Stagecoach (1939)
Critic Reviews
|
100
|
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Stagecoach holds our attention effortlessly and is paced with the elegance of a symphony.
|
|
100
|
The New York Times Frank S. Nugent
Here, in a sentence, is a movie of the grand old school, a genuine rib-thumper and a beautiful sight to see.
|
|
100
|
TV Guide Magazine
The classic western, Stagecoach is one of John Ford's greatest frontier epics.
|
|
100
|
The A.V. Club Noel Murray
Stagecoach gives fine shading to a simple story, making it look and feel like a forgotten American myth.
|
|
100
|
San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Stagecoach both revived and elevated the Western.
|
|
100
|
Empire
What drew the crowds back in 1939 and what has kept them coming is not the film's simmering subtexts but the absolutely fantastic ambush sequence as the stage thunders across the salt flats of Monument Valley. With this, Ford transformed the western.
|
|
100
|
Time Out
The contrast between the innocence of the wilderness and the ambiguous 'blessings of civilisation' are brilliantly stitched into a smoothly developed narrative, which climaxes with the famous Indian attack on the stagecoach.
|
|
88
|
Slant Magazine
If this is the Old West of our dreams, it’s one that exists in an outsider’s limbo, away from society’s rules, alternating between the breathtaking breadth of the American landscape and the Germanically shadowy lighting of Ford’s claustrophobic interiors.
|
|
80
|
Variety
Sweeping and powerful drama of the American frontier, Stagecoach displays potentialities that can easily drive it through as one of the surprise big grossers of the year. Without strong marquee names, picture nevertheless presents wide range of exploitation to attract, and will carry far through word-of-mouth after it gets rolling.
|
|
63
|
Chicago Reader Dave Kehr
Certainly it's the weakest of Ford's major westerns, burdened with a schematic and pretentious Dudley Nichols script (the "cross section of society" on board the stagecoach), but its virtues remain intact.
|
More Critic Reviews
See all external reviews for Stagecoach (1939) »See also
Awards | FAQ | User Reviews | User Ratings | External Reviews
