10/21/17 Stagecoach

Post date: Oct 22, 2017 3:14:56 PM

Stagecoach is movie about a group of travelers making a trip across indian territory. Along the way we find out the backstory of each character through the interactions between them. This is why the movie is interesting to me. Even though John Wayne is presented as the main character, all of the other characters still get their own scenes. We find out there is still civil war animosity between the characters even though the war is not directly mentioned.

We find out the prostitute was orphaned at young age which gave the desire for personal contact.

The backstory on the Ringo Kid is the classic western revenge story. It is underplayed because everyone knows the story. I really appreciated that. The whole movie is not set up around the bad guy vs the good guy and who is going to kill who, but more about each character's story.

Ringo Kid's nemesis only has ten minutes of screen time, but you immediately recognize the character: nasty and cowardly. When he finds out that Ringo is after him, he immediately calls his brothers to gang up on Ringo. Even three against one, they are obviously nervous. They are the kind of guys that shoot people in the back. All the this character plot is found in about ten minutes! This is unlike another John Wayne movie: The Man who shot Liberty Valance. The viewer is subjected to hours of the bad guy's bad behavior to the point of fatigue. I get it, he is a bad guy. What else you got?

The women of the starting town only get five minutes of screen time but you immediately know who they are. They are the keepers of the social order of the town. They nag their husbands to take care of the undesirables. At the beginning of the movie, they are banishing the drunk doctor and prostitute from the town. There are a force to be dealt with. Even the banker wants to escape his wife and the other women.

Stagecoach offers all these stories and an indian battle all in one movie. For me it is the one essential western. It has many of the western characters and themes in one movie.