John Ford's The Quiet Man

721 Words2 Pages

John Ford’s 1952 drama, The Quiet Man, is a classic American film about an American, Sean Thornton, who returns home to his roots in Ireland. Ford uses emotional scenes, film techniques, and an impactful ending to make this movie effective enough to be nominated for best picture.
One of Ford’s brightest spots of this film is the involvement of the character Michael Film. He uses him as the comedic relief when many of the scenes get emotional. He is often shown being drunk or getting drunk in almost every scene of the movie which lightened up the mood of the serious relationship between John and Mary Kate. Through the first half of the film, Ford sets me up to figure out who Sean Thornton was in America and why he is so rich. He constantly builds anxiety over me as I watched until he hit a breaking point. The climax of the film took place when Will, Mary Kate’s brother, challenged Sean to a fight over the rights of Sean marrying Mary Kate. Sean is challenged but …show more content…

As soon as Sean first went back to his hometown, he was close to 8 inches taller than anyone else in the entire town. Ford portrayed him as a strong, hardworking man by using many establishing shots of Sean sticking out as looking like a big brother to everyone else in a crowd of people. The first time that Ford has anyone close to the gigantic Sean Thornton, happens right after Sean falls in love with Mary Kate. It was clear to see the competition between Mary Kate’s brother and Sean Thornton as they were both close to six and a half feet tall. It was easy to see how Sean felt Will was a bully by Ford constantly putting Sean infront of Will with a low angle shot showing Sean's strength and courage towards taking on Will. All of these techniques that Ford uses help me understand what Sean is going through during the movie which is a strong characteristic of a movie worthy of best

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