| Release Date: 3 March 1939 (USA) Genre: Adventure, Drama, Western IMDb Rating: 7.9 Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, Louise Platt, George Bancroft, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, Tim Holt |
John Ford’s Stagecoach is considered one of the classics of the Western genre. A movie that takes a simple but effective premise, executing it with great economic beauty, in the process creating a highly impactful product, that heralded the return of Ford to Westerns after a long gap. The first Western directed by him with sound and played an important part in injecting new life into the Western genre that was waning, pushing it into the new decade and even beyond, and finally gave a massive push to John Wayne on his road to stardom.
The story deals with the journey of a stagecoach to Lordsburg, with the threat of an Apache raid led by their leader Geronimo looming over them.
And in the stagecoach, we have an alcoholic doctor, a prostitute, a lady who intends to meet her husband, a whiskey salesman, a gambler, the marshal, a banker, the stagecoach driver and in the role that shot him to stardom, John Wayne as Ringo Kid, the outlaw.
The portrayal of Native Indians in the movie is questionable, esp. a sequence involving the wife of an innkeeper rubbed me the wrong way with the direction the plot took it in. And despite the greatness of the cinematic achievement, that part is undeniable.
Besides that, Stagecoach goes into side stories at times away from its central plot. While some of them are required to flesh out the characters, there are few which didn’t add anything for me.
The romantic plot with Ringo Kid, while that may be required to make a movie more marketable, but for me, was just not required. Besides that, the movie has its share of jokes, and not all of them land well.
But the camerawork of the movie is undeniable, and the way it manages to capture the beauty of the Monument Valley.
Stagecoach was the first Ford that used Monument Valley in the backdrop and he would return to that again in a number of other movies. One special scene of mention is when the Stagecoach needs to be carried across a river and the impressive way it is captured. The final promised sequence is late to arrive but the wait is definitely worth it, for a really grand sequence and some stunning stunt work. Throughout the journey, Ford explores these characters through what they speak and how they communicate with those around them, thereby fleshing them out.
Most of the characters have unexpected traits differing from what you would traditionally expect from their portrayals, they’re giving them personality spins.
The entry of John Wayne is legendary, with the way the camera zooms in on him, feeling as if it was at this particular moment, the star was born.
The final extended epilogue could have been detrimental to the movie, but it is Wayne who along with the perfect atmosphere makes those few minutes a really tense watch. Other than him, I will also be highlighting John Carradine as Hatfield, the gambler who reveals himself to have greater depth and has quite a charismatic screen presence on par with Wayne himself.
So, overall while Stagecoach does have its issues, it’s status as a classic is unquestionable and all these years later still stands as a really impressive example of filmmaking.
My Verdict:
