Aim: How does Stagecoach accurately represent the Western Genre of film? Do Now: List anything you know about Westerns. Include characteristics, names of movies, actors, etc. HW: Journals 2 and 3 Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Typical Aspects of the Western Setting ► American West between Characters ► Cowboy hero is “strong, silent type” - moral – rugged individualist. ► Women are of two types: the “pure or the “fallen” ► Supporting figures may include drunks, sheriffs, codgers, gamblers, dancehall girls, sidekicks, a “doc,” and a “good Indian.” ► Villains are often Indians (viewed stereotypically) or renegade bad men motivated by greed of sheer meanness. ► The setting serves as a character. Plot ► Plots often include stagecoach journey, revenge/retribution, cavalry against the savage Indians, bank or stage robberies, face-to-face gunfights. ► Conflicts include frontier vs. civilization, freedom vs. conformity, or individual vs. society. Iconography ► Horses, guns, the land, saloons with swinging doors, tumbleweed. Mood ► Generally optimistic – the good guys usually win and the bad are usually punished. Cinematic Style ► Long shots of landscape, mountains, and the horizon; characters placed in context of the frontier. ► Shot mainly in daylight.
STAGECOACH ► In the movie Stagecoach, colorful, vividly-portrayed, widely-varied characters of clashing social classes/values are thrown together by fate and closely confined for a period of time as a group: ► a prostitute (or dance hall gal) forced to leave town ► a embezzling banker ► a Confederate gambler ► a whiskey salesman ► an alcoholic, disgraced frontier doctor (surgeon) ► a pregnant young bride, the wife of an Army officer en route to his post ► a stage driver ► a Marshal riding shotgun ► a rugged, escaped outlaw (Ringo Kid) - John Wayne in a breakthrough role, who is picked up on the road shortly after the coach's departure
STAGECOACH ► They act out in their relationships their representative social types. In Stagecoach, nine passengers during a stagecoach journey are placed together in a position of danger, one in which their true characters are tested and revealed. Major social issues and themes (sexual and social prejudice, alcoholism, childbirth, greed, shame, redemption and revenge) are closely mixed together into an exciting adventure story.
Aim: How can we identify the characteristics of “The Western”? Do Now: Describe the stereotypical cowboy… HW: Journals 2 and 3 Wednesday, April 10, 2013
AIM: How can we analyze the moral dilemmas in Stagecoach and relate them to the typical western Film? DO NOW: If there was a modern remake of stagecoach who would play Ringo Kid? H.W- Journal #’s 2 and 3 Thursday, April 11, 2013