John Ford’s Stagecoach:
A Window into the Past More Relevant than Ever
We are closing in on the 80th Anniversary of that pinnacle year in the Golden Age of Hollywood — 1939. That year gave us some of the most enduring classics in cinema history. Victor Fleming gave us his KO two-punch of The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. There were other iconic directors at the top of their game — Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights, and Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotchka. Other seminal films of that year include Gunga Din, Dark Victory, Destry Rides Again, Goodbye, Mr Chips among other watershed films.
In addition, this was also the year that John Ford gave us Stagecoach. His 1956 film The Searchers is usually regarded as his greatest film and arguably the greatest revisionist Western in film history. However, I contend that his film Stagecoach created the myths of the American west that begged revision. Without it, no other Western mattered. Stagecoach had the most enduring effect on the American character — more than any other Ford film and perhaps more than any Western.
Stagecoach creates iconic Western myth archetypes that resonate throughout the genre and American consciousness. In fact, the archetypes established in this film are so iconic they feel cliche by today’s standards. But Stagecoach built the model that was to be homaged, mimicked, deconstructed and also very often mocked.
Stagecoach gave us the image of the Western. It was Ford’s first foray into his signature location Monument Valley that became so associated with Ford it was deemed plagiaristic if another filmmaker used it. It was also his first synchronous sound Western. The look of horses thundering across the prairie, the lone and vulnerable stagecoach moving through hostile territory, the push-in reveal of John Wayne as the outlaw hero — these images define the Western milieu. The epic gunfight showdown at its climax typified a myriad of Westerns to follow. Stagecoach is a veritable cornucopia of indelible Western images that epitomize the genre — all rolled into one motion picture.
People have forgotten that at the time of Stagecoach’s release, the Western had fallen into disfavor. Ford’s film single-handedly revived the genre, made the name John Ford synonymous with the Western and, of course, established John Wayne as a star in the type of role that would embody his career. Stagecoach was the first of many collaborations between Wayne and Ford; the work of these two artists did more to create the look and feel of the American Western than any other voices.
Every successive Western predicated their look, feel and message on Ford’s template e.g. Howard Hawk’s Red River, Ford’s own work, much of the work of Budd Boetticher and other B-Westerns that would litter the movie houses of the 40s and 50s. Other Westerns used the Stagecoach model to deconstruct the Western e.g. Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs Miller, the work of Sam Peckinpah, and the Spaghetti Westerns of the 60s. These films created the anti-heroic and myth-busting look of a dirty and nasty west — diametrically opposed to the “disreputable heroes” in Stagecoach.
Orson Welles when preparing for Citizen Kane analyzed every shot and sequence in Stagecoach. Ford’s movie served as Welles’ surrogate film school. Stagecoach birthed what is regarded as American cinema’s greatest accomplishment. That is an impressive pedigree.
But what truly makes Stagecoach the most potent and enduring Western of all time is its effect on the American myth and character. Ford packed in every Western archetype into one stagecoach and it defined an America that anglo-centric mythos has aspired to since the 40’s. It is still a dream that echoes today in the sentiment of “Make America Great Again.”
Wayne as the heroic outlaw, the Ringo Kid, is out for the higher justice of avenging his murdered family. Where the court fails and criminalizes him, Wayne has to take the law into his own hands. Clarie Trevor’s hooker with a heart of gold, Dallas and Thomas Mitchell’s drunk Doc Boone both serve as deeply-flawed heroes with a deeper integrity under their sordid surfaces. These characters serve as the “have nots” — people shunned from society but are ultimately the most sympathetic (and heroic) characters.
Antithetically, we have the “honorable” characters that are actually misguided and even worse, cowards. The epitome of this is John Carradine’s Confederate gentleman and gambler, Hatfield. He is a gentleman but only to those he deems worthy. He denies water to Dallas.
As for Lucy Mallory, the other “respectable” character, her actions demonstrate a life of refined privilege as nothing more than a snobbery too good for the likes of riff raff like Dallas. Mallory rejects Dallas’ kindnesses throughout the film. Finally, Mallory recognizes Dallas’ worth in the end when she says to Dallas, “if there is anything I can do…” Dallas simply replies “I know.” Acknowledging their separation in class that makes Dallas’ unrequited kindness throughout the film all the more heroic.
The most hypocritical of the lot would be Berton Churchill’s portrayal of Gatewood, the thieving banker. He pontificates about the wonders of capitalism and deregulation (a diatribe right at home with today’s Republican elite) while absconding with the funds. He gets his just desserts when he screams for the arrest of the Ringo Kid, the story’s most concrete hero, he is arrested himself for trying to run off with other people’s money. A perfect proxy for those modern day bankers who destroy the economy. Only fiction is much more satisfying than reality.
The ideas and themes of Stagecoach are the perfect metaphor for the populist, conservative mindset that got Donald Trump elected. In fact, the concepts shown in this film might be more relevant today. The fear of the Apache invasion shows if the different American archetypes band together they can triumph over the threat of “the other” (replace “the other” with immigrant, muslim, black, etc. and the themes of Stagecoach match the fear-mongering rhetoric of the Trump era).
There is a beauty in this conservative paradigm. The idea that if we work together despite our flaws or prejudices we can defeat the harshness of the world i.e. nature, elements, weather, hostile natives. When Americans band together to protect our values — home, love, justice, our children — the world is decent despite its harshness. The ugly side is that it demonizes “the other” in favor of dogmatic American values which do not include immigrants, homosexuals, blacks, non-Christians, or Indian… er Native Americans. Americans without native Americans is the flaw in this thinking.
