A landmark film for both Johns- Director John Ford and John Wayne. Its first film where both icons worked together gifting us one of the classic western of all time. I haven’t seen much of Ford films but after watching this I believe that Ford was truly an artist, the film was damn 70 years old and still it gives you a beautiful nostalgic feel of that era. Stagecoach sets a journey with diverse set of passengers amid the danger of Apache attack. On surface the passengers look idiosyncratic but as film moves forward we see their true characters. Ford portrayed all the passengers in interesting and memorable character sketches- the loudmouth banker, an exiled prostitute, a pregnant wife of soldier, booze addicted Doctor, a sheriff, and above all an outlaw hero pursuing revenge. Ford brought bit of everything for everyone with moments of drama, fun, romance, adventure, action accompanied by gentleman heroes and lovable characters.
One can see the mastery of Ford on all the technical matters of filmmaking especially camerawork which became inspiration for many legends like Kurosawa, Bergman, Orson Welles to name a few. The sequence of Apache attack and chase sequence shot spectacularly and it’s really breath taking one. It’s with this film Ford introduced great Monument Valley to screen with wide panoramic shots. It was he who brought to screen the pure western- a classic visual experience before it corrupted with inclusion of many commercial elements. I think every western filmmaker owe something to John Ford in that respect.Ratings-8/10
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