Stagecoach (1939)

Date: Author: Category: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1930's, 1939, Academy Award Best Picture Nominee, Action, Adventure, Drama, Oscar worthy, Western

“Well, I guess you can’t break out of prison and into society in the same week. ” – Ringo Kid

Number of Times Seen – 2 (17 Dec 2007 and 25 Jun 2017)

Brief Synopsis – A group of strangers travel aboard a stagecoach that must get thru Apache Indian territory.

My Take on it – John Wayne worked quite often with Director John Ford and they are widely known for their work together on Westerns.

This was one of their earliest collaborations and despite Wayne’s apparent youthfulness here, he is capable of carrying his own here.

I loved the way that they introduce us to the various characters and we slowly begin to learn more and more about each of them at the same time as the rest of the characters do.

We are certain that their journey is quite dangerous and that adds to the suspence of the whole story.

This film has so much going on the whole time on various levels that its really fascinating to watch it all unfold.

Obviously the action seems quite archaic to what we have now but its still quite thrilling to watch.

Bottom Line – One of John Ford’s earliest Westerns that is seen as one of the best in the genre. Loved the way they introduce all of the diverse characters and show how they each need to deal with one another during this dangerous and uncertain journey. Wayne is pretty good here despite showing his youthfulness in one of his most famous genres. There is so much going on here on multiple levels and it’s easy to interpret so many things in numerous ways which makes the story even more fascinating to watch unfold. Highly Recommended

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Asked why, in the climactic chase scene, the Indians didn’t simply shoot the horses to stop the stagecoach, director John Ford replied, “Because that would have been the end of the movie.” In addition, Apaches would have stolen the stagecoach horses because, in their culture, horses were valuable in calculating a warrior’s worth. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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