The Quiet Man

Saw The Quiet Man, a production by that duo of Johns: Wayne and Ford. It's a super-Irish film about an American (Wayne) who wants to settle down in his ancestral home in Ireland. He also wants to marry a high-strung Irish girl who lives next door, to further enliven the proceedings. The film begins in a very tedious way, with grudging acceptance being slowly won by virtue of his picking a fight with the town bully (who happens to be the girl's brother.) For the most part, it sticks to the formula suggested in the preceding. He marries the girl is short order and settles with the mean old brother. The movie left me very conflicted however, as John Ford movies sometimes do.

There's a simplicity about the films that is almost innocent, but which sometimes feels like a pernicious lie. For example, the brother refuses to hand over the wife's dowry. In the wife's mind, that money is owed to her and her not having it means her brother holds sway over her. Now I'm already conflicted. If I were in her position, I would be happy to forgive the debt if only to be rid of the unpleasant relation. On the other hand, she has been working as a maid for her hated brother for years and perhaps what little she has is of greater importance to her (she has a moving speech about how her money and furniture represent her dreams and the dreams of her mothers before her. Are we meant to be moved by this, or are we meant to roll our eyes? I think first the former, then the latter.) She accuses Wayne of being a coward because he will not fight for her (which I feel is nonsense. Fight your own battles, lady.) and of course that Does It. He drags her along to a final show-down, collecting a giant crowd of gawkers en route. One of them, an old lady, offers Wayne "a good stick to beat the lovely lady." To the film's credit, no beating takes place (though he does take the stick,) but that we are presumably meant to feel that physical violence is kind of warranted is unsettling to me. Then again, wasn't I just moralizing that the girl was misbehaving and is a joking reference to a beating really so amiss?

The final fist fight (of course) solves the remaining problems, demonstrating that violence is sometimes the answer. I cringe at the simplicity of it, but maybe things are (or can be ) that simple. It feels so childish and simplistic, really the stuff of playground fantasies, but I'm not sure if it's not really the deceptive simplicity of idealism. OR it may just be escapist nonsense, meant for those who believe problems can be solved by a good punch-out. I'm conflicted. Oh well. A knotty (and possibly too personal) puzzle that goes far beyond this film.