Patrick McElroy Finds the Heart of Ford in THE QUIET MAN (1952, dir by John Ford, US)

When thinking of the films of John Ford, one often doesn’t think of them as romantic.  They may often think of them as noble, tough, and old fashioned in the best sense. But in many of his films there’s a longing for something that was past, and perhaps the most famous example in his career of this theme is his 1952 masterpiece The Quiet Man, which turns 70 today.

The film takes place in the 1920s, and centers around Sean "Trooper Thorn" Thornton (John Wayne),  a former boxer who’s returning from Pittsburgh to his place of birth in Inisfree Ireland. When he  arrives there, he attempts to buy a farm that once belonged to family, but instead falls in love with one of the townspeople, Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara). The rest of the film chronicles their relationship, his feud with her brother Squire "Red" Will (Victor McLaglen), the happenings of the town, and the rivalry between Catholics and Protestants.

Coming from an Irish Catholic background, Ford is a filmmaker who celebrates community, versus the rugged Protestant individualism, that formed much of American society. In this film he uses many great wide and master shots to show this celebration of how many people can come together. Through several of his films there’s a romance that’s often forbidden, whether it’s in How Green Was My Valley, Fort Apache, or The Searchers, where two characters long for the touch of one another, but can’t express it.

Within Ford’s own life, he married a divorced Protestant from the South which wouldn’t sit well with either of their families but was done out of love. In this film Sean is a rough and tough man who longs for Mary Kate, but the ways of society keep them apart. With Wayne’s performance he embodies what seems to be the cold masculinity of men, but beneath is  a heart that desires another. With O’Hara’s performance, she brings spunk to her character that matches with Wayne’s inner romantic. The film also has many of what were referred to as the Ford stock company, since he worked with so many of the same actors on each film.

Ford made  the film with Republic pictures, where many of the films at the time - such as Fair Wind to Java, Montana Belle, and most notably Johnny Guitar - were shot on the color stock Trucolor. While  these movies were beautiful, Ford refused to film with it and filmed it in Technicolor, which capture the luminous greens of the Irish country better than any other film.

Many future  filmmakers would be impacted by the film, most famously Steven Spielberg, who would pay homage to it in his classic E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. When Martin Scorsese was filming his  masterpiece Raging Bull he wasn’t a boxing expert, so he looked at the boxing sequence in this film, and it influenced the psychological perspective of the fights in his film. While George  A. Romero may be known for his zombie classics, this would be one of his top five favorite  films, and in 2017 while he was on his death bead he was listening to Victor Young’s score.

The Quiet Man is a film that celebrates the spirit of what it is to be Irish, but even when it isn’t St. Patrick’s Day. The movie still plays well, as it has for several decades, and will continue to for many more.

Patrick McElroy is a movie writer and movie lover based in Los Angeles. Check out his other writing at: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.mcelroy.3726 or his IG: @mcelroy.patrick