there are plenty of movie-watchers who look forward to seeing it one more time, on the big screen or small, be it “problematic” or not.
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