This movie almost spoils 'The Quiet Man' for me.
And I used to really like The Quiet Man. But the explicit endorsement of wife-beating here is witlessly Cro-Magnon.
shareAnd I used to really like The Quiet Man. But the explicit endorsement of wife-beating here is witlessly Cro-Magnon.
shareI have to disagree. In many movies when a male character is behaving like a petulant child he gets his come-uppance in the form of a woman making him look like a complete idiot in public, there by hurting his manly pride. The traditional thinking that the best way to hurt a man is by stinging his pride in front of other people. In this movie and several others around the same time when a female character acted like a spoiled child it would go on unitl someone in a father figure/husband type of role would put her over his knee and spank her, there by wounding her pride.
They never advocate beating your wife, or even embarassing your husband for that matter. These were movies with character behaving badly and getting their just desserts. The people watching (both sexes) enjoyed the stories and the brat getting taught a lesson. Men laughed when the man got his not just at the woman, and vice versa.
Relax and accept a comedy as a comedy and not as some sort of white trash training film in the manly arts of wife beating, child abusing and dog kicking.
"I'd resent that if I were sober."
Lt. Col Henry Blake
Rent a brain.
shareI'm still right on this one. This is John Wayne at his most dogmatically Republican, and his least attractive. I'd love to hear from anyone with any Democratic or feminist leanings who disagrees with me.
shareI think you need to stop taking the movie so seriously the movie funny... It not saying go out and beat your wife... But just don't watch it while the rest enjoys the movie. and you shouldn't compare The Quiet man and Mclintock either.. McLintock can stand on it's own. You must not like William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrewd or Kiss me, Kate because they were very similar.
Maureen O'Hara, Ireland Best Actress. Got Maureen O'Hara and Julie Andrews autograph 2008!
The film not only uncritically endorses John Wayne's climactic beating-up of (the admittedly lovely and talented) Maureen O'Hara, it also enthusiastically approves Patrick Wayne's earlier courtship-by-beating-up of Stefanie Powers.
You are right to bring up The Taming of the Shrew (not the Shrewd -- spell-check run amok?) and its musical adaptation Kiss Me, Kate as similar examples of a man's right to beat the woman he "loves" when she gets too far out of line. But the question isn't whether The Taming of the Shrew is or is not PC (like The Merchant of Venice, it certainly isn't). The issue is one of real-life impact. For two generations, John Wayne embodied an ideal of American manhood. His principled endorsement of wife-beating here had, I believe, a much more forceful negative impact on my culture than any Shakespearean comedian or Broadway warbler.
I agree with you in a way that it's dangerous to compare The Quiet Man and McLintock, but not because "McLintock can stand on its own." McLintock not only cannot stand on its own, it poses the very real risk of dragging The Quiet Man, which I want to continue to believe is a much better film, down with it.
Maybe it's because of the old-world setting that I want to grant Sean Thornton more leeway than G.W. in this arena. Maybe it's because Maureen O'Hara's character in The Quiet Man pretty much insists that Wayne live up to her distinctly old-fashioned ideal of manliness. Maybe it's because Wayne takes a real beating himself, at the hands of his near-physical-equal Victor McLaglen. Maybe it's simply because John Ford was a great director, and Andrew V. McLaglen was at best an imitator.
Anyway, I don't want to hear a defense of McLintock -- at least, not unless it rises above the level of 'Go away. You don't always have to be so serious about wife-beating. In McLintock it's funny, like The Taming of the Shrew.' I'm afraid McLintock is a lost cause as far as I'm concerned. I'm much more interested in defending (as far as I can) The Quiet Man, by drawing distinctions between it and McLintock.
I dont see how this even Effects The Quiet Man. They are two completley differentmovies with compleltey different Charecters. Just becuse both are played by John Wayne doen't mean they are the same movie or same CHarecter. By this Logic, I coudl say that havign seen Batman: The Animated Series I can't take Luke Skywalker seriously as a Hero because the Joker is evil. Lets nto forget how we can never take anything Lucy Lawless is in as cfesible because she was int he sappy and cornball Xena. You can't judge a movie by the fact that the same actor plays someone else in another movie.
That said, McLintock was made in 1963, before Womens Lib changed the enture CUlture, and nothing woudl have been seen as ut of line for the peruiod it was written in. Just as movie depoictign women as helpless feedble Damsels in DIstress in the 1930's-1950's was routine. At Least Mrs. McLintock was fully capable of takign care of herself.
The spanking obviously didn't hurt her, or she would not have kept spewing at the mouth. It was the humiliation that taught her a lesson, and it was the point. GW is a big, strong man. If he wanted to hurt her, he would have.
Some idiots give the female gender a bad image. You'll never land a quality mate behaving like a whiny shrew.
I guess the meek can inherit the Earth now. It looks like the stupid aren't doing anything with it.
[deleted]
What exactly are you saying? That wife-beating (and especially the public sanctioning of wife-beating) is not an act designed to maintain the traditional power relation between men and women?
I think it is perfectly fair to say that in this country there used to be some debate about whether domestic violence is/was a serious problem. It is also fair to identify the side that thought 'humorous' depictions of wife-beating were suitable in a family film as the "traditionalists" or "cultural conservatives"; and the side that took the matter more seriously as "feminists" or "cultural liberals". (I would not go as far as to identify those sides as "Republican" and "Democrat"; I don't see what purpose that would serve.)
Wayne's character in this movie is a mouthpiece for all manner of conservative Republican philosophizing, by no means all of it anti-feminist. If you missed this, you must not have been paying attention.
I didn't accuse Wayne of anything. (I certainly didn't make blanket accusations against "all conservatives" or "all Republicans". Of course we can all agree, that would be very wrong. Can't we?) I merely said I found the McLintock character unattractive. Now, since 'attractive' and 'unattractive' are value judgments, naturally your mileage may vary. If you agree with most of what McLintock (or Rush Limbaugh) says, you'll likely find him delightfully outspoken; and not, as I do, an overbearing blowhard.
And look. You're an even bigger moron than your were four years ago.
Congrats.
What's the matter? Were you beaten senseless by a big mean Republican?
You have issues you need to resolve.
Conservatives shape policy to deal with reality. Libprogs reshape reality to match their policies.
This was a totally different time and a totally different era. I hate to say it but if this was a modern movie. I'd agree. But look at it from a male perspective. Both of these ladies were acting like bullies. Becky was being a spoiled brat. And Kathren was being a witch. It was only after the long chase that she finally told JW what was bugging her. And she had been galavanting around the world spending his money. Back then THAT was how a women abused her husband.
The early bird might get the worm,
But the 2nd mouse gets the cheese!
Kindeyes
I don't like this movie as much as I used to, but Maureen O'Hara was not beaten, she was spanked. She had been behaving badly. I don't condone it, but beaten, no. Spanked as a badly behaving child in that day would have been, yes.
Don't forget she was throwing things at him, hitting him, stuck a hat pin in him and hit him over the head with a bottle.
A near full bottle mind you of whiskey. In other words she started it.
The early bird might get the worm,
But the 2nd mouse gets the cheese!
Kindeyes
John Wayne's character also spanked his lady love in "Donovan's Reef". He spanked and then thoroughly kissed her which she seemed to enjoy very much and led to them discussing the names of their future children.
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