About this Event
Sunday 16 September 2pm STAGECOACH (Dir: John Ford USA 1939 96mins)An eclectic group of passengers travel by stagecoach through Apache territory. John Ford’s first western since the days of the silent cinema was met with fierce resistance from the studios. Not only were Westerns out of fashion at the time but he was determined to cast B-movie actor John Wayne in a starring role. Ford got his way, of course, and in the process created a critical and popular success which has been extremely influential. Orson Welles described it as a perfect textbook of filmmaking and claimed to have watched it more than 40 times in preparation for the making of Citizen Kane.
Ford did make one compromise by agreeing to give top billing to Claire Trevor as the prostitute being driven out of town by the Law-and-Order League, with John Wayne as the Ringo Kid, a Pr*son escapee seeking revenge. A fine ensemble cast also features John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell and Andy Devine. The screenplay was written by Dudley Nichols (the first screenwriter to decline an Academy Award as part of a boycott to gain recognition for the Screen Writers Guild). His adaptation of the Ernest Haycox short story The Stage to Lordsburg was also greatly influenced by Maupassant’s Boule de Suif, a poignant tale and biting satire directed at the ruling classes of France (first published in 1880).
The film was deemed ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’ by the US Library of Congress and was chosen for preservation in their National Film Registry. But in later years Stagecoach has been criticised for its depiction of Native Americans. Roger Ebert wrote: "The film's attitudes are unenlightened. The Apaches are seen simply as murderous savages; there is no suggestion the white men have invaded their land." It's worth noting, however, that while discussing his later western The Searchers (1956), Ford reflected that “There's some merit to the charge that the Indian hasn't been portrayed accurately or fairly in the Western…there was much racial prejudice in the West.”
This session will be presented by John Newman and Michael O’Rourke who will host a discussion after the screening.
Doors/Bar 1.00pm Film 2.00pm
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Backlot Perth, 21 Simpson Street, West Perth, Australia
AUD 15.00
