What better day to write about the soundtrack to Director John Ford's movie, The Quiet Man, which he made as a tribute to his ancestral home of Ireland.Of all the movie he made this is the one he loved and fought hardest to make. No one though it would be a hit and he had to agree to make another John Wayne western , Rio Grande,to compensate Republic Pictures Studios for the cost of the Quiet Man. Before production started on The Quiet Man he made Rio Grande with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara to test them out for their parts in The Quiet Man. They were magic together in both movies. In The Quiet Man, Wayne and O'Hara star in this movie of an American Boxer who returns to his family's home in Ireland and falls in love with an Irish lass.The soundtrack is available on CD and was recorded in Ireland by "The Dublin Screen Orchestra."A great soundtrack to a John Wayne movie.The movie was made in Ireland in the summer of 1951. John Ford won the Best Director Oscar for his direction and it also won a Best Cinematography Oscar.The Soundtrack was written by Victor Young. Ford insisted that the music aptly reflect the lush Irish locale and is full of Irish folk tunes.I played it on the way to work this morning.
If you watch Rio Grande, you will also note he tested some of the music for The Quiet Man in in that movie as well.
Now, we just need a restored copy of The Quiet Man on DVD because the present one is a poor transfer of the movie. In some ways the old VHS copy of the movie are better.
I can still remember watching this movie, for the first time, with my parent and sister, in the 1950's from the back seat of my parents car at a drive in theater. My dad liked the big fight at the end of the movie. I can still hear his laugh.
UPDATE: I'm not the only one thinking about The Quiet Man today. From National Reviews Blog "The Corner:
And if you really want to get in the spirit of the occasion, here's the fight scene from The Quiet Man.
Click on the title above for a link.
