Review of Quiet Man, The

Introduction

John Wayne stars in this fifties classic as American Sean Thornton. On returning to his home village to settle down he falls for Mary Kate (Maureen O’Hara and sets about courting here. It’s not easy as she is the sister of Will Dahaner (Victor McLagen), an angry neighbour who has no time for the American and his ways.

The Quiet Man of the title is Wayne’s character of Sean Thornton who harbours a tragic secret from his past. Now backing off from confrontation he eventually comes to realise that everyone has to make a stand for what they believe in and for the who they love.

Set in a picturesque part of Southern Ireland it has become part of the local tourist trade to the present day with people frequently visiting the area that this film in which the location footage was shot. The film itself is steeped in Irish culture and is as much a look at said culture as it is a love story.

Video

The video quality on this disc really is rather poor. Presented in full-frame 4:3 the image seems to be constantly just out of focus. The colours look very unrealistic and give the picture an almost painting-like quality in their brashness. In some of the darker scenes its almost as if a torch has been shone at the centre of the screen as the closer you get to the edges the darker it gets. There are numerous film artefacts throughout the movie and at best the presentation could be described as fuzzy and with poor definition, a transfer which belies it’s age.

Audio

The audio is stereo and fairs no better than the picture. It sounds muffled throughout and shows it’s age. Also there is a hissing running through the length of the movie which becomes a major annoyance when played at louder volumes.

Features

A trailer along with some stills. Nothing more.

Conclusion

I wasn’t looking forward to reviewing this disc one bit. Although it was released to critical acclaim in 1952 (winning 3 academy awards) it didn’t appeal to me one bit. I’m not really a fan of the older classics nor particularly keen on tales of romance however there is allot to like in this movie.

Allot of the likeable parts come from the interaction with the 1920s Irish culture. Having been to Ireland on a few occasions it’s amazing to see how little has really changed to be honest. That’s not such a bad thing but at numerous points I stifled a chuckle at various characters that appeared throughout the movie behaved in the exact same way as some of characters I had run into during my visits. One point to note is that I’m not sure the Irish people of 1920 spent quite so much time singing at every possible opportunity :).

The love story has it’s more amusing moments and the leading pair put in a solid performance with John Wayne being as watchable as ever. I didn’t get swept up by any of the emotional scenes however most of it is more light hearted thus more watchable for someone like myself.

A classic movie that non-fans just might find mildly entertaining, but not likely entertaining enough to purchase. If this sort of movie is your thing you’ll enjoy watching this movie once again however you will curse at the absence of a decent transfer or remastering. Whilst still being marginally better quality than VHS it will really come down to how important is it that you have this movie on DVD and as such I can’t really recommend purchasing it.