Review of Stagecoach (1939) by Howard M — 02 Dec 2006

I can safely say that John Ford's celebrated "Stagecoach" is not only mediocre, but borderline terrible. On my list of overrated "great" films it goes... and as someone who has adored so many other John Ford works, no one is more surprised by my reaction than me. I wanted (and expected) to love it.

There were many grievances I had with the film, not the least of which was the coach driver, who is perhaps the single most annoying character in the history of cinema. (Did Bobcat Goldwaith base his entire shtick around this guy's vocal inflection?) And I found the cast of characters to be little more than uninteresting caricatures. Drunk doctor? Check. Meek reverend? Check. Wisecracking badboy played by John Wayne, with his usual swaggering machismo? Check. I submit that there's nothing in "Stagecoach" that Ford didn't do better later in "The Searchers," another Ford/Wayne collaboration that takes place almost entirely on the move, and one that's superior in every way.

And what's with the battle sequence, which seems to consist of a shot of John Wayne firing a rifle, followed by a reverse shot of an Indian falling off a horse, repeated about a hundred times from a bunch of different angles?

It's possible that "Stagecoach" feels cliched now because it inspired just about every other western I've ever seen (I don't deny that the film was a huge influence on the genre), but I just couldn't get into it at all, and I do feel that just because a film was the first of its kind doesn't necessarily make it good. The only scenes that felt real and fresh to me were the ones in the "Return of the King" anti-ending (i.e., the additional 20 minutes of the film that occur after you think the movie is over), where the Ringo Kid and his ladyfriend take a walk through the town at night, just before the obligarory final showdown.