Setting the stage for American Film, Dr. McRae starts out by showing STAGECOACH. Due to my great grandfather [who's generation idolized John Wayne] loving westerns I've seen the movie before when I was much younger. I distinctly remember watching another John Wayne film, The COWBOYS, Wayne (in his later years) plays a man who's cattle drivers leave him to find a place in the gold fields and he's required to take a group of young boys under his wing and teach them the ways of being men.
Here's a link to a video of one of my favorite scenes (Cowboys).
STAGECOACH opens up with horns playing triumphantly. I always got a kick out of the music and how dramatic it is with older films. You really get a sense of the drama just by the music that is being played throughout this film. Just take a look at this clip...and you'll know exactly what I mean...
When we watch movies I think we tend to find ourselves really...involved with the characters and their lives... I think the director did a great job portraying the characters. We get Doc Boone, Mrs. Mallory, Dallas, Peacock, Curly, Hatfield, Gatewood, Buck and Ringo. Boone is a drunkard who's off his rocker most of the time, Mallory who's a quiet soft spoken woman wanting nothing more than to be reunited with her husband, Dallas who is an attractive young woman who was a prostitute, Peacock who's tries to be sensible throughout the film, yet goofy in his own strange way, Curly who's trying to be the "hero" in a sense and has the duty of making sure the coach arrives safely to it's destination. We also have, Hatfield who is a down to earth gentleman looking out for Mrs. Mallory, Gatewood who's on the rather bitter side, Buck who's just goofy and cooky as hell, and then Ringo who's all in all a intriguing handsome "bad guy" having an eye on Dallas.
Having all these characters on one single stagecoach really makes out for a goofy as well as entertaining western film
Other ideas we have to take into consideration that we may not think about while watching films on our own time is how stereotyping, the environment/landscape, etc are portrayed. Take for instance, the stereotyping/bad vs. good between the passengers, and for example, Indians in the last clip I posted. It's hard not to get a kick out of that scene when watching it. We also get a sense of gender. For example the quote from Hatfield, "A gentleman doesn't smoke in the presence of a lady." We also see how Dallas is portrayed as being a prostitute, we are not told directly that she in indeed a prostitute but we are in fact told by the actions and emotions the other women show, for example, the women from the town in the very beginning and Mrs. Mallory. It is interesting to see just how much film has changed since the 1930's. Film's nowadays would have no problem pointing out to the audience that a character like Dallas was a prostitute. Somethig else I noticed throughout the film...EYE MOVEMENT ! There didn't have to be a lot of dialogue in most spots because you were able to know exactly what was going on just by the way the characters moved their bodies and the way the used eye contact. Kudos to Ford. I like watching movies with...unwordy characters, if that makes sense...
One other I noticed during the film was how beautiful they made the west...or...or attractive they made the west look in the film. Bright sunny skies, and each time they showed the west in a scene they had some sort of joyful tune playing as if it were an advertisement to "come out to the west," to "start a new life" and "be happy." I couldn't help but get that adverising feel when scenes such as these came up. I think if I was living during that time period it would look very appealing to me. Even the saloons, each and every saloon packed full of people drinking, singing, having a jolly good time, I mean, hell yeah I'd want to be there.
