TCM is airing 101 Westerns over the course of every Tuesday/Wednesday this month (they put a few On Demand each week). This Saturday was dreary so I sat and checked out two from Tuesday night's theme which was John Wayne/John Ford collaborations. Typed up some thoughts last night...
Stagecoach (1939)
This might have edged past The Searchers as my favorite. Mainly because there's a certain pulpy quality to it, like it was based on material from a dusty ten cent western novel (in actuality, the credits say it was based on a short story). I have to remind myself that not every classic western was a scenery sprawling epic because even though this film takes place between Arizona and New Mexico, there's a B-movie feeling of calling it "Stagecoach" and it being about strangers who are stuck in transit moving through dangerous Native American territory. Each of the characters aboard the stagecoach fall into a different type and each actor is distinguishable from the others; it's not like many a war film where by the end I'm still unsure of which soldier was which. And at 96 minutes boy does this move. It's just a lot of fun with great action, interaction and suspense but it's always in the favor of characterization. I was worried as the ending started to develop with Ringo seeking vengeance in the town, that it would feel tacked on. But once again it's all there to serve Ringo's relationship to characters like Dallas and Curly. I particular liked Thomas Mitchell's performance as Doc Boone and that's an example of the development that I'm talking about and that which the film makes work- a drunk doctor having to sober up, moving from comic relief to the conscience of the group.
The Searchers (1956)
As gorgeous as I remember it. I can see why it's regarded as a great and I can talk about all the things everyone loves to talk about, but I do have one nitpick and I'm sure someone here will find a way to contextualize it for me, but the thing that keeps this film from jumping above Stagecoach and maybe even The Grapes of Wrath if I were to re-watch it... the film's use of humor. The Searchers works best for me at least when it's moving through its darker elements. The unrequited love Ethan has for his sister-in-law that I believe is his motivation, the racial tensions that are best shown through Ethan's relationship with Martin, or the moment when Ethan is ready to kill his niece and he was going to- you could see it in Wayne's performance as he stands feet square asking his nephew to move aside and that this is set against a bright landscape of arid beauty makes it all the more effective. Then you have kooky Mose Harper, Martin's Native American wife chasing him, Charlie the letter deliveryman and later his fight at the wedding, that one lieutenant with the saber that the reverend is barking at... Sure it's moments of levity, but I'm sorry I just roll my eyes at it. I like the moments in Stagecoach when Doc is playing with the Peacock's cloth or when the men of The Wild Bunch are chucking water at each other in the bath... but here it just feels out of place. That's really a nitpick because everything else about the film works so wonderfully.
It's interesting to watch this and Stagecoach back to back- a director/actor collaboration separated by 17 years. Especially in how both films address race relations. In the context of their times, you have Stagecoach where the mere mention of Geronimo elicits fright and Peacock shouts "savage!" when he discovers that the Mexican gentleman who owns a way station has an Apache as his wife. In The Searchers, the natives are in part the villains, after all they participate in what Ethan calls "murder raids" leaving many dead behind. And yet in The Searchers, that racial tension is at least addressed head-on. The way Ethan looks at Martin during the first dinner scene or the scene in which Ethan moves from intentions of rescue to intentions of murder, but in the end, his mind changes as what's right wins out.
I've only seen three Ford films. I'm interested in his "calvary trilogy" especially Fort Apache to see Wayne/Fonda (I loved Fonda in Grapes of Wrath) together and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with Wayne/Stewart is also on my list to see one day.
