Stagecoach (1939)

Stagecoach was made in 1939 and was directed by John Ford. It is this movie that launched John Wayne into the light of stardom; He became the iconic cowboy as in this movie he travels across Monument Valley with six others in a Stagecoach (there are two on top!). With the only things ahead of themselves being an open desert and an Indian infested land, these nine characters set out on the adventure of a lifetime.

Mission:
Nine people are traveling together on a stagecoach to get to Lourdsburg. The only question is will they complete the mission?

Plot:
A stagecoach trip becomes complicated as they find out that if the passengers want to get to Lourdsburg they are going to have to go through the desert where Geronimo is killing anyone he runs into. The passengers on this stagecoach are being driven by a uneducated man who is accompanied by the sheriff who sits shotgun the whole trip in order to find the Ringo kid, who is out to avenge his father's and brother's deaths.
The passengers include two women-one being a proper lady, and the other being a whore...
Then we have the gambler who we find out has a history of being found at murder scenes after games go bad. The banker who steals all of his clients money. A man who no one respects a mr....um...mr...ummmm. PEACOCK! However Mr. Peacock, the whiskey 'drummer,' does make one friend on his trip-an alcoholic doctor!

All in all this crowd makes for a pretty interesting group.

the o so hawt John Wayne

Discussion:
After we watched the movie we went back and watched the beginning of the movie with commentary. We were told how this was a true western because the social society was portrayed to a "T" because we see in the beginning how the woman just walked around while men held the authority. Also after we watched the movie with commentary we talked about John Wayne's and John Fords relationship was built and how it fell apart.
John Ford was very strict on set, he wanted everything to be perfect. Not only did John Ford control all the details but also his actors, he liked to instill fear in his actors so that they would never leave him. However that fear did not stop John Wayne from going and working for a different director. This is when John Ford and John Wayne fought for many years about the soar subject as John Ford felt betrayed. It wasn't some years later till the two became buddy buddy again and made another movie called "The Searchers."


Finally, whats a blog without funny facts?!?

• Crew or equipment visible: As the stagecoach crosses the river at the burnt out ferry, the shadow of a camera is clearly visible on the driver's back.
  
  
• Continuity: In the begining of the film, when the stagecoach is going into Tonto street, we see its shadow to one side. In the next shot the shadow is on the other side.
  
  
• Continuity: In the fight between the stagecoach's passengers and the Indians, we see the same image of one Indian, with a lance in his hand, falling with his horse two times. One time shot by Marshal Curly and another time shot by Hatfield.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: In the beginning sequence when the stage is coming into town you can see that the buildings are stage facades as the camera shot is at an angle and it is clear there is no structure behind the false front.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The military hats are all the porkpie-type top, squared off, instead of the accurate slouch hat as was appropriate in the 1860s and '70s.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene at Apache Wells where Chris rushes in to wake the Marshall played by George Bancroft to say his wife has run off, Bancroft and John Wayne are chained together at the ankle. George Bancroft delivers his line but moves his chained leg to far, jerking the chains around Wayne's ankle. Wayne yelps and grabs his ankle. As Bancroft turns toward Wayne to undo the chains, Bancroft is clearly struggling not to break up laughing as Wayne glares at him.

(All of this information was found on the internet movie database.)