Last week, I talked about the western film and how, like musicals, I have to be in the right frame of mind to watch one.
As I pointed out last week, when I think of western films, two names immediately come to mind--John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. I focused on Eastwood specifically, not just as an actor, but as a director. Over the last 50+ years, he's made a lot of "revisionist" westerns--films like Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and of course Unforgiven--films that were more realistic than the westerns we had seen in decades past. In Eastwood's films, you couldn't always tell who was good and who was bad by the colour of their hats. Good guys weren't completely good, bad guys weren't completely bad--there was a certain moral ambiguity all around.
John Wayne's movies, on the other hand--and not just his westerns--featured no such ambiguity. Concepts like "good" and "bad" were very much defined in black and white--oftentimes they were even filmed that way.
Through the years, Wayne seemed to excel in two film genres--the western and the war film. If he wasn't on horseback, he was in the trenches keeping America safe overseas. He was a champion of good old fashioned "American" ("conservative") values, which today comes off as a bit outdated, even kind of corny.
Because I'm on the eccentric side, however, my favourite John Wayne movie is my favourite because it is neither a western nor a war film. And even though there is some politically incorrect material, particularly his physical treatment of Maureen O'Hara's character as well as clearly outdated male/female relationship dynamics, I tend to look at it as a product of its time--at the very least a product of the time that's depicted in the movie. In spite of that, O'Hara, who provided the commentary track for the DVD, seemed extremely proud to have been a part of it, even citing it as her favourite of her own movies.
In the film, Wayne plays Sean Thornton, an American boxer who has given up on the sport--we find out later he accidentally killed a man in the ring--who returns to his birthplace in Ireland to live a quiet life. There he falls in love with Mary Kate Danaher (O'Hara) who lives nearby with her brother Will (Victor McLaglen). Sean eventually wears down Mary Kate's fiery resolve with some help from Michaleen Oge Flynn, a local matchmaker (played by Barry Fitzgerald, who steals every scene he's in). Will, however, doesn't like Sean too much and refuses to pay the proper dowry (like I said, outdated male/female relationship dynamics). This leads to what I believe to be one of the greatest cinematic fistfights of all time--certainly one of the funniest.
I think what really makes it my favourite John Wayne film has nothing to do with any of that. Director John Ford--who worked with Wayne 14 times and O'Hara five times, three times with both of them together--had a specific vision for the film that was a hard sell to Republic Pictures, but he stuck to his guns and it paid off.
He wanted to shoot the film on location in Ireland, something that was virtually unheard of at the time. He also wanted to shoot it in Technicolor, which was considerably more expensive than shooting it in black and white. Republic initially didn't want to do it--given the basic story, they didn't figure anyone would go see the picture, so why put up the added expense for locations and Technicolor? Ford was insistent and the executives at Republic eventually agreed on the condition that, in exchange, Ford would make a low-budget, black and white western with Wayne and O'Hara that would be guaranteed to make money at the box office--in this case, 1950's Rio Grande.
However, Republic's concerns were ill-founded. Ford's apparent passion project went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Supporting Actor (McLaglen). It did win for Best Cinematography--back in the days when there were two cinematography categories, one for colour and one for black and white--and Ford scored his fourth Oscar for Best Director.
My favourite story, however, involves what lengths some directors will go to in order to get what they want out of their actors. At the end of the film, Mary Kate whispers something in Sean's ear. He gives her a funny look and then chases her up the hill. After a few takes, Ford was still not getting the reaction he wanted out of Wayne. According to O'Hara, Ford told her to whisper something specific in Wayne's ear. She had some issues with saying it, but she did it anyway. The look on Wayne's face indicates that he was not expecting that and he inadvertently gave Ford exactly what he was trying to capture. To this day, no one knows precisely what she said to him and all three of them took that information to their graves.
Released in 1952 and based on a story by Maurice Walsh (adapted for the screen by Frank S. Nugent), this week, please enjoy The Quiet Man.
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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