Stagecoach is seen as a template for all movie westerns. How does Ford(TM) use characters, action and settings to create this for the rest of all westerns.

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Essay question: Stagecoach is seen as a template for all movie westerns. How does ‘Ford’ use characters, action and settings to create this for the rest of all westerns.

I will begin by discussing John Fords use of characters to set a template for all movie westerns. It has been said that Stagecoach was ‘the first adult western’ this is because he brought intimacy to his characters. The story is simple enough, a group all with different backgrounds and characteristics, find themselves on the stagecoach to Lordsburg, each for a different reason. There are ten focused characters that get onboard the stagecoach and on route they pick up another character that joins them on the journey his named as Ringo Kid who is on a mission for revenge. These characters are Lucy Mallory who is heavily pregnant (I as the audience did not realise until she was in labor and had the baby) and she wants to join her husband an officer with the US cavalry, Mr. Hatfield who is a gambler and joins because he had one look at the lady and then leaped aboard. Doctor Boone and Miss Dallas join for similar reasons because they are both forced out of town, he for being an alcoholic and her due to being a prostitute, she was hounded away by a so-called legion of decent women in the town. The arrogant bank manager Mr. Gatewood who is on the run from his domineering wife, and takes with him the banks assets in his bag. Mr. Peacock was encouraged to join by Dr Boone for his case full of whiskey samples as his a whiskey salesman. The stagecoach driver is named Buck, and his a good natured well rounded fool and riding shotgun is the sheriff named Curly.

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The selection of characters created by Ford produce a microcosm of the Wild West and the technique of stereotyping is used and many western films have copied this technique. Ford gave women more of a role within the film, where as women are normally used and shown to make coffee in a bar for example but here the character named Lucy Mallory is decent and upstanding and Miss Dallas is a town-whore always to be found in the saloon offering her services as well as being the entertainment for the males. Even the smallest roles are fleshed out with distinguishing ...

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