criterionforum.org

Coming Nov 23



An exemplary entry in the filmography of master director John Ford, The Quiet Man contains all the aspects that mark Ford's work: a poetic, deeply felt sentiment for an unregainable past, for tradition and ceremony, for the country of Ireland and its emigrant bloodlines, for the camaraderie within community, and for the profound yet mutable bond of the marital union. Within a seven-decade career filled with high points, The Quiet Man represents one of Ford's highest, and from his richest period.

Set in the 1920s, The Quiet Man stars John Wayne as Sean Thornton, an Irish-born American who has travelled to his birthplace of Innisfree to lay claim to his family farm. Although warmly embraced by the denizens of the village, Thornton's outsider status is thrown into relief when the abrasive landowner Squire Will Danahan (Victor McLaglen) objects both to the turnover of the land, and to the handing over of his sister Mary Kate's (Maureen O'Hara) dowry to the man whose community stature now threatens to show up his own. What follows is a confrontation with custom and with the personal past, all before an unforgettable extended brawl sprawling the entire very countryside whereupon nothing less hinges than the peace of Innisfree itself.

Winton Hoch's astonishing Technicolor cinematography (for which he won an Academy Award) has cemented the images of The Quiet Man within the minds and hearts of viewers across the decades. This is a film that, with its epic, yet intimate, canvas and its near-Shakespearean sense of character only grows in power over time and the more times it is seen. It is an ideal entry-point into Ford's massive body of work, and a summation of his art; as a result, Ford was awarded the 1952 Oscar for Best Director. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Quiet Man on Blu-ray in the UK for the first time.

Action... Excitement... Romance!

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Gorgeous 1080p restoration of the film on Blu-ray, years in the making
• New and exclusive video essay on the film by Ford expert and scholar Tag Gallagher
• The Making of THE QUIET MAN documentary
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring the words of Ford, writing on the film, rare archival imagery, and more!

It certainly won't be hard to top the Olive release on the extras front (they later decided to release the 2010 documentary Dreaming the Quiet Man on a separate Blu-Ray), but fingers crossed that MoC go all out on this one. It would be fantastic to see José Luis Guerín's Innisfree.

Calvin wrote:It certainly won't be hard to top the Olive release on the extras front (they later decided to release the 2010 documentary Dreaming the Quiet Man on a separate Blu-Ray), but fingers crossed that MoC go all out on this one. It would be fantastic to see José Luis Guerín's Innisfree.

Wishful thinking.

• Gorgeous 1080p restoration of the film on Blu-ray, years in the making
• New and exclusive video essay on the film by Ford expert and scholar Tag Gallagher
• The Making of THE QUIET MAN documentary
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring the words of Ford, writing on the film, rare archival imagery, and more!

It does say and more.

You never know.

RossyG wrote:It does say and more.

You never know.

That is about the booklet.

A Tag Gallagher video essay always makes for an easy buy. Farewell, Olive Blu-ray!

Is this the first Republic title licensed to Masters of Cinema?

John Doe wrote:What follows is a confrontation with custom and with the personal past, all before an unforgettable extended brawl sprawling the entire very countryside whereupon nothing less hinges than the peace of Innisfree itself.

Say what now?

My understanding is that the Olive Blu-Ray of The Quiet Man did not utilize the Robert Gitt-supervised restoration done at UCLA's Film and Television Archive, which is supposed to be a major improvement. I'm curious if this Blu-Ray will be drawn from the same edition as the Olive, or if it might come from the Gitt restoration?

Also, not to sound ungrateful, but I think C.K. might consider farming out copywriting duties. That "whereupon..." is a good example of his prose being both pretentious and grammatically garbled.

C.K. no longer works for MoC.

Ah, I wasn't aware. The general point about copy--whoever is responsible for it--stands, unfortunately.

The Olive BD wasn't bare-bones like most of their other titles; it had a booklet with writing by Jim McBride (I think) and it had the same making of so really the only thing new to the MoC edition is the Tag Gallagher essay which of course in itself makes the MoC superior to the Olive BD. Still, unless the transfer is discernibly better, this feels like a missed opportunity in terms of not just making a better release than the Olive but to make the MoC edition the truly definitive edition of the film to own.

Maybe they couldn't secure the rights to either of the two documentaries but if these specs turn out to be final, then it's a nice release to get cheaply down the line but definitely not a day one purchase. The cover is excellent though, I'll give them that.

For what it's worth, I've asked about the source of the blu-ray on Twitter and Facebook, and still have yet to hear a reply.

I like the Olive disc a great deal and I've enjoyed it many times so I have little incentive to double-dip, but I will if the transfer comes from a superior restoration. For me this is Ford's most beautiful film and I'd be willing to do something I'd otherwise consider irrational for even a moderate improvement in image quality.

This is clearly licensed from Paramount (no Eureka logo), but didn't Universal used to distribute it here? Can anybody explain the situation with Ford/RKO pictures in the UK too? I'd have loved to have seen MoC putting out She Wore a Yellow Ribbon or The Fugitive instead, which would seemingly be feasible because they have a relationship with Universal, but the old Uni DVDs are seriously subpar. Do Universal not have access to good elements for the RKO films, because so many of them look terrible (in contrast to their old Paramount holdings, which they control on both sides of the Atlantic)?

HJackson wrote:Do Universal not have access to good elements for the RKO films, because so many of them look terrible (in contrast to their old Paramount holdings, which they control on both sides of the Atlantic)?

Correct, the good elements are under Warner control in the U.S. and Universal would have to pay to access them. I remember Odeon Entertainment, who licence the RKO films from Uni, told me that Warner asked Uni for a high 6 figure sum to use their Citizen Kane transfer. Uni instead went with an inferior source.

Yeah, including Dreaming the Quiet Man would make this a purchase for me. Otherwise, I'm fine.

[cough]Or the Guerín film![/cough]

swo17 wrote:[cough]Or the Guerín film![/cough]

You should see someone about that cough. It sounds serious.

Confirmed special features:

Gorgeous high-definition 1080p presentation on the Blu-ray • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing • New and exclusive video essay on the film by Ford expert and scholar Tag Gallagher • The Making of The Quiet Man documentary • Original theatrical trailer • 44-PAGE BOOKLET featuring new writing by Sheila O’Malley; a 1953 profile of John Wayne; a 1955 profile of John Ford; an essay on cinematographer Winton C. Hoch; and archival imagery.

The Quiet Man at DVD Beaver.

Gary says it's a noticeable increase. Surely looks like the same restoration Olive used, but absolutely appears to be a better encode. Just like with the diff between Kino/MOC encodes of The Offence and Man of the West, a generally richer and darker image in the MOC disc.

One of the more difficult titles I've done lately actually!

The rear cover mentions the trailer, but doesn't seem to be on the disc, not as an easter egg either.

This is one of those days where I love being region-free .