08/09/06 Stagecoach

Stagecoach (1939), directed by John Ford

watched w/ Leslie (partially); DVD (borrowed from parents) @ home

By most accounts, this is the one that started it all. And by all, I mean specifically the modern day cinematic western including the poster-boy for American cowboy epics, John Wayne. Wayne was put into the lead role as The Ringo Kid by director (and future collaborator) Ford, launching him into an overnight sensation...and the rest was history for the now famous "Duke." Here, Wayne joins a cast of characters that embark on a simple stagecoach ride through the American frontier west. The Ringo Kid is a wanted cowboy out for family revenge, and is joined on his ride by the sheriff, a drunken doctor, gentleman card shark, pregnant woman searching for her soldier husband, crooked banker, meek whiskey salesman, and a beautiful and sweet prostitute who has been run out of town for her immoralities. It's enough jokers to make up any "Clue" board game mystery, but this time they all have to work together to get through town, and avoid the threat of war between the Apache chief Geronimo and the U.S. Calvary. Once the calvary can go no further, the stagecoach and its passengers must find the common denominator of survival amongst their quarrelsome attitudes, and learn from each other. It's a very simplified story, with obvious generational prejudices included, that tells of the human spirit for all its good traits and bad. With the gorgeous backdrop of late 19th century American west (Arizona and New Mexico), the impending threats to the group only heighten the contrast of their personal seclusions to the vast expanse of raw uncharted land. It's a story, short and sweet, that interplays action with messages to establish a landmark in cinema and one of its most well-known stars. For whatever good or bad its worth, both of those historical stamps have been put into our modern day framework, and proven the major influential impact of American filmmaking.

4 out of 5 stars