Mother's Day Recommendation: The Quiet Man

 

                                      I know I'm way past the point of Mother's Day, but in my defense, I was suffering through a minor cold and chose to take a ton of drugs to make myself feel better along with drinking a lot of Sunny D and sleeping. Also, kids never listen to what the allergy med's box says in terms of directions like Mucinex, always take two tablets instead of one, you'll feel like a million bucks. Alright let’s get back to paying tribute to my mommy dearest. My parents through the years have always had us watching some of the movies that they loved and for my Dad it was a ton of John Wayne films that I grow and loved, though Mom for sure loved John Wayne as an actor and so her favorite movie of Wayne's as always been The Quiet Man, for which at the time was both John Wayne and John Ford's piece of work that was really the opposite of what they usually collaborated together.

                                      After accidentally killing an opponent in the ring, boxer Sean Thornton (John Wayne) leaves America and returns to his native Ireland, hoping to buy his family's homestead and live in peace. In doing so, he runs afoul of Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen), who long coveted the property. Spitefully, Will objects when his fiery sister Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara), begins a romance with Sean, and refuses to hand over her dowry. Mary Kate refuses to consummate the marriage until Sean retrieves the money.

                                       Now if you haven't seen John Ford film or John Wayne film I'll explain these two American icons in a nut shell, John Ford was really the godfather of the golden age western genre in all fairness he was literally the Taylor Sheridan of that Golden Age of Hollywood, and a lot of his films really consist of going outside and shooting Cowboys and Indians furthermore really making something out of them and his go to Cowboy was John Wayne and the two of them each created one of the greatest Westerns of all time. So, around 1933 Ford read the short story that was based on The Quiet Man and soon purchased the rights to for just ten dollars. Fast forward to the release of the movie or production, Maurice Walsh was paid another $2,500 when Republic bought the idea, and he received a final payment of $3,750 when the film was made. Even, Republic Pictures agreed to finance the film with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in the starring roles as well as John Ford at the directing helm, but only if all three agreed to first film a Western with Republic, for which leads to the three's first collaboration Rio Grande, then after that film they each headed to Ireland to start shooting The Quiet Man. I am not going to say much when it comes to the directing of John Ford because the man won Best Director for the film at the Oscars, and both Wayne and O'Hara who I grew up watching McClintock (which is another great film these two did together) and really the two of them each have such great chemistry together that Wayne himself said that Maureen O'Hara was his favorite on screen woman, in fact it was O'Hara that converted Wayne to Christianity in later life so, which explains why they we're such a great couple in this film furthermore why they chose to do more films together. Sure the stars we're great as always, but the supporting cast deserves some credit in making the film amazing as it is, especially when majority of the supporting cast we're all full-fledged Irish actors, like Barry Fitzgerald does such a great job being the good friend to Wayne guiding him through the ways of Ireland I really couldn't image anyone to play that character especially when Fitzgerald share a small music singing session with Maureen O'Hara. Another one who needs to share some spotlight, is Victor Young who composed the music to the Quiet Man moreover was a friend of John Ford, for a million reasons it's the one music score where O'Hara's family stated Maureen listened to the music from The Quiet Man during her final hours, the same with the late filmmaker George Romero who re-invented the zombie genre. One of best romantic comedies of all time, and I can see why this is my mom’s all-time favorite John Wayne movie. Moreover, a perfect St. Patty's Day movie to watch but most importantly if there is any John Wayne I would recommend to anyone who hasn't seen any of the duke’s amazing films and trust me when I say this, it's a large list.