Metacritic reviews

Wayne and O'Hara create a fine rapport, with good performances that build to a truly satisfying climax.

The wonderful performances by Ford's stock company in these roles help make THE QUIET MAN an utterly moving and fascinating portrait of rural life in Ireland.

Ideal Sunday afternoon fare.

Sentimental and sexist, John Ford’s gorgeous slice of the auld sod nevertheless moves like music.

John Ford’s 1952 Oscar winner is a tribute to an Ireland that exists only in the imaginations of songwriters and poets like Ford, a fairy green place where people really do say “faith and begorrah.”

Let's face it. Mr. Ford is in love with Ireland, as is his cast, and they give us a fine, gay time while they're about it.

The Quiet Man showcases [Wayne] as the leading man in an old fashioned romantic drama. Cast against type, Wayne pulls it off with aplomb, largely because his tremendous screen presence allows him to get away with gaffes that would sink other actors.

John Ford’s bluff and sentimental comedy, from 1952, set in the Irish countryside, is as much an anthropological adventure as a romantic rhapsody.

Despite the length of the footage, film holds together by virtue of a number of choice characters, the best of which is Barry Fitzgerald’s socko punching of an Irish type. Wayne works well under Ford’s direction, answering all demands of the vigorous, physical character.

Ford's flamboyantly Oirish romantic comedy hides a few tough ironies deep in its mistily nostalgic recreation of an exile's dream.