He was the supreme "Western" director. In 1939, Ford directed two classic Westerns, the more celebrated "Stagecoach," and the less renowned "Drums Along the Mohawk." Although both films being

of the values, culture, and way of life derived from British imperialism.  Eastern laws,

government, industry and community originate from the British system.  The characteristics

(both positive and negative) of the East are depicted through the characters in both of Ford’s

films, having such attributes as proper/civilized mannerisms, being of white class (Protestant

faith), a polished behaviour, a snobby high class demeanor, susceptible to being prejudice, as

well as holding the ideas of an imperialistic and capitalistic nation derived from the British

system.  It is the entire movement into the West and its colonization that the people of the East

bring their values and way of life into new lands.  Throughout the entire settlement of the West,

it is the conflict of the difference between the East and West that reflect through the characters

who are enduring the hardships of establishing a new civilization.  As these people from the East

try and compromise with the much different way of life in the West, they transcend over their

negative qualities that derive from their Eastern culture and become people of a more “humane”

nature.  If they do not compromise, they will not survive the way of life in the West.  

        In “Drums Along the Mohawk,” Lana is depicted as the typical Eastern girl turned

frontierswoman.  In the beginning of the film, we see her and Gil just married at her estate in the

East.  It is here we see where she comes from.  “The opening scene stresses the formality and

order of an advanced civilization.”   Lana and Gil venture off into new territory in the West

(Mohawk Valley, New York) to start a new life on the virgin lands of the frontier.  Lana along

with Gil must constantly work hard and endure much in order to build themselves a new life.  

She must roll up her sleeves and get down and dirty, helping her husband finish their new home

and plant their crops they are to grow.  This hard process of her new life is extremely opposite to

her former life of being pampered and taken care of in the East.  She is now a frontierswoman,

adapting to the new way of life the West forces her to live – becoming a survivor.  Certain

occurrences in the movie mimic Lana’s experiences (community’s experience) surviving in the

West – losing her first child, the first Indian attack, and the attack on the fort.  After surviving

such hardships, Lana grows to become a woman who is one with nature – learning to live the

new life in the West.  Lana’s ability to transcend and discard the merely external accoutrements

of refinement of Eastern culture is contrasted to Mrs. Demooth.  “The foil for Lana throughout

Drums Along the Mohawk is the snobbish and affected Mrs. Demooth, who is castigated by

the film for her failure to cast off the manners and attributes of the East.” 

John Ford has a similar depiction of this theme in “Stagecoach.”  In the film, the

passengers of the stagecoach are easily divided into classes deriving from Eastern culture, or

Western culture.  The main representatives of the East are:  Lucy Mallory – pregnant young wife

of an Army officer en route to his post, embezzling banker Henry Gatewood and confederate

gambler Hatfield.  Representatives of the West include: Doc Josiah Boone – an alcoholic

drunken frontier doctor, Dallas – a prostitute forced to leave town, and Ringo Kid – an escaped

outlaw who is picked up on the road shortly after the coach’s departure.  In this film, each of the

characters are representative, archetypal character types, divided initially between respectable

and disrespectable social outcasts.  However by the film’s end, the disreputable members of

society prove to be the most noble, virtuous, and selfless.

The main locale is the Southwest of the 1880s in the little town of Tonto, Arizona, where

the characters are carefully introduced.  The plot of the film is of these coach passengers

traveling from the town of Tonto, through the Monument Valley, to the town of Lordsburg for

their respective purposes.  The conflict of the story is whether these passengers can survive each

other during the trip and the extreme threat of Apache Indians who are lurking nearby.  Each

member of the stagecoach has a status and purpose they superficially represent (either being

from the East/West), but through their individual actions, they prove their true worth and reflect

the truth to those around them.  Two occurrences establish each character’s true nature (which

contradicts the normal prejudices of their status and origin), when Lucy gives birth to her child at

the Mexican outpost, and the last leg of the trip to the town of Lordsburg where mounted Indians

attack the stagecoach.  When the coach stops at a Mexican outpost, Lucy Mallory goes into

labour, and at this crucial moment Doc Boone arises from his drunkenness (with the help from

Ringo and Curley) when most needed and helps Lucy deliver her baby.  “Doc reaches his

lowest point just before the baby is born, when he is dead drunk when most needed.  He

rises to his professional calling and puts himself through torture to be a fit doctor.”   During

this time, Gatewood is complaining again, this time about the inconvenient delay in getting to

Lordsburg.  As the baby is delivered and Lucy exhausted from the labour, Dallas acts as a

midwife, staying up all night caring for both the baby and Lucy.  Here, Doc Boone and Dallas

show an achievement of overcoming a vice, and a noble, selfless act respectively.  During the

chase of the stagecoach by the Apache Indians, it is here where Ringo proves himself as the hero

of the film, helping the passengers fend off the attacking Indians, as well as keeping the horses

running as Buck is injured.  However, during the attack, it is Hatfield, the gambling, superficial

Easterner who meets his demise as he is killed in his last chivalrous act in protecting Lucy.  As

each character reveals their true nature, the film reveals that each one has been a victim of social

prejudice.   The social outcasts: (members representative of the West) Ringo, Dallas and Doc

Boone proved their worth.  Ringo the convict became the hero, Dallas the prostitute showed her

caring nature, and Doc Boone the drunk rose to the occasion when needed, all struck down their

negative branded titles and proved their virtue.  Those synonymous with the East had their own

revelations as well.  Hatfield and Lucy, with their superficial Eastern sensibilities who looked

down to Ringo, Dallas and Doc Boone where proven wrong in their judgment of them, and

showed their nature to be superficial and full of prejudice in doing so.  The cowardly old

hypocrite banker Gatewood, shows an uncaring nature towards the entire group, “wanting to

move on regardless of Lucy’s health, he abuses good old Doc Boone, who has come through

for the baby, and he finally tries to persecute Ringo, who has been more responsible than

anyone else for their survival”   was arrested for his crime of embezzling money when he

finally arrived to his anxiously awaited destination of Lordsburg. Thus, it is the West

(represented by the Ringo, Dallas and Doc Boone) that exposes the faults in Eastern civility

(Gatewood, Lucy and Hatfield) and of their refined attitudes and allows those of the East to

survive due to their influence and support.

        The second central theme in both of Ford’s films is the theme of the importance of family

as the basic foundation to community/civilization.  “Stagecoach” presents an odd family

represented in the passengers of the stagecoach.  Each member comes from a different

background and might not have anything in common with each other, but in their respective

purpose of the trip, each much work together as a unit in order to survive.

“In Stagecoach, the goal is group interaction, which affirms the group over the pettiness of the individuals…each character is merely a part of the whole being that is the group.  Their dangers are self-created but are group expressed; that is, they are groups tensions, which are alleviated when the group becomes united as the pretenses and protections of the town are stripped away.”

The context of civilization here is survival.  The entire group must contribute and

perform as a cohesive unit to overcome such obstacles as Lucy’s birth and the attack by the

Indians as well as to finally reach their destination – they must work as a family – a community.  

Such members of the group take on individual roles of a family.  Ringo and Dallas act as the

newly married couple ready to start a family, Curley and Doc Boone act as fatherly figures for

Ringo and Dallas, Hatfield acts as a husband/protector over Lucy in the absence of her real

husband.  As well Dallas takes on the role of the mother when Lucy’s baby is born.   The

protection of the baby and women (ideals of continuity of civilization) is stressed as we see

Hatfield taking part in this trip in order to protect Lucy Mallory in an environment that is not fit

for her, as well as saving the last bullet for her to protect her virtue from being raped the Indians.  

Ringo also protects Dallas, in a husbandry fashion.  Curly represents humane law, a fatherly kind

of authority, as well as Doc Boone who also becomes a fatherly figure in the form of comfort.  

“It is to Doc that Dallas goes when she is agonizing over her decision to marry Ringo, and to Doc that Ringo goes to discuss the problem.  He is father figure to both of them without being an authority figure like Curly, and it is schematically right that Doc and Curly send them on their way when they leave together for Ringo’s ranch across the border.”

        Through each character’s display of roles pertaining to a family as well as working

tightly as one, the group as a whole (civilization) achieves their united goal, as well as surviving

the difficulties and hurdles faced throughout their experience.  This importance of the

fundamentals pertaining to family, as a working cohesive unit, and an interacting community is

exhibited throughout “Stagecoach.”

        ”Drums Along the Mohawk” affirms this ideological theme of the importance of family

as the repository of virtue and civilization’s foundation as well.  “In the course of the film, the

couple becomes a family, and we see the family become integrated in the community.  The

final sequence, centered on the carrying in of the new American flag, shows the community

recognizing itself as part of a newly founded nation.”   Gil and Lana - the ideal family, as a

newly wedded couple ready to start a family on their own, represent the importance of family as

the basic unit of civilization.  Their experiences, thoughts and actions are in a smaller-scale

representative of the community’s.  In Lana and Gil’s trials in starting a family, a tragic loss is

experienced when their first attempt of having a baby is failed.  However, later on in the film (as

the couple matures) their “second” baby is born and is welcomed into the world by the

community.  The family motif continues in the film as during the Halloween celebration, the

community is celebrating another marriage of a young couple.  Ford uses his character of Mrs.

McClennan, a childless widow, to uphold his family ideology evident in this film.   Mrs.

McClennan welcomes the young couple into her home and becomes a parental figure to both

Lana and Gil to an extent of adopting them as her own children.  It is through her influence and

guidance that support and strengthen Gil and Lana’s family relationship and helps the continuity

of their family life.   The desire for continuity of civilization is also evident in ”Drums Along the

Mohawk” as the community defends themselves from the attack on their fort by the British

aligned with Natives.   The community must defend their way of life and fight against the threat

of their foes, in order to continue their growth as a family, a community, a nation.  

        It is evident, that however possessing different narrative paths and deriving from different

points in history, Ford’s films “Drums Along the Mohawk” and “Stagecoach” do consist of

similar ideologies of American civilization that are illustrated through their similar themes.  

Both clearly express the theme that Eastern values are capitalistic as well as having imperialistic

desires, and these qualities can be negatively embraced.  It is through the influence of the West

that exposes their faults and brings both ends of the spectrum to a harmonic balance (East

bringing civility to the wilderness, and West bringing nature back into civilization).  Another

theme that is expressed in both films is the importance of monogamy/family as the fundamental

basis for community/civilization.  It is upon these two central themes evident in both films that

create a similar ideology of American civilization, as well as compliment each other’s ideals as

well.

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