During the last week of class we have been watching "Stagecoach." This film is a black and white western that takes place in Monument Valley. Director, John Ford, used new special effects which added to the movies greatness. I found that in the attack of the Indians scene Ford really brought out his knowledge of films. I really feel like he put a lot of extra effort into this scene. The scene begins when an Indian shooting at the stagecoach. After this the scene carries on with the Indians chasing after the stagecoach. As the Indians advance on the stagecoach Ringo, Hatfield and Curly tend to pick off the Indians. The most amazing part is when an Indian jumps on to the horses leading the stagecoach. But as the Indian gets closer to the stagecoach, Hatfield shoots him and he falls down into the straps holding the horses together. Hatfield shoots him again and he falls off the straps and down under the stagecoach. What I learned after the movie was that the Indian did this in real life. I was surprised that the stuntman was able to do this without getting hurt.The one thing that really got to me in the attack scene was how John Ford depicted the Indians. He made the Indians seem like savages and did not provide a reason for why they wanted to kill the people on the stagecoach. I also think it is bad how Indians are always seen wearing feather head bands and shooting bow and arrows. I know that in some perspective that this is true in real life but still it’s very stereotypical. If this scene would have given us some meaning to why the Indians were after the stagecoach, I think it would have made it more powerful.
3 comments:
Yeah... I didn't like how the depicted "Indians", it was very stereotypical of them to do so. Everyone has to have a reason for doing something, they wouldn't just spontaneously burst out of nowhere and attach a single stagecoach. They also had to have chased them a couple miles at least... was it worth it? If the director took economics and understood opportunity costs, then maybe he wouldn't have made the marginal cost higher than the marginal benefit. There were allies being shot by the people in the stagecoach as well, not one of them stops to help the injured. Are these "Indians" not people? A lot of things in the film didn't make sense to me, and that was one of the bigger ones I had a problem with.
The Indians in the movie had many reasons to go after the Stagecoach Jake. They: were at war with those lazy non-nomadic dogs, were folowing orders, wanted to rob the stagecoach, wanted to test their new carbines, got bored or maybe they just wanted to earn "street cred." You do not need a reason to attack a stagecoach, but I think all of those applied to the Apachees.
It annoys me when they make the indians seem like there bad guys, i agree with your post. I also wish that they would of atleast explained why they were chaseing the stagecoach , or atleast gave some background information on the indians. Nice job on the post.
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