The Quiet Man (DVD)

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John Wayne plays the role of Sean Thornton, he was born n Ireland but lived his life in America where he was a boxer. He has decided that he would move back to Ireland to the town where he was born as he has now ended his career after he killed a man in the ring.

When he arrives in town he finds things are very different to his way of life in America and after some persuasion he persuades an old lady to sell him an old cottage ...
...The arrival of Sean is not welcomed by Will Dansher as he wanted to buy the land but was never sold it.

Sean meets a beautiful lady called Mary Kate and he falls for her the only problem being she is the sister of his now rival Will and as the town is very old fashioned Sean has tog et the permission of Will to court her. With the help of the drunk Michaeleen, the town marriage broker and taxi driver and all round drunk he tries to ... more

As I have quite enjoyed John Wayne’s film when he has not been plying a cowboy I was quite looking forward to seeing this, yes I cant believe t myself but I was looking forward to it!!!!

John Wayne plays the role of Sean Thornton, he was born n Ireland but lived his life in America where he was a boxer. He has decided that he would move back to Ireland to the town where he was born as he has now ended his career after he killed a man in the ring.

When he arrives in town he finds things are very different to his way of life in America and after some persuasion he persuades an old lady to sell him an old cottage and land where he was born and his family lived. The arrival of Sean is not welcomed by Will Dansher as he wanted to buy the land but was never sold it.

Sean meets a beautiful lady called Mary Kate and he falls for her the only problem being she is the sister of his now rival Will and as the town is very old fashioned Sean has tog et the permission of Will to court her. With the help of the drunk Michaeleen, the town marriage broker and taxi driver and all round drunk he tries to get Will to change his mind but when he point blank refuses Sean gives up.

Will the townspeople be able to change Will’s mind and will the two rivals ever make peace?

I was quiet impressed with this film as it is far from being a western or cowboy film. The storyline was very good and I did learn from it, the ways of the old fashioned dating experience was new to me and I did find it interesting how they had to ask permission to from the man of the house to date a lady and how they were not allowed to be on their own when courting. This did lead to some funny moments in the film.

The character which John Wayne played, Sean Thornton was indeed very good an d think he did a good job and made the character believable and did try to make him different from other roles he has done. He did have his American accent which I was pleased about as I could not imagine him trying to do an Irish accent and think this would have completely spoilt the film. Maureen O’Hara played the role of Mary Kate and I thinks he did a great job of playing the loud, fiery red head but despite the two being love interests there was no chemistry between them on screen and they looked quite wooden together.

There were a lot of supporting actors and actresses in the film and my favourite was Barry Fitzgerald who played the role of Michaeleen Flynn, the drunk and marriage broker and taxi driver, he did bring a fun side to the film and I did find I was chuckling at some of the things he got up to. I did like how he would only give messages out if he was given a drink and how he could never drive his cart past the pub but always had to go inside! This role did bring a light and fun side to the film. Also Victor McLaglen who played the role of Will Dansher was very good sand I think he worked well with John Wayne on screen and I liked how they were reunited in this film as they have made films together before and also have a great on screen chemistry.

The film was set in Ireland in the 1920’s and I think that the settings and costumes were all very good and did look authentic. There were some lovely shots of the countryside which did add to the film for me but the only let down was the backdrops. One minute we would be seeing the horse and cart riding through the countryside shot on location and then we would see the characters close up on the cart and a very bad painted back drop added behind them. Yes the film was made in 1952 but I have seen older films than this that did have much better backdrops. They did get so bad in places that it was quite laughable. The music in the film was very good and did help with the emotions and setting of the scene throughout the film.

The film has a running time of 2 hours and 9 minutes which I felt was long enough and the certificate on this film is a Universal which means that it is suitable for all. I do agree with this rating but I don’t think any children would have an interest in the film.

The DVD which we have does not have any bonus material and we bought it several months ago so I cannot remember the price we paid. It is available from both Amazon and EBay for under £5 though.

I do recommend this film as it does have a good storyline and features some great actors and actresses and John Wayne is quite good in this one!
 

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