THE QUIET MAN on Blu-ray

THE QUIET MAN is one of the most famous and beloved classic films of all time. This is despite the fact that whenever it is shown on television or has appeared on DVD the picture quality has always been very poor. Olive Films has just released a Blu-ray version of THE QUIET MAN which is quite simply a revelation. The film was remastered in HD from a 4K scan of the original negative (don't ask me the details on that...it sounds pretty good, though), and watching the results is like watching THE QUIET MAN for the first time. If you have an old DVD copy of THE QUIET MAN, you might as well throw it away now.

It's a tribute to the greatness of THE QUIET MAN that despite the sub par picture quality, it still held up as one of the most entertaining movies ever made. The Academy Award-winning cinematography of Winton C. Hoch can now be viewed the way it should be, making the film's stature even larger. As is typical of any John Ford directed film, just about every shot looks like a painting--but this Blu-ray brings out so much depth and perspective the "paintings" seem to leap off the screen. Maureen O'Hara always looks good, but in this presentation she's absolutely stunning--a hundred "Maxim" cover girls combined couldn't hold a candle to her.

The only extra on the Blu-ray disc is a featurette called THE MAKING OF THE QUIET MAN from Leonard Maltin....this had already appeared on earlier DVD versions of THE QUIET MAN. The Blu-ray does come with a 36-page booklet on the film's production adapted from Joseph McBride's fine John Ford biography.

There's a lot of people who think that it doesn't make any difference if you put an "old" movie on Blu-ray. THE QUIET MAN from Olive Films is a perfect example of how the technology can not only make an "old" film look better, it can also increase an audience's appreciation of it. Anyone who loves classic cinema should see how THE QUIET MAN looks now.