In your textbook, Looking at Movies, by Richard Barsam, Barsam goes into a detailed analysis of the construction of Stagecoach's narrative. In your response, pick TWO aspects of narrative that Barsam talks about that you think were particularly effective in the film and discuss cinematically how they worked to make Stagecoach such a successful film. Don't forget to use examples from the film to support your response!!!
Due: Wednesday, November 27
Stagecoach is a movie that uses many cinematic elements that make it a very unique Western movie. The different aspects of its narrative made this not only a successful movie but an effective one in showing different cultural aspects that John Ford tried to display. The movie is about a group of strangers that are traveling through the wild west to a town called Lordsburg. On their way there, they encounter the different dangers that anyone travelling through the West can face, most of all being the Indian attacks. In Looking at Movies the different cinematic elements that John Ford present are explained in depth as Richard Barsam dissects it thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteTwo of the more important aspects of this film that are emphasized by Barsam in Looking at Movies are the Diegetic and Nondiegetic Elements and the Characters. Almost everything in the movie is made up of diegetic elements except for the little nondiegetic elements such as opening and closing titles, credits, and the background music. Barsam talks about one song in particular that is usually heard in connection to Buck (Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie) that symbolizes his fear of dying “on the range”. The characters are also mentioned in this analysis as very important aspects of the film. All of the characters inside the stagecoach are considered major characters because the focus is on all of their lives as they try to get to Lordsburg. The difference between some of them is that some are round characters, and some are flat characters. Dallas, Ringo, Dr. Boone, and Lucy are round because their characters are flexible and unpredictable and possess many traits that the audience can relate to. THe others are flat characters because they are more one dimensional. One thing that is unique about this movie is that the main antagonist described by Barsam is Geronimo, a character with only an offscreen presence, but is very crucial to the plot because all of the characters are fearful of him.
In our textbook “Looking at Movies” there is a section that discusses certain aspects of the narrative and how they relate to the success of the film. Two of the aspects that I found most influential on the success of the film are the aspect of suspense and setting. Both of these aspects are created with cinematic techniques from John Ford in order to create the narrative that became successful.
ReplyDeleteSuspense is used throughout the narrative in order to keep the viewer on their seat but there are several elements that cinematically create this suspense. Generally in the film when there are suspenseful scenes, the editing is drawn out, using long takes in order to draw out the scene and keep the viewer on their feet. Examples of this can be seen in the scenes including not only the scenes leading up to the Indian attack by Geronimo, but the scenes where Dr. Boone needs to sober up quickly in order to deliver a baby. Long takes are used in order to draw out these scenes and make them suspenseful. However in one instance fast edits are used and this makes it suspenseful because it’s used alongside fast paced music. This occurs during the final scenes where the Indians are attacking the stage coach. As the camera cuts quickly from one action to another, never really coming to a conclusion of the action, we build suspense while waiting to see what occurs of that action again. This placed alongside fast paced music in the background of the action creates a feeling of suspense. And all of these feelings of suspense in the film add up as we approach the final climax of the film in this scene building suspense more rapidly until the members of the stage coach can get away from the Indians.
The aspect of setting is important as well. The setting is supposed to take place in the Wild West, with cowboys and Indians running wild and John Ford needed to make this as verisimilar as possible when making this film in order to create a narrative that is very powerful. So in creating this verisimilar setting, John Ford needed to control the mise-en-scene and execute this control properly in order to create a setting for the story that was both believable and yet able to be exploited for the use of his story. In order for a stagecoach to get attacked by Indians in the wild west, the stagecoach has to be in the wild west. John Ford did on location shooting during this process because wouldn’t be able to shoot an opened frame shot spanning the far of distance of the desert if he were to shoot the film on a set. In order to create this verisimilar setting for the narrative he needed this on location shooting and I believe this is one of the aspects that made the narrative extremely successful. This paired along with controlling the props, costume and hair design along with make up-design John Ford was able to create the setting in which these people could get put together in a stage coach and get attacked by a tribe of wild Indians. He controlled the costumes of his characters, making the costumes of the outlaws look like a classic cowboy in order to make his back story about that character more realistic. If the costume design, setting of the shooting, mise-en-scene in general, and the editing and score were not composed in the same fashion that John Ford used to make this film as it is now, I believe it wouldn’t be much of success. Because by controlling the suspense and setting of the narrative he was able to draw the audience in and let them believe in a story they see because Ford made it verisimilar.