Fellas, I may be out of my league, and please forgive my hit-and-run (I won’t be checking back regularly this weekend), but Maureen O’Hara was stellar in The Quiet Man. In fact, everything about the movie was top-notch. Okay, so Miss O’Hara seemed a bit shrill. She had to play the prideful, traditional woman who could tame John Wayne’s Yankee sensibilities but also rejuvenate his manhood. Confused about the distinction between all violence and just violence, Wayne’s character thought he could retreat into pacifism and the warm atmosphere of tradition without its burdens. This was unstable mix for that man in that environment, and Miss O’Hara played a wonderful earthly redeemer: demanding the respect of her strong man, part of which was his defense of her.

Jed, surely you take solace in the scene in which Wayne’s character drags O’Hara’s over the fields to confront her brother?