This seals it. I just plain like Westerns. I've been on a crash course over the last year or two. I've gone through classics like Shane, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, and High Noon. I've enjoyed more modern Westerns like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and True Grit. Then there's shows like Deadwood and Godless that sucked me in. I get it. There's an allure to west, before America was really settled, when people were still making up the rules. I do enjoy the more modern takes that point out the racist undertones of the classic stories and show that the west could be pretty miserable. I also see the appeal of the classic western.
I really enjoyed Stagecoach.
It's a simple "Point A to point B with complication C" story. It's
filled with archetypal characters who all play their roles well. John Wayne
is a god-damn star. Perhaps the biggest delight of catching all these Westerns
has been understanding why John Wayne became a legend. The man has screen presence. From his very first shot you know that this movie belongs to him. It
was striking to see him so young. My experience with him is all 10-20 years
later.
The Apache attack
is impressively staged. Some of those horse stunts are downright suicidal. The
fun thing with older movies is that you know that when something looks real,
it's because it was real. No CGI here. They use every inch of that
stagecoach too. People are firing from every side of it. I wasn't expecting to
have a sequence that thrilling in a movie that old. More sophisticated
technology has built up a tolerance in me.
There are a few things that haven't aged well. As much as I liked the Apache attack, parts of it do look distractingly phony. I always have some trouble with the simplistic depiction of Native Americans. This greatly exceeded my expectations though.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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