Day 72 - Stagecoach

Stagecoach (1939) directed by John Ford

Stagecoach is often cited as being the first true western as we now commonly know it, but while watching it I couldn't help thinking of another genre it must have greatly influenced, the ensemble cast. John Wayne's breakout role was in this film, but he was just one piece in a pretty balanced film of strong performances by wide array of characters. Perhaps shows like Lost or films like Ocean's Eleven wouldn't exist as we know them without films like Stagecoach to pave the way.

Stagecoach is a fairly simple story of a stagecoach travelling through Apache Indian territory to get to the next town. The stagecoach is filled with strangers who must face adversity to get to their final destination. The main conflict however isn't with raiding Indians, but rather each other. As with many ensemble cast stories, each character is unique and the ultimate test isn't shooting it out with Indians but rather learning to deal with each other's differences. This film is really about tolerance and prejudice, primarily in the characters of Dallas (Clair Trevor) and The Ringo Kid (John Wayne). In the beginning of the film Dallas, a prostitute, is driven out of town and left an outcast in society. The other passengers look at her with disgust, except for Ringo who could care less about such things. He, himself, is an outcast as well as a wanted outlaw. The main story is driven by these two performances, but there are other interesting characters as well, including a drunkard doctor, a woman searching for her husband in the military, a loud and opinionated banker, and a genteman gambler. They all serve a purpose in the film and I really enjoyed how they interacted together.

It was kind of interesting watching this film because the picture looked so incredibly dated with many scratches and flaws on the print. It is weird because at the same time this old looking black and white film was being made, Victor Flemming released two visually vibrant films in the same year with Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz. But how mistaken I was because John Ford's work in Stagecoach is actually quite impressive. Like many westerns, the cinematography is simple and elegant with big sweeping landscapes. There are also nice compositions on screen which were interesting to look at. It is kind of remarkable that Ford apparently never used storyboards, he just pictured shots in his head and shot things on the fly. He just intrinsically knew if something looked good or not on screen.

The famous chase sequence in the end is actually pretty remarkable and more daring and thrilling than many things filmed now. In today's era of special effects, green screen and impossible stunts much of the danger is actually taken out of films. A guy making a daring jump from a roof building to a moving bus twenty feet below while being chased by robots shooting lasers sounds exciting in concept, but is so implausible that it actually becomes less thrilling. The chase scene in Stagecoach though is not only realistic but perhaps even more impressive than stuff you'll see in Transformers. There are great close-ups of the horses galloping at full speed and I didn't realize that John Wayne was also a stunt man because hopping from moving horse to moving horse like that looks mighty dangerous. It's definitely not the slower and more methodical Wayne I remember from his later films.

Stagecoach offers a surprisingly meaty story with rich characters and has a fair share of drama and action in the end. One thing I did find amusing though is that while the film is ultimately about tolerance and acceptance, as typical, Indians are painted in a very bad light. Of course the film needs bad guys and excitement, but the Indians are essentially faceless enemies. (In the chase scene, Indians get mowed down like in a video game and maybe it was just my imagination but I thought I could see a sense of pleasure in John Carridine's face as he was shooting them.) It would be a long time before Indians, or any minority for that matter, would be portrayed as anything less than white.

Grade: A-