Despite being his first really big movie, Stagecoach Is still the film with John Wayne’s best scene. In the course of his long and storied career in Hollywood, John Wayne headlines dozens of movies, mostly Westerns but also war films, dramas and adventure movies. Having accumulated a whopping total of 169 movie appearances, John Wayne has no shortage of memorable movie scenes credited to him.
Great John Wayne quotes, fist fights and shootouts are found throughout the actor’s filmography. This is not surprising, because some of his movies – such as The searchers, Rio BraveAnd Stagecoach – are considered some of the best Westerns of all time. Most of these, interestingly enough, were made when the actor was past his prime. StagecoachOn the other hand, was released in 1939, when the actor was 32 years old. But even though it comes from one of the earliest chapters of his career, it never tops one key area, which is Wayne’s introductory scene.
Why Ringo Kid’s entrance into Stagecoach is the best scene of John Wayne’s career
The Ringo Kid stole the show
In the black-and-white western, John Wayne played the lead role of the Ringo Kid, a gunslinger who rides the titular stockcoach on the long road to New Mexico. However, the film does not begin with Wayne’s character. Rather, it focuses on the journey of the characters traveling on the stagecoach before its arrival. This leads to a scene-stealing moment where the Ringo Kid makes his grand entrance. The scene sees the stagecoach stop in front of a lone van, who skilfully spins his gun before the camera zooms in on his face.
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From this point on, it’s clear that John Wayne has taken over the movie. His commanding presence, combined with various editing techniques, such as the use of the zoom, allows Stagecoach To convey that the Ringo kid is the real star of the movie. It’s made even more powerful when you look at it in retrospect; in a way, The introduction of the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach is a reflection of what this movie meant to Wayne. Similar to how Ringo Kidd seized control of the story when he stopped the stagecoach, Wayne became the face of the genre when he made this film.
John Wayne’s career would have been very different without Stagecoach
Stagecoach ended a long-running phase in Wayne’s career
While John Wayne was an experienced western movie actor long before playing Ringo Kid StagecoachHe was hardly a household name. Before StagecoachWayne was the lead actor in a number of Westerns, but all were low-budget and contributed very little to his stardom. His career stayed on that trajectory for quite a while, with Wayne making a handful of forgettable Westerns every year for almost a decade. Considering this has been going on since 1930, it’s unclear where it would have ended if it hadn’t. Stagecoach.