Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 22, 2015

John Ford’s filmography is so vaunted and iconic that even listing the relatively few of his films which have appeared on Blu-ray (thus far) is like ticking off a laundry list of cinematic classics. The Searchers. My Darling Clementine. How Green Was My Valley. The Grapes of Wrath. Stagecoach. Fort Apache. Even supposedly “lesser” Ford films like Drums Along The Mohawk or Rio Grande often tower above “siblings” by other directors. In Ford’s long and august oeuvre there is nonetheless no film of his that is more beloved than The Quiet Man, Ford’s elegiac and whimsical homage to an Ireland that probably never existed outside of the febrile imagination of those who claim Irish ancestry or who otherwise feel a link to the so-called Emerald Isle. The Quiet Man has retained a luster that few films of its era, and perhaps even its general sensibility, have managed to over the ensuing years, and it remains a high water mark in the careers not just of Ford and star John Wayne, but many (maybe even most) of the other performers who gallivant through Frank S. Nugent’s tale of the stormy relationship between Irish-American boxer Sean Thornton and the fiery Mary Kate Danaher.

When John Ford and his coterie of stars and film technicians set down in Cong, a tiny village in Ireland that straddles the storied counties of Galway and Mayo, the natives had never seen anything like it, as is made completely clear by the still wonderfully clear reminiscences of several elders who were in some cases rather young children in the early fifties. Dreaming the Quiet Man doesn’t take an overly detailed amount of time offering explanations as to why Ford insisted that The Quiet Man have at least its exteriors filmed on location, but the implication is clear: Ford wanted to reconnect with his roots, as well as perhaps to get out from under the meddling thumbs of Hollywood types, especially the Republic Pictures types who tended to be nervous penny pinchers.

Cong is now the site of a rather lucrative tourist trade, all centered around the film and its history. “Downtown” Cong, which was rather radically reinvented for the film, still bears many signs (literal and otherwise) of the film, with such establishments as Cohan’s Pub still holding sway. The documentary makes it clear that Cohan’s was actually owned by the Murphy family (some of whom were still around when the documentary was shot) and was actually a hardware store, but who’s counting? (Some online research while writing this review revealed that Cohan’s went on the market for around a half a million a couple of years ago.) The artifice of The Quiet Man is nicely contrasted with the down to earth, almost dowdy, ambience of many of Cong’s inhabitants, some of whom at least make (or made) their living on those trying to recreate that original artifice on a vacation.

While Dreaming the Quiet Man does a good job of detailing Ford’s rather prickly demeanor, courtesy of great interviews with star Maureen O’Hara and such latter day Ford acolytes as Peter Bogdanovich, some of the most compelling information is simple anecdotal fare offered by the townspeople. That said, it’s rather amusing, if also kind of shocking, to hear O’Hara relate what a “stinker” Ford could be, even to his prized star. There is a very funny montage in one of the Bogdanovich sequences showing a series of questions Bogdanovich lobbed at Ford during a shoot in Utah (probably for Cheyenne Summer), with Ford either not answering or yelling out “cut!” to a crew who ostensibly was not under his command (one assumes they were Bogdanovich’s forces, assembled for a would be documentary on the director).

Fans of The Quiet Man may not be overly surprised by much of the information imparted by this documentary, but it’s offered in much the same heartfelt manner that the film itself tends to convey its tale. Lovingly and rather evocatively narrated by Gabriel Byrne, Dreaming the Quiet Man offers a good generalist overview of Ford himself as well as one of his most prized creations, done in a straightforward, well constructed, way. Never really revelatory but always enjoyable, Dreaming the Quiet Man should help to rekindle those smoldering fires which may have died to embers since viewers last took in the actual film.

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer largely in 1.78:1 (quite a bit of the archival material hovers around 1.33:1, with some slight variances). As should probably be expected, the contemporary interview segments with the likes of Maureen O'Hara, Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese, as well as the modern day sequences taking place in and around Cong, look the sharpest and offer the best clarity of this feature. These sequences offer nicely saturated color (even in dank, gray Ireland) and excellent image stability. What isn't expected is how shoddy so much of the archival footage looks, including (sadly) snippets from the actual film. Most of this looks to me to have been sourced from some ancient, and in some cases likely interlaced, sources. There are anomalies running rampant through a lot of this footage, including combing artifacts, fringing and edge enhancement (in the case of the film snippets) and other video anomalies like ghosting.

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 isn't exactly a sonic showcase, built out of fairly unimpressive elements like narration and first person reminiscences, but it offers suitable support for what is in essence a pretty talky documentary. What might have helped this release at least a bit is subtitles, for some of those Irish brogues are thick enough to cut with a knife, and for we poor native "American" speakers, can be somewhat hard to decipher at times. That said, fidelity is excellent and there are no issues of any kind to report.

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Maureen O'Hara Interview (1080p; 8:13) looks to be from the same session that is utilized in the main feature.


• The Story Behind The Quiet Man Costumes (1080p; 3:45) focuses on Ford's desires for the costumes and the family who constructed the costumes.


• Maureen Coyne Cashman - A Quiet Man Extra (1080p; 1:56) travels to Dover, New Jersey to profile one of the film's extras.


• The Quiet Man Sheepdog (1080p; 00:38) is a brief interview with Stephen Murphy, whose family owned the dog in the film.


• May Murphy Upstages John Wayne in The Quiet Man (1080p; 1:34) profiles May Murphy, who interrupted a take on the film as a little girl.


• Jack Heanue & John Daly on the Horse Race Sequence (1080p; 2:40) features more interviews with natives reminiscing about the filming.


• The Annual Quiet Man Fan Club Celebration (1080p; 1:55) is a brief visit with some of the film's many fans.


• Trailer (1080p; 2:06)

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man offers some fantastic interviews and a wealth of nicely assembled information about both the film and its iconic director. Great contemporary interviews with the likes of O'Hara or Wayne's daughter are intercut wisely with Irish folks who were around when the film was being shot. Some of the archival footage is pretty rough looking, but that's a small price to pay for having such a wonderful video "scrapbook" of the making of one of the most iconic films of the 20th century. Highly recommended.