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He Was a Quiet Man

He Was a Quiet Man

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 2007

An unhinged office worker who planned to go on a shooting spree at his workplace struggles with his newfound status as a hero after he ends up stopping a shooting spree instead.

Movie details

He Was a Quiet Man

“He seemed like such a nice guy.. He pretty much kept to himself...”

2007 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 35m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.7 / 10

23.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

79 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

53 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

An unhinged office worker who planned to go on a shooting spree at his workplace struggles with his newfound status as a hero after he ends up stopping a shooting spree instead.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over He Was a Quiet Man?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Frank A. Cappello

Written by

Frank A. Cappello

Christian Slater

Christian Slater

Bob Maconel

Elisha Cuthbert

Elisha Cuthbert

Venessa Parks

William H. Macy

William H. Macy

Gene Shelby

Sascha Knopf

Sascha Knopf

Paula Metzler

John Gulager

John Gulager

Goldie / Maurice Gregory

Jamison Jones

Jamison Jones

Scott Harper

Michael DeLuise

Michael DeLuise

Detective Soreson

Court is in session

Put He Was a Quiet Man on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.