Stagecoach

Media:	DVD
Directed by:	John Ford
Starring:	Claire Trevor, John Wayne
Release date:	18 May, 2004
List price:	~~$14.97~~
Our price:	$11.98 that is 20% off!

Stagecoach

Average rating: Stars

An offbeat Western!

If the mythical term journey can be adapted in some Western picture is precisely in this undeniable giant story.
The journey: a group of assorted passengers on a stage into Indian country; and the astonishing script and wonderful and incisive artistic scalpel of Ford about the several codes behavior allows us to explore a true micro cosmos in just 100 min.
This was the film that threw to John Wayne to stardom.
This film meant to the Western an absolute revaluation of the genre. And beware: that year the world was just in the threshold of the WW2.

Stagecoach - Claire Trevor, John Wayne

Classic Western: John Wayne's Breakthrough Role

About halfway through high school I became a committed fan of westerns. When I was growing up my father and I always watched them on Sunday afternoons, but by age 15 westerns became a serious interest of mine. That was 1983, when most of my peers were into science fiction or action movies. I liked those too, but westerns for some reason struck a cord. Maybe it was because they had a stronger basis in reality than Battlestar Galactica or the Ice Pirates. Maybe it was because I loved history and westerns (at least most) had a modicum of historical accuracy. They were real. At least the best ones were. This 1939 John Ford movie is one of them. By the late thirties, hundreds of westerns were being produced a year, but most cheap "shoot 'em ups." By the time "Stagecoach" came along, there hadn't been a serious, "adult" western made in nearly a decade. If anyone could convince Hollywood to invest in one, it was John Ford. But Ford hadn't made a western since "Three Bad Men," a silent western, in 1926. The story of "Stagecoach" involves a disparate group of characters thrown together for a trip through Apache territory: sheriff, gambler, banker, prostitute, society dame, doctor, and outlaw. There's an Indian attack, a cavalry charge that saves the day, and a showdown on the main street of the town. This is a movie that has all the standard ingredients of the western and yet transcends them, living them to a new level. It's a movie that's historically significant, but the real reason to watch it is that it's a damn good movie. It's not, however, a "John Wayne movie" in the sense that we've come to understand the term. Wayne is one of many characters in the story, but he's not the main one. This is his first serious role since "The Big Trail" in 1930, and his performance gives a promise of things to come. But all the actors are great: John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell (who got an Best Supporting Oscar) and Claire Trevor, to name a few. It's a film you shouldn't miss!

Claire Trevor, John Wayne - Stagecoach

The Prototypical Wester

As I understand it, this is the film that put John Wayne into the big leagues. That's where he belongs and that' where this movie belongs.

Geronimo is on the Warpath. A group of travelers on a stagecoach is on its way to another town. The group consists of a drunken doctor, a saloon girl run out of town, a traveling whiskey salesman, the pregnant wife of a cavalry officer, a gambler and a blowhard banker. They know Geronimo is out there but they each have reason to get to the next town. They are escorted by the sheriff and the stage driver. Not far along the way, they meet up with the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), an escaped convict on his way to the same town to settle accounts with the crooks who framed him. He becomes an escort to the stage as well. Along the way, they fight each other, the desert and Geronimo's raiding Apaches. The cavalry shows up at the last minute to save the day.

It is all very formulaic and predictable. It is also great fun and sets the stage for the westerns to mature into an artform.