Stagecoach

In general i am not particularly fond of westerns as a genre. I see them to be slightly outdated and aimed at a male audience rather than a female one. The iconography associated with westerns such as guns, cowboy hats and bows and arrows ect are practically all found within stagecoach. These objects associated with the genre are all made into replicas for children to play with. I frequently remember my brother playing with toy guns as a child, whilst I on the other hand had no interest in playing with that sort of toy. Guns and weapons are often seen as typically masculine objects and that might be why I felt that as a child, films involving cowboys and indians had no real place for me because they were 'boys films'. However I think that Stagecoach would be appealing to both a male and female audience, especially because of some of the subplots.

Like many members of the class I was not particularly excited about watching Stagecoach but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the film. I think that my view of westerns was slightly distorted by ones that I watched as a child. I have no idea what the films names were but I have to say that they were never of a very high quality. They never captivated me and I found the formula to be very similar from one film to the next. In fact I only watched these films with my family when it was a Sunday afternoon and nothing else was on television. However I feel that Stagecoach stands out from the genre. It is made to a very high quality, the tension at some points within the film really keeps you hooked and the musical score not only fits in with the genre of the piece but enhances the audiences emotion and enjoyment when watching the film.

To me the movie feels as though it was made after 1939, and I am sure that the two oscar wins and multitude of nominations reflect both the audience and the critics appreciation for the film. The fact that this film has also been both remade and re-released reflects the high standard of the movie. Although I still have to say that westerns are not, and probably never will be my favourite genre of film, I did enjoy Stagecoach and will make an effort to be more open minded about different genres of film in the future.