Thanks for the memories!

How sad is this?

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

For a film made in the 1930s, based in the 1880s, the class and political polarization still rings entirely true. Mostly a road-trip dramedy, it's filled with a top-rate collection of colorful characters, and it's such a pleasure getting to know them over 90 minutes. Once the classic and inventively shot western-action kicks in at the end, it adds excitement and volatility to the already stellar drama and humor.

Not a lot more need be said about John Ford's classic Western. The setting in Monument Valley is unforgettable, the folk music score is perfect, the script and the ensemble cast is top-notch, and first shot of the Duke, standing in the sand holding a saddle, and spin-cocking his Winchester, is one of the greatest introductions to a character, and ultimately to a legend, in the genre. While best known for its climatic chase and rescue scene, the film is full of brilliant moments such as John Carradine's gambler covering a women's body in the burned out village or Thomas Mitchell's doctor facing down the killer over the shotgun, not ending the final showdown, just making it more even. Even Andy Devine's mild comic relief or Thomas Mitchell's drunk scenes work, unusual as those are the sorts of scenes that rarely pass the test of time. The stunt work by legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt is extraordinary, although some of the techniques used to make horses fall would never be allowed in modern productions. Overall an outstanding film from the Hollywood's legendary year: 1939.

. . . STAGECOACH 2010 Criterion DVD commentator Jim Kitses seems to say, is for all the would-be Navy SEAL types to marry hookers and move to Mexico. (If you borrow a disc from someone to watch a movie you've heard things about, it's probably a good idea to make sure that the audio is not stuck in an alternate Yak Track.) Kitses says that there's little dialog in STAGECOACH (this is more than made up for by his continual droning on and on during the soundtrack to which I had access). Kitses says that Senator Joe "Sig Heil!" McCarthy's infamous 1950s Witch Hunt Hollywood Supersnitchers--STAGECOACH director John Ford and "actor" John "Ringo Kid" Wayne--were liberal dues-paying Communists a decade earlier, in their STAGECOACH days. I find this assertion pretty tough to swallow, since Kitses also reveals that Mr. Ford rode with the Ku Klux Klan even before that. While Kitses no doubt is correct in saying that STAGECOACH is hardly a "John Wayne movie," but rather a Chick Flick with a desert chase scene thrown in, it probably would have been nice to hear a few more lines of its original dialog (rather than Kitses opining "Claire Trevor Blah Blah Madonna Blah Blah Cleansed, Redeemed, and Saved Blah Blah Prolonged Soulful Gaze").

. . . in the past 12 months, I decided to re-watch STAGECOACH prior to the firing of the first artillery rounds of America's Second Civil War (sometime Wednesday morning)--in case the Grid goes down--to see if it was half as good as THE HATEFUL EIGHT. What a letdown! It turns out that STAGECOACH was shot on the cheap in Black & White, even though GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ were released in glorious color that same year (1939). Speaking of shot, I did NOT remember the final shootout scene BECAUSE THE SHOTS ARE ONLY HEARD, NOT SEEN (director John Ford probably could not figure out how to show blood in monochrome). Perhaps the best thing that can be said about STAGECOACH is that it may be Mr. Ford's most honest movie. The "Ringo Kid" (Wayne)'s heart's desire is to marry a hooker and move to Mexico (in Real Life, Il Duce's second wife WAS a Mexican hooker). Ex-Confederate soldier Hatfield is full of pompous Chivalry but devoid of Brains--he saves only ONE bullet to murder Lucy, totally forgetting about Lucy's daughter. As in Real Life with Today's pipeline scandals, the Native Americans get it Right, gunning down Hatfield BEFORE he can slay Lucy (and doom her kid to a grisly death). Finally, the Art of the Deal Businessman--Elsworth H. Gatewood--gets the just desserts ALL One Per Centers (Then and Now) so richly deserve, being hauled off to the clink for his financial shenanigans, as Donald J. Duck will be one day.