Review of Stagecoach (1939) by Melvin W — 19 Nov 2011

Ringo Kid: You may need me and this Winchester, Curly. Saw a ranch house burnin' last night. .

"A Powerful Story Of 9 Strange People.".

Stagecoach is among my three favorite westerns of all-time with Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Stagecoach is the most significant of the three because it was the first. It opened the door for Leone and his Western epics. Stagecoach also made John Wayne an American hero and a household name. The film is fun, insightful and incredibly well made. It holds up really well for being made over seventy years ago. John Ford directed a masterpiece and the first real classic Western.

The story is obviously that of a stagecoach that is going through rough territory. It is rumored that Apache's loom not to far and the characters always keep those savages on the viewers minds by always talking about them. We don't see the Apache's for a long time, but we always feel them. The stagecoach holds some great characters. There's a gambler, a drunk doctor, a pregnant woman, a business man, a liquor man, two drivers and Ringo Kid and his love interest. .

Ringo is the most interesting of all these interesting characters. He has just broken out of the prison and is set on having his revenge on some brothers who killed his family. He isn't a bad guy. He is well mannered while in the presence of ladies and is an overall nice guy. He isn't the type of gunslinger we normally see, that kills because he enjoys it. .

There are many conflicts in the movie. There's the obvious one, that being the Apache's. There is also a portion of the movie where the passengers are stuck in a location because one of the women has just given birth. They know the Apache's are nearby and have to decide whether to stay and let the woman and her baby rest or whether to high tail it out of there and risk the woman and baby's health. The doctor is always drunk and a few of the other characters are always fighting. The passengers must band together in the end if they want to survive.

There is much more drama then anything else in Stagecoach. It is all drama for the first hour plus, then we finally get the action we have been anticipating the entire film. That isn't to say that the first part of the movie is boring, because it is anything but. The whole movie is a complete masterpiece and a movie that is an absolute must see.