The Curates Egg

Location, Location, Location

In July we had a fantastic holiday in Ireland and spent a week on the west coast in Connemara. Stunning scenery, good beaches, excellent weather, friendly locals, and Guinness – it had everything. Well not quite everything – there were no cinemas. Imagine my delight then when I discovered we could do something with a film link; drive a few miles inland and visit some of the places which in 1952 had provided the locations for an Oscar winning film. And not just any film, one of my personal favourites – 'The Quiet Man' starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Barry Fitzgerald. I dragged Diane and Katharine off to the village of Cong, County Mayo where most of the filming was done and then to the bridge at Leam which John Wayne stands on at the beginning of the film, and which is now signposted as 'The Quiet Man Bridge'. Despite their occasional grumbles I had a great time and when we finally got back to Dursley we all enjoyed watching the film again (and spotting the locations).    

John Wayne and me on Leam Bridge (I'm the one on the left).

 The Quiet Man

John Wayne plays an Irish born American boxer who (we discover) has accidentally killed a man in the ring and vowed never to fight again. He seeks out a new life by returning to Ireland to the village of his birth and there he meets and falls in love with Maureen O'Hara. Despite Wayne falling out with her brother (Victor McLaglen) they marry - but McLaglen refuses to pay the dowry and O'Hara accuses her husband of cowardice for not fighting her brother for what is rightfully theirs. At first Wayne is resolute but eventually (inevitably) there ensues what is still, I believe, the longest ever fist fight in a film.

If all this sounds a bit solemn – it isn't. Despite some serious moments the whole film is light, funny and hugely enjoyable. Never the less the film has been criticised for its treatment of women ("Here's a fine stick to beat the lovely lady"), it's stereotyping of the Irish ("He'll regret it till his dying day, if ever he lives that long") and the portrayal of a sentimental imaginary Ireland which never actually existed.

I think this misses the point however; the director (John Ford) was clever enough, and Irish enough, to know exactly what he was doing: to tell a story similar to a Shakespearian romantic comedy, set in a world which has ritual, tradition and community at its heart - and is in direct contrast to 20^th century America. The place of women in the film may not be equal to that of men but it is a realistic one historically and they do have an important place which needs to be understood within the customs and traditions of the community shown - and the individual women are certainly not weak or submissive. Similarly the Ireland shown may be a stereotype, but it is meant to be a symbolic one not a patronising one - and I think Ford succeeds in this. For me therefore it is the supporting characters with all their wonderful personalities that make this film special – particularly the superb Barry Fitzgerald.

Another criticism is that Wayne's pacifism is explicitly seen not to work, and that the resolution of his problems only comes about through resorting to violence himself - a message which directly contradicts the Christian faith and the teaching of Jesus. For many people the tendency of countless films to show that the answer to the hero's problems is to impart a violent and bloody revenge/judgement on the bad guys is one of the biggest problems with the film business. The audience cheers the hero along and it perpetuates the myth that violence is a legitimate, effective and necessary solution to evil (what Walter Wink called "the Myth of Redemptive Violence"). I think this is an important point and one well worth exploring – but not necessarily with this film

Firstly there are many films which are far better examples (Rambo, Taxi Driver, etc, etc) and at the end of the fight no one loses but Wayne and McLaglen end up as friends. Secondly the fight needs to be seen in the context of the local traditions and as such it is almost ritualistic in nature, and a sharp contrast is made between it and the fatal boxing match which brought Wayne to Ireland by showing the latter in a nightmarish flashback.

Epilogue

If all that seems unnecessarily reflective then let me assure you that you can watch the film without discussing feminism, national stereotypes or redemptive violence (though it's not a bad idea to do so) and that the most important thing is to enjoy it for the extremely heart warming, funny and uplifting film that it is (I'd be happy to lend it to you on video or DVD if you want).

To find out more about where the film was made go to The Quiet Man Locations .

For an excellent in depth article on  how the film looks through or beyond its Irish setting to a more universal level of human experience go to "Ireland Imagined in The Quiet Man"

 

Tim