While adding to my filmography of must-watch movies, I was told to watch The Quiet Man by multiple different people. I decided to give the movie a go, and I’m extremely happy I did.
Is there any classic Irish love story that compares to The Quiet Man with John Wayne? The film stars Western legend John Wayne, who once made a wild plan to ‘scare off KGB agents’ sent after him by the Soviet regime.
The old-school flick has the ultimate ingredients list to be the perfect Irish love story, and it is.
An American boxer, Sean Thornton (John Wayne), who, desperately wants to change, moves to his native Ireland where he meets a sassy female lead whose older brother forces him back into the ring to fight all over again. As if this were enough, Thornton is running from his own demons back in the U.S.
The film has everything a love story needs, and even more. It’s quite simply electric.
I mean, where do the writer’s get this stuff. To make it even better, the female lead is a fiery female with red hair to match named Mary Kate, who is everything a woman should be, loud, independent and mad. Sign me up.
As someone who loves Ireland and nature, the first thing I would do if I needed to escape America and erase my past would be to venture off to the Irish countryside, just like Mr. Thornton, so when I learned about this film, I knew I was going to love it.
Now, is the movie perfect? No. I don’t love how Sean always treated and threw around Mary Kate. While I don’t approve of every scene where Mary Kate doesn’t get a say, like the fact that he only gets to wed her because he wins a horse race, I am able to enjoy it because I remember that is just a movie.
I believe the only way to make a perfect Irish love story is to have a killer plot, which this movie does, while making it crude, funny and real. A Quiet Man checks all these boxes.
Anyone who is Irish should be proud of this film, and make it an instant classic in their movie night rotation. While I don’t want to give too much away, I’m normally not a fan of older films, as I find myself getting bored, but this was the total opposite.
A Quiet Man gets an A+ in my book, and I’m surprised as to how much I loved it.