The Quiet Man

1952 wife-beating epic

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Following the death of an opponent and his retirement from boxing, John Wayne O'Leary returns from America to his Ireland birthplace. He purchases the old family property and falls in love with the redheaded neighbor Mary Kate O'Mulligan, apparently because she's the first woman he sees and looks like the type of woman who would be fun to beat the crap out of. Her brother, Hefty O'Topheavy, doesn't like John Wayne O'Leary, ostensibly because of his goofy hat, and does everything he can to keep the two apart.

Is there really enough story here for a complete movie? I was never all that interested in the romance. In fact, I had no interest in either John Wayne or Maureen O'Hara's characters at all and thought the peripheral characters, really in there only to add local color, were much more interesting. The main conflict, muddled by Irish courting customs that never made much sense to me, also really wasn't that interesting. The story clunks along, eventually building to a difficult-to-watch twenty minute scene glorifying spousal abuse which is immediately followed by a preposterous twenty minute scene in which Wayne and the brother engage in awkwardly old-timey fisticuffs. In the end, it all seems like a really long joke. John Wayne as a serious actor could be considered kind of a joke, too. This story and his character depend far too much on his acting ability, and he really have enough range to make a character that seems real. The real star of the show is probably Ireland's countryside, filmed beautifully with lovely splashes of vivid color. The movie's worth watching for Ireland alone probably, but I also really liked the odd assortment of minor characters and the music in The Quiet Man.

This was another Cory recommendation.