Before even viewing the film, I was both excited and eager to watch Stagecoach for the first time, because although I've seen tons of movies I really have yet to explore western cinema, especially early film westerns. In addition to that I have never seen any John Wayne movies, I mean I know who he is and have seen impersonations and references to him in a number of other movies but have never actually seen him act.
So then we started to watch the movie, and right off the bat the crackly old sound quality had me going nuts, its a pet peeve of mine and is basically the main reason I loathe early black and white films. Another thing that caught my attention and continued to bug me for most of the movie, was the goofy character of Buck, played by Andy Devine and his easily recognizable voice. I knew I heard that voice before, but I couldn't put my finger on it and for most of the film i was distracted by it, until finally I realized he was Friar Tuck in Disney's animated film Robin Hood. His character was definitly over the top comedic relief throughout the film, and even when the audience sees him get shot we continue to laugh at his odd noises, even though he is clearly in pain.
Some other quick things I noticed were the odd number of similar odd shots at the beginning of the film of just the Banker Owner's face and his odd unchanging stare. These shots were strange in that they didn't really explain anything about the character other then he creeply stares into nothing silently in his bank, and it felt like the director filmed him just staring for awhile cut up the scene and then just kinda threw peice of it back in the picture at different parts. After the second time I just found the shots to be funny, especially his expression.
I noticed that whenever the camera is only on John Wayne it is set-up much nicer and more vivid then shots of any other character in the film. For example when we first see John Wayne in the movie the lighting and picture quality changes suddenly as it zooms in on his face, and then cuts to this stunning portrait of John with his hat tilted perfectly and the background complimenting him. Even during the final shoot out scene against the Indians, John choose to lie down on top of the coach in a manner that looks more like he is posing for a picture then a comfortable shooting stance. I feel like this was done to make him really stand out and shine in the picture, and with the exception of the gambler gentleman character Mr.
Wayne is the only somewhat young handsome character in the whole film.
I should also note that my hypothesis on why the gambler guy was aiming the gun at the mother on the coach is because after he realized that the passengers had no ammo left and were still surrounded by savage indians, and he had but one bullet left in his gun the only people worthy of the final shot would be either the mother, the sherriff, or the newly born child. Now this is very interesting to think about, if all the passengers were about to get captured, tortured and scalped who would be most deserving of being killed quickly and mercifully first... Well we can cancel out the banker because he is obivously consumed by Greed, and not the doc because he is a raging Acoholic, and not John Wayne's character because he broke the law and is a Fugitive, and then in turn not the blonde woman because shes a Prosititute. The gambler is untrustworthy and apparently a Murderer thus ruling him out as well. That leaves Buck the stagecoach driver, the sheriff, the mother, the baby, and the old married brewer. Now the brewer dies from an arrow right at the beginning of the fight, and both the driver and the sheriff are outside the coach, so then the only two possible candidates for quick mercy are the mother and the baby. Now if this movie was made today, the gambler probably would have aimed for the baby, but because were talking 1930s I feel like they really couldn't get away with that, so instead he pointed the gun at the woman. That's my idea of that whole situation.
All in all I was super bored by the film, and other then the idea of all these typical sinners traveling across the country together I found it to be cheesy and unentertaining.
So then we started to watch the movie, and right off the bat the crackly old sound quality had me going nuts, its a pet peeve of mine and is basically the main reason I loathe early black and white films. Another thing that caught my attention and continued to bug me for most of the movie, was the goofy character of Buck, played by Andy Devine and his easily recognizable voice. I knew I heard that voice before, but I couldn't put my finger on it and for most of the film i was distracted by it, until finally I realized he was Friar Tuck in Disney's animated film Robin Hood. His character was definitly over the top comedic relief throughout the film, and even when the audience sees him get shot we continue to laugh at his odd noises, even though he is clearly in pain.
Some other quick things I noticed were the odd number of similar odd shots at the beginning of the film of just the Banker Owner's face and his odd unchanging stare. These shots were strange in that they didn't really explain anything about the character other then he creeply stares into nothing silently in his bank, and it felt like the director filmed him just staring for awhile cut up the scene and then just kinda threw peice of it back in the picture at different parts. After the second time I just found the shots to be funny, especially his expression.
I noticed that whenever the camera is only on John Wayne it is set-up much nicer and more vivid then shots of any other character in the film. For example when we first see John Wayne in the movie the lighting and picture quality changes suddenly as it zooms in on his face, and then cuts to this stunning portrait of John with his hat tilted perfectly and the background complimenting him. Even during the final shoot out scene against the Indians, John choose to lie down on top of the coach in a manner that looks more like he is posing for a picture then a comfortable shooting stance. I feel like this was done to make him really stand out and shine in the picture, and with the exception of the gambler gentleman character Mr.
Wayne is the only somewhat young handsome character in the whole film.I should also note that my hypothesis on why the gambler guy was aiming the gun at the mother on the coach is because after he realized that the passengers had no ammo left and were still surrounded by savage indians, and he had but one bullet left in his gun the only people worthy of the final shot would be either the mother, the sherriff, or the newly born child. Now this is very interesting to think about, if all the passengers were about to get captured, tortured and scalped who would be most deserving of being killed quickly and mercifully first... Well we can cancel out the banker because he is obivously consumed by Greed, and not the doc because he is a raging Acoholic, and not John Wayne's character because he broke the law and is a Fugitive, and then in turn not the blonde woman because shes a Prosititute. The gambler is untrustworthy and apparently a Murderer thus ruling him out as well. That leaves Buck the stagecoach driver, the sheriff, the mother, the baby, and the old married brewer. Now the brewer dies from an arrow right at the beginning of the fight, and both the driver and the sheriff are outside the coach, so then the only two possible candidates for quick mercy are the mother and the baby. Now if this movie was made today, the gambler probably would have aimed for the baby, but because were talking 1930s I feel like they really couldn't get away with that, so instead he pointed the gun at the woman. That's my idea of that whole situation.
All in all I was super bored by the film, and other then the idea of all these typical sinners traveling across the country together I found it to be cheesy and unentertaining.
Andy Devine info:
Old movies take getting used to, and I'm definitely going to have to do something about the print quality of some of the old videos in our film library. You're right, it's very distracting. Film stock is a living thing, in a way--it deteriorates over time. They're pretty amazing when they are restored.
ReplyDeleteBut you're good at analyzing shots--especially your points about how Ford shoots Wayne, and makes a B-movie nobody into a superstar, just by his camera work. I'd have liked to see you take this a step further, and notice what else Ford does with the camera work--how he establishes relationships, creates emotion, etc, in cinematic language.