Studies in Genre or Period: Irish Cinema & Culture
John Ford’s movie The Quiet Man is regarded to be one of the films of Irish culture and romanticism genre that is well-known among the masses even in the current period of time. There are some of the most important elements that make a movie successful enough to be watched by majority. Such elements are needed to be perfect in almost every scene of the movie. For instance, location, acting, camera setting and music are some of the elements which are required to be perfect if they are being used in any case because it greatly impacts the overall theme of the movie.
For the purpose of scene analysis, a scene from the movie The Quiet Man has been selected. We shall discuss location, music, camera setting and acting as elements of the scene. The scene that had been selected form the movie projects the protagonist of the movie, John Wayne fighting with Victor Mclaglen. In the selected scene from the movie, John Wayne fights with Victor in order to prove to them that he wanted to be with his wife rather than getting money.
The nature of the selected scene is a comic execution which deals with the relationship of a husband and a wife. John Wayne pushes the lead actress Maureen O’ Hara who plays the character of John’s wife. The lead actress falls on the ground and that’s when the most famous dialogue of the movie “No fortune, No marriage” had been narrated by John Wayne (Ford). Maureen O’ Hara had been depicted in the role of a wife who is emotionally attached to John Wayne as John Wayne had been shown as a man who stayed quiet and ran away from his past to the lush forests of Ireland.
The scene further includes a great deal of crowd that beholds the experience the fight between the two men. As the scene is a funny execution, thus the director had indulged the icon of the crowd within the comic execution scene where the two men’s fight. The crowd included sergeants and other farmers who have been shown to stop over the conflict to experience as a drama. The symbol of money had also been covered in the scene that shows the villainous act of Victor who wants to fight with John who is a husband of victor’s sister (Benshoff and Griffin).
Another interesting instant of the scene includes the confidence of Maureen when John takes the money from Victor and throws into the furnace to show that he greatly wanted his wife rather than money. The scene shows and stress on the relationship of a husband and wife. Furthermore, Maureen had been shown very confident when she witnesses her husband’s act of throwing money onto the furnace. Maureen O’ Hara then delivers the dialogue where she announces to her husband that she is going home to make supper for John when he is done with setting scores with Victor.
The scene that had been selected for the analyses also points out the connection of this scene with the entire theme of the movie that is based upon protagonist of the movie, John Wayne. The main theme of the movie is that John Wayne travels to Ireland to run from his past and live an entirely a different life. He tries to forget his past full of sorrows and that when he meets Maureen O’ Hara who completely transforms John Wayne’s life. The scene had some of the most notable elements that had contributed in the overall success of the movie.
Let us now discuss the elements of the scene selected for this analysis paper purpose. • Location: The landscape is sure to be analyzed in the selected scene as the movie has been pictured in Ireland. The landscape that had been used as the site for shooting the selected scene is a lush forest beside a valley. The workers have been given the structure of a crowd who laughs at the conflict between Victor and John Wayne where Victor plays the role of the brother of Maureen O’ Hara.
The crowd could not in any way be set in an inside set thus lush green forest beside the valley worked best for the director to pursue the motive of fight where the two men started the fight and then the whole crowd got involved in the fight as well that indicates the funny execution of scenario. The scene denotes the fact that the post colonial era greatly influenced the filmmakers thus every scene of movies from post colonial era includes some of the elements such as lush green forests which denotes the freedom of the filmmaker to sustain the angle of freedom of thoughts in movie as well (Version).
• Music: The music used in the background of the scene has been played by a piano. The rhythm in the music that had been used in the movie is usually used to denote a funny or a childish act in the movies. The music had been played in the scene twice. At first place the music had been played when the wife Maureen O’ Hara walks confidently back to her home when John Wayne shows his faith and sincerity to his wife. The walk Maureen in the scene depicts her confidence and security that she had been held high by his husband John Wayne.
The music that had been played in the background in that very interval of the scene is greatly authentic for the scene. Secondly the music in the background had also been used for the denotation of fighting sequences. The funny execution of the fighting scene has been highlighted with the music played and mixed by violins. The use of music in the background is very essential for the best enhancement of key elements of the scene in a movie (Sweeney). • Position and angle of Camera:
The position and angle of the camera that had been used by the director is wide and cross-sectional that means the scene continues to depict the sharper frame of the characters in the scene for a longer period. The position of the camera holds a bolder frame of the acting characters. The frame does not just get itself fixed to only one dimension of the shadow framing that is the bolder context of the light. The angle of the camera had captured one moment or object at one time with a fixed rate of absolute tenure.
At one instant of the scene, audience would be able to grab the look of the crowd which gathers round the fighting protagonist and Victor while in the second instance of the scene, the three main characters, John Wayne, Victor and Maureen could be seen symmetrically acting and delivering dialogues. • Analysis of Act: The acting of every character in the scene is very subtle yet humorous. The acting sequences are well planned in the scenario that had been selected from the movie The Quiet Man. We can observe the acting patter of all the characters in the scene to be well joined together in terms of flow of the dialogue.
The most outstanding acting could be rated in the account of Maureen o’ Hara because she had been the objective of the scenic theory of the scene. The tone is far more decent and full of empathy in the scene as it could be regarded one of the scenic element of Irish cinematic culture within movies (MacKillop). Through the above analysis of the scene from the movie The Quiet Man directed by John Ford, it could be stated that the scenes of the movies greatly contribute in the overall success of the movie.
It could also be observed that in the classical cinema, even the funny execution had a greater influence on film watchers and thus it could be denoted as a value of Irish cinema. The elements that we have covered in above include analysis of the acting of characters in the scene, the music that has been used in the background for the enhancement of the scene, location that greatly contributes in the mood of the scene and angling and position of the camera that best fits the scene into a successful instant of the movie. Works Cited Benshoff, H and S Griffin.
America on Film. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004. MacKillop, J. Contemporary Irish cinema: From The quiet man to Dancing at Lughnasa. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1999. Sweeney, M. Essential Elements Movie Favorites. New York: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1996. The Quiet Man. Dir. John Ford. 1952. Version, The Roadshow. “The Perfect Irish Romance: John Ford’s “The Quiet Man” (1952). ” 17 March 2008. The Roadshow Version. 21 May 2010 <http://theroadshowversion. wordpress. com/2008/03/17/the-perfect-irish-romance-john-fords-the-quiet-man-1952/>.
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