Express your personal feelings about “The Quiet Man” and have these feelings developed over time?

“The Quiet Man” to me represents a universal stereotype of Irish people and their way of life. Their customs and rituals are held with as much regard as the law itself. However to me “The Quiet Man” does not accurately describe the life of the Irish people in those times. Ford has created a film filled with nostalgia and sentimentality. A film, that was loved by all because it leaves out the harshness and sobering reality, that was Irish life all those years ago.
On first viewing “The Quiet Man” my initial reaction was one of sentimentality like many others. The simplistic way the people lived ruled by their customs and rituals that played such an important role in their lives. It portrays Ireland in that time as a time of “simple pastoral integrity” (Harlan Kennedy). The women are fiery, the people are backwards and it shows a community tightly bound together and insistent on knowing everyone else’s business. Its scenes (such as the arrival of Sean into the t...