Stagecoach

In the wild, wild west, anything is possible!  Join John Wayne in this western adventure.

1) Stagecoach was not your typical western film!  Directed by John Ford, this film is set back in 1880.  Here we find a group of travelers going from Tonto to Lordsburgh.  But they must be escorted by the U.S. Army from town to town (so they thought) in fear of attack by Geronimo, a dangerous Native American.  The structure of this movie is as follows, four scenes of action (fighting scenes) and four scenes of character interaction.  They filmed on location at Monument Valley, which had beautiful scenery that really made it look like the west.  In class, we discussed all the characters on that coach.  Doc, Dallas, Mr. Peacock (mistaken for a preacher, he was really a whiskys salesman), Mrs. Mallory, the Banker, Ringo (the outlaw), the Sheriff, the driver, and the Gambler.  We took a look at these characters and described what their character was in the film.  Doc was the town drunk and Dallas was the town prostitute.  The people of the town threw them out of the town.  Mr. Peacock was the timid whiskys salesman, mistaken for a preacher the whole entire movie.  Mrs. Mallory, the role model of what women should look and act like.  The banker was really a bossy guy, thinking he was above all the other passengers.  He stole $50,000 from his own bank.  Ringo, the outlaw.  Ringo was framed and one of the nicest characters we meet in the group.  He is nice, good, generous, just an all together nice guy.  The sheriff represents law and order in society.  He lets Ringo go in the end.  The drivers purpose in the film was to provide comic relief.  Last but not least is the Gambler.  He try's to save Mrs. Mallory, looks after her a lot.  He did a very noble thing towards the end when he took off his coat to cover the burnt to death woman at the Indian kill site.

2) The site I used for the summary is : http://www.filmsite.org/stagec.html
This article basically sums up the movie beginning with a summary of what happened in the movie, like a synopsis.  Like so many films in the 1930's, there were characters vividly portrayed and socially different from one another.  Like the Dallas and Mrs. Mallory. They were completely different, one a prostitute and the other the symbolism of what all women should be like.  Another scene is at the dinner table at one of the spots where they all sit at one end of the table because of Dallas, except for Ringo, the nice, framed outlaw.  Then at the end  when they all go through these trials and tribulations, they characters change a bit, well some, not all.  They finally arrive at Lordsburgh, not all sadly.  The sheriff lets Ringo go to be with Dallas, the banker gets arrested, Mrs. Mallory is safe, along with her new baby.  Sadly the gambler dies during the Indian attack.  Mr. Peacock gets to see his kids again.

3) This article relates to the screening because it give a more in-depth look at the film.  It explains to us all the symbolism that you probably wouldn't notice at first but will totally notice after viewing the film and discussing it with fellow peers/movie goers.  It gives us the meaning of why the director did what he did.  It also shows us how the characters attitudes change towards the end of the film.

4) This was one of the best films in american history.  Critics gave it an 8.0 in IMDB.com.  That's a great honor to have such a high rating.  There was a lot of symbolism in this movie that let movie goers feel that connection with the characters in the film.  You could have been any one of those character like Doc or even the Gambler.  This made the viewer feel more like that they are apart of this journey like you were actually there with them rather than just being that outsider looking in.  This film's director, John Ford, was Americas Greatest Director. He connected to the audience and that is what made his film such a great film.  He thought outside the box when it came to westerns.  It wasn't the ordinary western where there is a shootout after shootout.  I believe that this gave future directors the courage or the ideology to try something out of the ordinary or as we say 'outside the box'.