"Stagecoach" - Film Review

When asked to name his favorite directors, Orson Welles once famously replied, “I like the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.”

It’s not that Ford had a particularly distinctive style that made his films so great; it was how proficient he was about filming every single shot. His shots had a quiet simplicity and strength. He more often than not cut footage than kept it, and he was notoriously opposed to lengthy dialogue. He was a brilliantly efficient and effective storyteller that told his stories with ease and a total command. Stagecoach is a film where nothing feels out of place or superfluous; this is a masterclass example in how to edit a film. Ford is merely trying to tell a story and tell it well, and it shows.  

Ford’s name has become synonymous with the Western. Though he made a number of movies that weren’t Westerns, the Western was the genre he returned to time and again; Ford was one of the driving forces for making the genre as well-regarded and well-respected as it was. 

Stagecoach is the Western encapsulated perfectly. A bunch of mismatched individuals find themselves put together under highly unlikable and extreme circumstances. The characters by now are archetypes, but Ford was one of the first to nail them down, whether it be the hooker with a heart of gold, or the jovial drunk, or the misunderstood outlaw. Riding in a stagecoach across the vast expanses of the gorgeous Monument Valley (now ubiquitous with the Western), the motley crew finds themselves chased after by Apache Indians. 

If this all sounds a bit cliché, it’s because Stagecoach is one of those seminal films that invented the clichés we associate with not only Westerns, but for films more generally about unlikely, mixed groups having to work together.    

This was the first collaboration of John Wayne and Ford in their longstanding partnership. The studio didn’t want Wayne, but Ford insisted, and soon they yielded to the always implacable Ford. Thank goodness they did: Wayne provides his usual wily, understated charm to the role of the Ringo Kid, and the film put him on the map and allowed him to star in countless other great films. 

Though it’s deeply insensitive in its portrayal of Native Americans, Stagecoach is a masterful piece of filmmaking and storytelling that remains as enjoyable today as it was when it was released.  

Grade: A