Directed by John Ford. Starring Claire Trevor and (a very young) John Wayne (before he became a swollen parody).
This was my first viewing of this landmark film. I decided to start here because I was thinking about the differences between the West that I had just driven through and the West that I had imagined as a kid - imaginings that were largely the result of movies or television that I’d seen it portrayed in. I grew up in a time when children were taught to play cowboys and Indians - meaning we were taught to pick sides and fight. We were spoon-fed the mythology of the American frontier — and we ate it up. In my mind, the cowboys and the Indians were equally mysterious and glorious. I wanted to be both.
John Ford’s Stagecoach is lauded as the movie that defined the western tradition as we know it. It is a motley cast of characters who, like it or not, are confined together in a cramped stagecoach. Who are bound by their fear of the looming threat of an attack by Apache warriors led by Geronimo. There are sweeping vistas, drama, action, and romance. While the film, and the entire genre, may be problematic when viewed through a modern lens, it is certainly worth watching for its significance to American film history. The cinematography is rather fetching too.