Review of The Quiet Man (1952) by Michael T — 08 Aug 2008

A movie populated by characters with Irish accents who are not a.) blowing things up, b.) saying "fawk" ("fuck"). It cannot be.

John Ford directed this rather fanciful tale about the kind of Ireland that he and many Irish-Americans would like to think existed. John Wayne is a boxer who killed a man in the ring in the USA and returns to his family home in Ireland and meets (and of course) and falls head over heels in love with Maureen O'Hara. The film is filled with outdated sexual stereotypes but is a nice, gentle romatic-comedy from a director more known for his action-filled westerns (there is a long drawn-out fistfight between Wayne and Victor McLaglan, however, and Wayne competes in a horse race). Wayne and O'Hara had great chemistry together on screen, never more so in this surprisingly sexy film.