Watching The Quiet Man has become something of a St. Patrick’s Day tradition in my house. While I must have seen this film about a bazillion times since before I could walk, I have only recently started to really understand it. It’s so weird when that happens; you see a film that you thought you knew because you’d seen it ever since your childhood, but after awhile when you know more about the issues behind it, and you realize just how much you were missing before. When I was younger I thought this film was pretty boring because I didn’t understand any of it; but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Sean Thorton (John Wayne) is a retired boxer who’s come to settle in Innisfree, Ireland. He was born there and immigrated to America when he was quite young. After killing an opponent in the ring, he resists fighting at any cost. He feels terrible about it and doesn’t want anyone to know what he’s done. He has trouble adjusting completely to some of the Irish customs, having been raised in America. This culture clash brings out his fighting side again, as much as he tries to repress it.

Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara), is the girl Sean falls for once he gets to Ireland. Her brother Will (Victor McLaglen) already hates Sean’s guts for buying a cottage that he was going to buy, which also happens to be the cottage Sean was born in. Apparently they have very rigid customs regarding courtship in Ireland back whenever this is set in (I’m guessing ’20s with that reference to prohibition but it’s hard to tell because it’s in Ireland). They have to enlist the help of Michaleen Oge Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald) in order to get anywhere. They then have to get Will’s approval since he’s basically the overlord of Mary Kate, and then they have to go through elaborate rituals which seem very tedious to an American audience and especially to Sean. They cannot interact with each other except under Micheleen’s supervision, and even then they can only talk, and only about approved subjects. They find their way around this though.

Eventually they are able to get married. This is when things get really serious. The only reason Will allowed them to be together in the first place was because some of the memebers of the town tricked him. Father Lonnergan (Ward Bond), The Reverend Mr. Playfair (Arthur Shields), his wife (Eileen Crowe), and Micheleen entered into a conspiracy, telling Will that the only reason the Widow Tillane (Mildred Natwick) wouldn’t marry him was because Mary Kate was still around. The idea is that the Widow Tillane wouldn’t have wanted to share the householdy duties with Mary Kate, and even though that’s not the only things stopping Tillane and Will from getting married, they have a valid point. Mary Kate and the Widow are both pretty strong-willed women who may on occasion take crap from men but they certainly wouldn’t from another woman. Now that Mary Kate’s married off to Sean, Will thinks he’s pretty much sealed the deal with the Widow. Sorry, doesn’t work they way. In his rage, he takes back Mary Kate’s dowry, leaving her with nothing except what Sean has (which is apparently quite a lot from boxing).

Now, I never understood this as a kid. So what? She lost her money but Sean’s still got tons, who cares? Mr. Playfair explains that “the money isn’t just the money to her” so after I had realized that I dimissed her wanting the fortune as a local custom that I would never understand, so until the last couple times around I hadn’t tried to. Her desire for her fortune is partially because she doesn’t want her brother to have it; she wants to be completely independent of him. She can’t be completely independent of everybody because the culture doesn’t allow it, but it’s better for her to get her money from Will and live with Sean who at least treats her a heck of a lot better than Will. And, you know, they’re in love and all. In this situation, it’s not really the money that matters; it’s just a symbol of her starting her own life, which is what you are supposed to do when you get married. The custom in general though, is maybe not as horrible and nonsensical as I once believed. At least the woman goes into the marriage with something, because (the Widow is an example of this) having money is really the only way a woman can be independent here, and if you think about that’s probably true of anybody anywhere. Money’s important, whether you want it to be or not. (Of course the husband technically owns it I think, which is not so good.)

Sean, of course, thinks it’s not important. Especially with his boxing history, he doesn’t think that money is worth fighting over. What he doesn’t understand is that Will really needs somebody to knock him around for awhile; nobody ever challenges this dude because he’s freakin huge, but everybody’s got a problem with him. He throws his weight around all the live-long day, writing people’s names down in his book (or more accurately, having his henchman do it for him) for slightly inconvenicing him or embarrassing him in any way. This really gets old about halfway into the film, and the only way you can tolarate this guy is that when he’s raging at people he occasionally is unintentionally funny: “He’ll regret it to his dying day, if ever he lives that long.” There’s one good reason to fight Will right there. Another is that Mary Kate needs him to. Not only does Will need to be taught a lesson, but Mary Kate needs to teach it to him. She can’t really, because she’s a woman and obviously can’t fight him, but Sean is the next best thing. It’s considered unmanly if he doesn’t stand up for her, and Mary Kate starts to get real ashamed of him after awhile. There’s another good reason. The fact that the town hasn’t seen a good fight in awhile is another reason; I don’t know how good it is though. So it has to happen, the only question is how bad things have to get until Sean steps up. And forget about trying to work this out by negotiation because it is just not going to happen.

One of the best things about The Quiet Man is the townspeople. You really get to know them; even if you don’t know all of them by name you feel like you know what makes them tick. There’s a really great ensemble cast in this film, and they work together really well to bring you right into Innisfree and how it works. There’s the occasional voice-over naration by Father Lonnergan which helps more with setting up his character than anything else. As it’s a primarily catholic town, he advises and looks after basically everybody. He also loves fishing. You see him trying to catch this one fish about three times, and he never does because he keeps getting interupted. It’s just little stuff like this that really goes a long way in establishing the town. There’s also this old guy, who stands up on Sean’s side when he first gets there because he knew his grandfather. He keeps popping up every so often, and his final act is so hilarious I will not give it away. You get to really love this guy, even though you don’t know exactly who he is.

A lot of Irish stereotypes get held up in this film, and I don’t really know how to feel about that. I mean on one hand it’s a lot of fun and can even be really humorous, but on the other I don’t know if it would be considered demeaning or anything. The main characters are all so individual though that I don’t see many people coming out to charge this movie of anything too serious though. But you can’t really ignore what happens here. I mean, there’s sexism that may be more an example of the time than anything else, but it’s not too great to see regardless. The way everybody is quick to get all up in arms about the slightest thing is definitely there as well. The whole thing leads up to a great big fight, with everybody stopping whatever they are doing and eagerly following it all over town. I do mean everybody, even the religious people. Micheleen starts taking bets, and the drinks are on the house at the local pub (which apparently doesn’t happen that often judging by everyone’s surprise). Micheleen himself was a pretty stereotypical guy like that, too. He drinks like there’s no tomorrow, and it’s pretty funny because of the way he is always asking everybody for a drink in a supposedly crafty way but it’s really pretty obvious. There’s one stereotype that is not included, and that’s the religious differences. The Reverend and Father Lonnergan get along so well, that he asks his congregation to pretend to be protestants for awhile so Playfair’s bishop won’t transfer him to a town where there are more protestants. That was pretty heartwarming, I gotta say.

The Quiet Man gives you a lot to think about, though this may not be the case if you were first exposed to it when you had a fully developed brain, which I wasn’t. It’s a fun movie, getting you wrapped up in the big fight that it makes you wait for and showing you all the colorfull townspeople along the way. There are a great many humorous lines and romantic moments between Wayne and O’Hara. For all the problems with the customs and everything, it still remains a movie from my childhood that is very special to me.

“I, I think your in-laws are commin’ to pay you visit, Squire darlin’.”

Long story short: 3.5/4 stars