Stagecoach A Microcosm of Society

To do so, one must read a book or watch a film documentary about the past. With this coming in mind, he or she will be attracted to watch a movie captured in the Western genre that entails films produced between 1930 and the 1960 (Archer). Now when the Westerners come to mind, The Stagecoach will dominate one's thoughts. Produced in 1939 by John Ford, the film has proved itself a microcosm of the then society. It will be remembered that during the Western genre movie era, and especially during the time Stagecoach was produced, America went through turbulent times spanning from the great depression of the 1930s to the Second World War beginning in 1939. Lucy Mallory a wife to an army man in the Calvary.

She refuses to seat and eat at the same table with a prostitute, Dallas Claire for she belongs to a lower social class. Dallas and the Ringo Kid are viewed as societal outcasts for their poverty and usually find themselves in trouble. While Dallas is ousted out of Arizona for her promiscuity, the Ringo Kid is detained as he revenges against the Plummer brothers who killed his father. The Apache Indians in the film also turn to be savage against their Cheyenne counterparts and the whites depicting racial differences and animosity depicting another version of class animosity and struggles (Aquila). Moreover, the society in the Stagecoach resembles that of the American society in the 1930s where the societal moral fabric was eroded by desperation.

During the 1930s, as jobs became rarer and unemployment took a toll on the society, many people resorted to social crimes as a way of life. There are those who belonged to organized gangs while others especially women turned to commercial sex. Others because of the economic hardships and desperation at the family level turned chain alcoholics who had the beer glass always at the table (Archer). At the movie, Stagecoach, the viewer is versed with a similar experience that well features through the characters Dallas Claire and Doctor Josiah Boone. He is, in fact, traveling in an attempt to abscond with $ 50,000. This comes out clearly when he becomes a culprit searched for by the police and arrested for looting from his bank (Aquila).

Also, in the Stagecoach, an Americans anti-Asian hatred and mistrust during the pre-World War II is also featured. At the time, the Japanese launched a massive deadly attack on China at the Manchuria Valley in 1931. Japanese would also attack again in 1937 at the Nanjing city of China following a wake of Chines Nationalism that venerated resistance propaganda against the Japanese army. Lucy Mallory in the film; Stagecoach is traveling to be with her husband in New Mexico. The travelers in their talk also praise capitalism while they praise their Calvary army. This echoes the Americans of the 1930s who strongly believed in their country and its values despite an emerging socialist propaganda that the American capitalism was to blame for the great depression, America was united and that her capitalism had nothing to do with a depression.