It's been a long Memorial Day weekend, and I should have been writing, but instead I settled in one evening with a DVD of John Ford's 1952 film The Quiet Man. Ford, who is best known for his Westerns filmed in Monument Valley in northern Arizona, directed John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in this beautifully filmed hymn to Ireland.

The Quiet Man was a film Ford had been trying to make for years, until finally Republic Pictures agreed, on the condition that Ford first make the studio a black-and-white Western, to make up for the losses they expected for The Quiet Man. The Western turned out to be Rio Grande (1950), the third installment in Ford's cavalry trilogy (following Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, all with John Wayne).

I've lost count of the times I've seen The Quiet Man. This time, before starting the film, I watched one of the documentaries on the DVD, "The Joy of Ireland," with Maureen O'Hara. When she began talking about the importance of both heart and craft for an actor, I knew this was one of those cross-training moments. Writers need to listen to other creative folks, including thoughtful actors who share their wisdom.

Here's Maureen O'Hara on the importance of craft for an actor:

In Europe you don't become a movie star because you're eating an ice cream in a corner drug store. You have to study. You have to learn your craft, you have to know your craft, and you have to be able to use your craft, because a lot of people have lots of knowledge, but don't know how to use it. I worked in the theatre from the time I was seven years of age. I won most of the awards in Ireland. I studied at the best school in Dublin—dramatic school—and I have my degrees.

That's not bragging, that's a strong woman and successful actor stating the facts. For writers too, learning their craft, and then using it, takes years, but there are no shortcuts.

Craft by itself, however, is not enough. It's just a sophisticated card trick. With craft alone you can tell a story, but nobody will care unless the actor, or the writer, works with passion, from the heart. As Maureen O'Hara puts it, "You have to start with the heart, and then the heart tells you the sentiment you should have, and then your craft as a performer, or as an actor or actress, tells you how to do it. You know what you want to do, but it's how to do it that's very difficult sometimes."

Maureen O'Hara talks at length about the love and respect that the actors and the film company for The Quiet Man felt for each other. In particular, there was great chemistry between herself and John Wayne, who had first worked together in Rio Grande. Here she talks about working with John Wayne:

The Quiet Man works because of the two actors, because we were strong enough, and tough enough, to act one against the other. ... He used to say that I was "a great guy," and a lot of people said tell him not to say that, but I'm proud of it, because it meant that I was one of his gang. He wasn't being nice to me because I was a woman, or a female, or anything, it was because he loved me, as a human being. And he always said with Maureen she looks at me, we have eye contact. She makes me act because she makes me react.

As much as Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne are the heart of the film, Ireland itself becomes the star of The Quiet Man. Here's Maureen O'Hara on Ireland:

The Quiet Man, I think, will always be number one, because it has to do with the country I was born in, where I came from, and all of the people that I loved. And my own family, and all the other families that were involved in the making of the film.

It's about love, marriage, happiness, respect of one human being for another, as was found in those days in Ireland, and is still found down the countryside. Ireland is still just like that. It's a wonderful country, filled with wonderful people, who have given wonderful gifts of themselves to the whole world.

Tags: Craft, Heart, John Ford, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, The Quiet Man

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 11:37 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.