Dave: But that is one of the few objectionable parts of an
otherwise great movie. It is paralleled in several others O'Hara
starred in with Wayne. "The Quiet Man" wasn't at all about reviving
Wayne's manhood. The point was that it takes more of a man to
restrain himself in the face of trivial provocations than it does
to fight and perhaps kill over things that don't matter. And when
the Duke throws her around (or, in other movies, e.g. McClintock,
in which he not only spanks her but instructs his prospective son
in law on how to spank his daughter with a small metal shovel) he's
indulging in an act that defines unmanliness: violence toward
women. He'd have been much better to have booted her out the door
and gone looking for a less bothersome match. I still maintain ol'
Maureen was more trouble than she was worth.
But we started this whole mess around Babs Streisand. Talk about
a woman who's more trouble than she's worth...
topics:
Movies, Law
