John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man

Released by: Olive Films
Released on: March 24, 2010
Director: Sé Merry Doyle
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Jim Sheridan, Gabriel Byrne
Year: 2010
Purchase From Amazon

The Movie:

Maurice Walsh was an Irish novelist whose career hit its apex in the 1930s. The son of a farmer who had an interest in horses and literature, he had begun his writing career while in Civil Service in Scotland. His work exploded in popularity when he received a fan letter from J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, extolling the virtues of one his stories. In 1932, the year he retired from Civil Service, Walsh sold a short story entitled “The Quiet Man” to The Saturday Evening Post in the United States. It was published in the February 11, 1933 issue and later included in a book of his short stories, where it was renamed “The Green Rushes.” It would go on to become the most famous story the author ever wrote, thanks in part to John Ford's Oscar-winning 1952 film adaptation, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

Director Ford, born John Martin Feeney in February 1894 to Irish parents who had immigrated to the United States, purchased the rights to Walsh's story a couple of years after it was first published, but American studios had little interest in the tale, fearing that its setting would be unappealing to mass audiences. After one backstory was added and another subtracted, Ford—with the help of superstar John Wayne—received backing from Republic Pictures, under the condition that the pair first helm a low budget, black and white western. Shot mostly on location in Ireland, The Quiet Man was a resounding critical and commercial success. It also marked the fourth and last time Ford won an Academy Award for Best Director.

John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man is one of a handful of documentaries about the film; others include a Spanish program, Innisfree, shot in 1990, and The Making of The Quiet Man, which can be found on Olive's DVD and Blu-ray releases of the original film. What sets Dreaming The Quiet Man apart is its focus on the film's Irish heritage, an unsurprising angle giving that the documentary was directed by an Irishman—Sé Merry Doyle, founder of Loopline Film—and backed financially by the Irish Film Institute.

Narrated by Gabriel Byrne, John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man traces much of the film's history through the eyes of its director and its Irish participants. There are then-and-now shots of locales used for the original shoot, and surviving witnesses to the film's creation are interviewed. John Ford and John Wayne, both of whom passed away in the 1970s, may not have been on hand to participate, but star Maureen O'Hara was, and she easily steals the film from the various historians, critics, and former spectators with whom she shares it. Also interviewed are directors Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich and one of Wayne's daughters.

The documentary is certainly an interesting one, and it doesn't overstay its welcome as so many attempts at production histories do. It is informative and sometimes funny, offering a view of life in small-town Ireland that hasn't changed a great deal in the past few centuries, and therein lies its greatest appeal.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Olive Films has chosen to release John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man with an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 1080p on a 25GB disc, which is suitable given that the film runs a mere 92 minutes. While the modern-day interviews were obviously shot in various locations, at various times, and with various types of cameras, the image is surprisingly consistent, with a great deal of detail. Colors tend to be naturalistic, and there's no crush. These sequences appear in 1.78:1. The archival footage, which consists of scenes from the original movie as well as footage of John Ford in Monument Valley, doesn't look nearly as good. Scenes from the film are shaky and often marred by ghosting, while the scenes of John Ford are speckled. (Much of the archival footage is understandably presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.) In the long run, however, these issues are minor, given that the overwhelming majority of the film is made up of interview snippets, location footage, and photographs scanned in high definition.

The documentary's soundtrack is presented in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Given that the film's track is made up entirely of interviews and excerpts from the movie, the sound is perfectly serviceable. There are no melodramatic musical cues for emotional impact or explosive sound effects desperately in need of clarity and direction. That said, some of the native Irish participants have accents that will seem strong to many American ears, resulting in dialogue that is sometimes difficult to follow. Thus, the lack of subtitles is an issue at times.

Olive has packed its release of John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man with extras. First up are excerpts from Maureen O'Hara's interview which were not included in the documentary itself. The most amazing thing about O'Hara is that her recollections were made nearly sixty years after the film was shot, yet her memory is spot-on and she never misses a beat. Also on full display is her brutal honesty as well as her wry wit. The featurette runs an all-too-brief eight minutes in length.

“The Story Behind The Quiet Man Costumes” is exactly what it sounds like: the story behind The Quiet Man's costumes, many of which were made by a family-owned business in Ireland. Memorabilia from the film is still displayed on the walls of that selfsame shop. The featurette runs three minutes and forty-five seconds. “Maureen Coyne Cashman—A Quiet Man Extra” is a brief interview with one of the film's extras, a woman who played the granddaughter of Francis Ford's character, and runs one minute and fifty-six seconds. “The Quiet Man Sheepdog” is an anecdote from Stephen Murphy about the film's unsung hero, its sheepdog. Murphy's thick Irish brogue is difficult to follow, but the featurette runs a mere thirty-eight seconds in length. “May Murphy upstages John Wayne in The Quiet Man” is another anecdote, this one from a woman who was six years old at the time of filming, and lasts less than a minute and a half. “Jack Heanue & John Daly on the Horse Race Sequence” runs a little over two-and-a-half minutes and discusses the film's horse race, which was shot by Wayne while Ford was sick. “The Annual Quiet Man Fan Club Celebration” is a two-minute featurette with interview snippets from participants in the titular celebration. And finally, rounding out the extras is the film's trailer, running a little over two minutes.

The film is divided into eight chapters, which can be accessed through the menu screen.

The Final Word:

John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man is an interesting document of the film's history and local impact. The image looks good in general, though archival footage is at times problematic. Maureen O'Hara steals the film from her “costars,” and while it can be a little dry at times, it's a must-see for fans of The Quiet Man. An important and much-needed companion to Olive's Blu-ray release of the original film, Dreaming The Quiet Man is a documentary that Ford/Wayne/O'Hara aficionados won't want to miss.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!