Stagecoach Analysis

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Stagecoach is a 1939 production directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Clair Trevor, Berton Churchill, along with many other actors and actresses. The story line entails a stagecoach trip from the more civilized east to the more natural setting of the west, specifically Lordsburg. A random group of people end up traveling all together in a stagecoach for one reason or another and they all learn from one another as well as come to accept or at least tolerate each others perks and flaws. Their trip is full of memorable events that keep the audience interested.

The artistic intensions and the "messages" portrayed through the film are noticeable and suiting for the time frame and setting. The name of the movie is stagecoach, so naturally there are a lot of scenes set from inside and outside the stagecoach. The overall setting is the frontier, as it is with most old western movies. The rough, ragged, and vacant looking terrain, the mountains in the distance, the endless view of the big blue sky, the smoky war signs sent out by the Indians who live in that area as well as their authentic appearance, the run down villages they stayed in along their journey, and the dirt path that is followed by the stagecoach, all contribute to the overall western style setting of the movie. The style of dress and the mannerisms of the people also contribute to the time frame the movie is set in. The men and women and Indians all looked very out dated with their big dresses, their suits and hats, their Indian feathers and face paints, and their western cowboy attire .A good job was also done in setting the music to suit the scene it was played during. In my opinion, the artistic intensions of the film makers are very well portrayed.

I person...

... middle of paper ...

...st the Americans though, I would say that there is no real specific target group because the movie keeps your attention and it has many characters who offer many different roles that it could be appealing to almost anyone age 5 or over. I think this movie is still around to watch because first of all, John Wayne is a legend, and also because this movie was made a classic by all the wonderful settings and characters. There might be a noticeable "time lag" simply because so much has changed since those times, although all of that was not a very long time ago. We may not understand completely what it is like for example, to see a marshal allow his criminal in custody to take his three bullets and kill who he was after and then to let him go, nevertheless, we get a real sense of what life was like back then as it is portrayed in an understandable and enjoyable manner.

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