Fight Church Month: The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man (1952)
Should a clergyperson be part of the community or aloof from it? Should a priest be a regular guy, going out with the crowd for a beer, or cloistered away? Should he be holy and set apart or should the priest in a small Irish town join a scheme to convince a belligerent brother to allow his sister to marry the new American in town, even if the plan involves deception?

Okay, that last question is a little more specific and probably only applies to the plot of The Quiet Man, but the other questions also apply to the clergymen in the film. (And to all other clergymen. And clergywomen. But there are certainly no clergywomen in this film set in a small, Irish village in the 1920’s.)

The Quiet Man is much beloved (it’s also one of my favorites), featuring Oscar-winning direction by John Ford and Winton Hoch’s cinematography of the very green Irish locations. In 2013, the film was chosen by Congress to be on the National Film Registry. John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara star, one of the great screen couples (comparable to Bogart and Bacall, Hepburn and Tracy, and Astaire and Rogers). Many people -- like my wife, Mindy -- have seen the film’s classic scene of Wayne and O’Hara’s first kiss without seeing the film because of its use in E.T.

The Quiet Man tells the story of an American boxer, Sean Thornton (Wayne), who returns to his ancestral home in Inisfree, Ireland. He falls in love with a local woman, Mary Kate Danaher (O’Hara). Mary Kate’s brother and guardian, Squire “Red” Danaher (Victor McLaglen), opposes the match. The whole town conspires to convince him to approve of the marriage, which is where we come to the clerical moral quandary. And the clergy and their moral quandaries interest us here at Movie Churches.

The town character, Michaleen Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald), convinces everyone in town to deceive Red into thinking that the only chance he has to marry the town’s richest widow, Sarah Tillane (Mildred Natwick), is to marry off his sister as well. When Red approaches the widow at his sister’s wedding, he discovers it was a ruse. He then confronts Father Peter Lonergan (Ward Bond), the town priest in front of the town. “All lied as part of the conspiracy. It’s bad enough for you people, but my own priest!”

Red may be presented as the villain in the film, and he doesn’t treat his sister well, but he has a point here. Shouldn’t a parishioner expect his priest to oppose deception, or at least not participate in it? And that isn’t the priest’s only deception in the film.

Another prominent clergyman in town, is a married Anglican priest named Cyril Playfair (Arthur Shields) whose worship services have only two or three attendees (and that includes his wife, Elizabeth.) His bishop is coming to observe his ministry, and Playfair fears he’ll be removed from his parish. Father Lonergan asks his parishioners to pretend to be Playfair’s, and even covers his own clerical collar to pretend to be an Anglican member of the congregation.

Both of these acts of deception seem to be done by Father Lonergan with the best of motives, and he seems to be following the lead of the town. But he isn’t making a principled stand of integrity. He certainly isn’t living out the words of Jesus, “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no.”

When Thornton and Red engage in a rather epic fist fight, one of Lonegan’s young assistants suggests they should step in and stop the fight.

“Oh, we should,” Lonegan agrees, but he does nothing because he knows the whole town has been longing for the battle and is enjoying the spectacle. (Arguably, that’s a better reaction than the example set by the Bishop and Rev. Playfair, who make a bet on the fight.)

There are good things to be said about the clergy in the film. Lonergan has served the town faithfully. He notes that he baptized both Sean and Mary Kate as infants in the same chapel where he married them.

Both Lonergan and Playfair serve as counselors in the film. Mary Kate interrupts Father Lonergan’s fishing to ask for marital advice (though the Father doesn’t actually stop fishing to talk to her). On her request, they speak in Irish Gaelic, presumably because she feels most comfortable in that language. I noticed, though, that he never refers to Scripture or even the teaching of the church -- but neither does Playfair when Sean comes to him for marital advice. (Sean goes to Playfair partly because he’s the only one in the town who knows Sean’s history as a boxer. The Reverend is a fan of sports and games, having been a boxer himself and a devotee of tiddlywinks.)

And though Red Danaher acts in ways that the entire community recognizes as harmful to his sister, the priest never confronts him.

On the other hand, the priest joins the men in the tavern for drinks and seems open to fishing with them. There is something to be said for that kind of sociability. Father Lonergan also provides the film’s narration, but because of their decisions to conform rather than be holy, we’re knocking off a Steeple and giving the clergy of this film a Three Steeple rating.

Christmas Movies Month: 3 Godfathers

3 Godfathers (1948)
So many people don’t understand “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Radio stations play versions by everyone from Bing Crosby to Reliant K to Bob and Doug McKenzie. Something that many people don’t realize is that the first day of Christmas (Partridge & Pear Tree Day) is December 25th, and Christmas goes for the next twelve days, into the new year. The twelfth day (January 6th) is Epiphany, which focuses on the story of the Wise Men visiting young Jesus.

The story of the Magi provides the inspiration for a 1948 Western, 3 Godfathers. It’s the story of three bank robbers who take custody of a baby boy. There’s no clergy in the film and no formal church, but there’s much more Bible than you’d expect to find in your average John Ford directed, John Wayne starring film.

Another unusual thing about the film is that the Duke plays a bad guy in the film. Wayne plays Robert Hightower, a cattle rustler who decides to go into bank robbing with the help of two friends, Pedro (Pedro Armendariz), and William the Abilene Kid (Harry Carey, Jr.). They’re Texans who venture to the town of Welcome, Arizona, to commit their crime. They meet a nice guy, Perley “Buck” Sweet (Ward Bond), who welcomes them to town. Turns out he’s the town’s sheriff.

They rob the bank, but during their escape the Kid is shot (along with their canteen of water). If that wasn’t bad enough, they lose their horses in a desert sand storm. They search for a water hole and instead come across a stranded woman who’s in labor. She’s Perley’s niece, whose bumbling husband got himself killed.The robbers help deliver the child, and she names the baby after them: Robert William Pedro. She dies, but not before extracting a promise from the men to care for her baby. “I want all of you to be my baby’s godfathers. You will be, won’t you?” Along with the baby, William, the Kid, takes the woman’s Bible.

The Kid comes across a biblical passage about journeying to Jerusalem and is convinced he’s found a sign they should go to the Arizona town of New Jerusalem. When he sees a bright star in the sky, he’s convinced it is directing them, just as the Magi were directed by a star. He later finds encouragement from Psalm 137, looking for rescue from this strange land.

Things don’t go well for Pedro and the Kid, and eventually Robert is wandering the desert alone with the baby and the Bible. He had scoffed at the Kid’s reverence for the Bible, but in desperation he turns to it and finds a passage of God’s provision of a colt and donkey from Matthew 21. Miraculously, those very animals appear, guiding Robert to civilization.

Robert turns himself in, hoping to provide for the child. He is given a lenient sentence, and the town wishes him well as they send him off to prison at the train station. The crowd sings “Bringing in the Sheaves” and “Shall We Gather at the River?”, conducting a little church service by the rails.

Did I mention the whole film takes place at Christmas time, and Robert brings the child, Perley’s great nephew, into town on Christmas Day? That makes this a most appropriate film to watch on Christmas Day -- or Epiphany.

On the Small Screen in Utah

If you are a guy of a certain age there were a few films that everyone quoted, such as The Blues Brothers and Animal House. And a number of the other films that were watched again and again were films starring Chevy Chase, including Vacations I & III (but not II), The Three Amigos, and, most quoted of all, Caddyshack. Then his career crashed, and his films became utterly unwatchable, perhaps reaching the nadir with The Karate Dog. But before the great downswing, he made 1985’s Fletch.

Fletch was based on a novel in a popular mystery series by Gregory McDonald. The screenplay was written by Andrew Bergman (The In-Laws) and directed by Michael Ritchie (The Bad News Bears). Chase’s Fletch, a reporter for an unspecified Los Angeles paper, is working on a story about the drug trade on a Southern California beach. But the bad guy has a connection to Utah.

Fletch follows the baddie, Alan Stanwyk -- played by Tim Matheson (Animal House) -- to Provo. He asks someone whether Stanwyk is a Mormon and is told, “I don’t think he does a lot of singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.”

When Fletch learns about Stanwyk’s second wife, he says, “That’s illegal, even in Utah.” So there’s not a lot of Utah in the film, but that which is there is important. (There was filming in Utah, but Ogden plays the part of Provo.)

Utah also has a very memorable cameo at the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). River Phoenix plays young Indy in a chase, via horse and train, through Arches National Park in Moab where the audience learns how the hero got his whip, his hat, and a scar. There are much less interesting races via automobiles in Need for Speed (2014), based on the popular video game. Aaron Paul races a Shelby Mustang through Moab and the Bonneville Salt Flats. A better car chase film is Vanishing Point (1971), an existential thriller with Barry Newman speeding a Chrysler Imperial through Cisco and Thompson Springs.

Utah has provided locations for many Westerns, most famously those directed by John Ford. In two of the greatest Westerns ever made, Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956), Ford prominently featured both John Wayne and Monument Valley. Warlock might sound like a horror film, but it was another Western featuring Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark and Arches National Park.

Carnival of Souls (1962) was a horror film, a low budget one, that featured the Great Salt Lake and other Utah landmarks made quite sinister by means of its odd black and white photography. It has been featured before in Movie Churches as its main character is a church organist.

A quite different film set and filmed in Salt Lake City is Chilly Scenes of Winter (the original title in 1979 was Head Over Heels), a romantic comedy starring John Heard and Mary Beth Hurt. The original theatrical release had a happy ending, but later releases ended on a more melancholy note, like the novel the film was based upon.

A film based on a grim true story is 2010’s 127 Hours about a canyoneer who became trapped in a climbing accident near Moab. He was forced to amputate his own arm (real life spoilers), the film was nominated for Best Picture, director Danny Boyle was nominated for his writing, and James Franco was nominated for his performance as Aron Ralston.

Another true story that’s more famous locally, is that of the original Mormon pioneers who settled the state. In 1940, 20th Century Fox featured Dean Jagger as the title character in Brigham Young, though the real stars were Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell as young lovers following their leader from Illinois through Nebraska to the Great Basin of Utah. (Unusual for a studio at the time, there was location shooting including in Kanab, Utah.)

Literary Movie Churches: How Green was my Valley (1941)

Among cinephiles How Green Was My Valley is known (and often reviled) as the film that beat out Citizen Kane for the Best Picture Oscar. But it was much loved in its time, and this tender story of a mining family in 19th century Wales, based on the 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, is still loved by many.

Fortunately, it's not my job here avenge Orson Welles’ trophy mantel, but rather to evaluate the churches and clergy in the film.

We can deal with the church fairly quickly. It's awful. Sure, they sing some decent songs, "Guide Me, O, Thou Great Jehovah" and "Let All Things Now Living" (cutting edge music, since the hymn was written in 1892), but in Welsh, so I couldn't follow them. But what makes the church awful is their practice of Deacon's Meeting, where sinners (which the deacons should remember includes us all) such as unwed mothers are publicly rebuked and humiliated. Maureen O'Hara as Angharad (can't believe we missed that name when our daughters were born) rightly points to the example of the woman caught in adultery forgiven by Jesus, but the practice continues, later to be used for unsubstantiated rumors about Angharad herself.

Even the pastor of the church, after years of service, rebukes the congregation for lacking the love of Christ or appreciation of His sacrifice. The reverend's assessment seems pretty accurate.

So let's move on to the clergyman in the film (by credits, he’s the star of the film, though the lead is really child actor Roddy McDowell as Huw). Walter Pidgeon plays the pastor, Mr. Gruffydd (those Welsh sure have mad spelling skilz), an educated man, from the University of Cardiff, who has chosen to serve the people in a mining community in South Wales. He gets credit right off for choosing a simple life, a poor life.

A major thread is the plot is Mr. Gruffydd’s and Angharad's mutual attraction. One assumes, Hollywood being always Hollywood, that eventually they'll get together. But (spoiler) they don't. The Reverend knows he won't be able to provide for a family in his current ministry. Though the specific Scripture isn't mentioned, he follows the example of the Apostle Paul from I Cor. 7:8.

He cares for the afflicted in the community. When young Huw is injured and thought crippled for life, Mr. Gruffydd visits him. He gives Huw the novel Treasure Island, telling Huw that he is jealous of the boy's opportunity to be in bed reading. But he also encourages Huw that the doctor's prognosis of never walking again is not the last word because "nature is God's handmaiden, and He's instructed her before to change course. Mr. Gruffydd later commands Huw to walk. He does; again, a worthy carrying on of apostolic tradition.

Another major focus of the film is political -- a miner's strike. Some in Mr. Gruffydd’s congregation support the strike; some oppose it, so initially he hesitates to get involved in a "family squabble." Clergy hesitancy about getting involved in political debate is usually a good thing in my book. But when he is urged by some to speak his piece on the issue, he is even-handed, acknowledging the justice the union seeks but also calling for peacemaking and responsibility.

I did have problems with his instruction on prayer to young Huw. When Huw begins to walk again, the Reverend tells Huw that he believes God has used the time of trial to build the boy's spirit and now he must be careful to guard his spiritual health along with his physical health. Mr. Gruffydd urges Huw to pray, and Huw asks how to pray. Mr. Gruffydd responds that prayer is simply "good, clear thinking." He doesn't exactly say he's talking about thoughts sent in God's direction, but I'll give the Reverend the benefit of the doubt on that. There's something to what he says, but on the other hand, Paul wrote in Romans 8:26 that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness; we don't know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." That sounds like a very different thing.

And as I mentioned before, the Reverend gives quite the Whitewashed Sepulchers/Matthew 23 type sermon to the Pharisees in his congregation, so bully for him on that.

So to sum up, the church in the film deserves to have the coal dust brushed from the Reverend’s shoes. And Mr. Gruffydd deserves a good flock. He's certainly a better spiritual example than Charles Foster Kane. Two steeples to the church in this film.

Recently we had the opportunity of visiting the hometown of the director of How Green Was My Valley, John Ford. He won the Academy Award for directing that film, which could join his award shelf with three other Oscars for directing. The city built a statue in his honor, along with small monuments to some of his most memorable films.