A critical and comparative study of The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952) as a heroic mythification of paradise lost

Abstract

This article examines John Ford’s mythologisation of Irishness and Ireland in his most iconic film: The Quiet Man (1952). The initial hypothesis is that John Ford ascribes certain meanings to the land of his ancestors, creating a poetic vision that elevates the home as a catalyst for paradise lost. We shall refer to this as ‘mythification’—the guiding force that organises the cinematic narrative in this instance by symbolically orchestrating aspects of Irishness. In this work, the use of the folktale, as a privileged form of expression in the sense indicated by Junco, is of particular importance. It is also worth noting that it is possible to trace the presence of Irish elements in secondary characters, musical and festive references, or historical events that appear throughout his filmography; indeed, it has been necessary to outline the poetic journey of The Quiet Man as an adapted work, tracing the original literary transformation into the idealised tale that is the film.