Director: John Ford
I love a good romantic comedy, particularly one from Hollywood's Golden Age. Seeing that John Ford was at the helm of The Quiet Man boosted my interest in the film; the man was one of the greats. Add to that the Irish countryside as the film's setting, and I was confident I was onto a winner.
Well, I liked parts of it, but the film has certainly not aged well with its gender politics. Wayne's Sean Thornton's manhandling of his wife is uncomfortable to watch now, though Maureen O'Hara is no shrinking violet. Indeed, her Kate rather shouts her way through the film, and her insistence that Sean go and defend her honour, or he gets no marital privileges, equally doesn't scan well these days. I do understand her reasons - the money and furniture were her mothers, and symbolise her independence from her father - but she comes across as unreasonable.
Despite this, the Irish landscape is the true star, with its gorgeous greenery, and Wayne and O'Hara do have great chemistry together; their kiss during the storm is old-fashionedly swoony. It is a bit of charming fun, and shows the audience that, like Scorsese with The Age of Innocence, Ford was not just a one-genre director.
Your comment on the gender politics here is right on the money. It is really weird and Sean and Kate seem to me rather like caricatures, exaggerated character types, than real people. I for one would quickly give up on a person like Kate. She acts like this before they are married? That does not bode well for the time after. Same with Sean. He has to learn to be tough on his wife. What?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, they are caricatures. While a lot of romantic comedies do have extreme characters, the best ones do have a continuity to them. These two seemed to change half-way through the film.
DeleteThe film's lesson seems to be ask your intended questions about what they want before you actually get married.
Yeah, that is a really good idea... :-)
DeleteThis was pretty much my reaction, too. It might have played when it was first made, but today all of these characters seem hopelessly provincial. Hard to really like a film when the reaction to all of the main characters is a desire to slap them.
ReplyDeleteStill, it's damn pretty, and it showed the John Wayne could do more than be a cowboy or a Marine.
Well, the characters seem to give each othe slaps, so at least it does fulfill that!
DeleteWayne's Sean was interesting until the whole marriage thing - I liked how he approached the neighbours and slowly won them over.