Stagecoach: The Criterion Collection DVD

• Additional Details
• Format: DVD
• Rating: Not Rated
• Number of Discs: 2
• Run Time: 96 Minutes
• Region: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
• Language: English
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: May 25, 2010
• Packaging: Keep Case
• Audio: ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono
• Director: John Ford
• Cast: John Wayne , Claire Trevor , Andy Devine , John Carradine , Thomas Mitchell , Louise Platt , George Bancroft , Donald Meek , Berton Churchill , Tim Holt , Tom Tyler , Chris-Pin Martin , Francis Ford , Jack Pennick
• Genre: Western
• Color: Black & White
• Includes:
  Audio commentary by western authority Jim Kitses
  Bucking Broadway, a 1917 silent feature by John Ford
  Journalist and television presenter Philip Jenkinson’s extensive 1968 video interview
  New video appreciation of Stagecoach
  New video interview with Ford’s grandson, Dan Ford
  New video piece, featuring journalist Buzz Bissinger
  New video homage to legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt
  Video essay by writer Tag Gallagher analyzing Ford’s visual style
  Screen Director’s Playhouse 1949 radio dramatization of Stagecoach
  Theatrical trailer
  Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by David Cairns and Ernest Haycox’s Stage to Lordsburg, the short story that inspired the film
• Release Date: 1939

This is where it all started. John Ford's smash hit and enduring masterpiece Stagecoach revolutionized the western, elevating it from B movie to the A-list. The quintessential tale of a group of strangers thrown together into extraordinary circumstances - nine passengers traveling a dangerous route from Arizona to New Mexico - Stagecoach features outstanding performances from Hollywood stalwarts Claire Trevor (Key Largo; Murder, My Sweet), John Carradine (Drums Along the Mohawk, The Grapes of Wrath), Thomas Mitchell (Make Way for Tomorrow, It's a Wonderful Life), and, of course, John Wayne (The Searchers, Rio Bravo), in his first starring role for Ford, as the daredevil outlaw the Ringo Kid. Superbly shot and tightly edited, Stagecoach (Ford's first trip to Monument Valley) is Hollywood storytelling at its finest.

Expert Review:
John Wayne became a star in this John Ford film that reinvented the western. The Ringo Kid (Wayne) breaks out of jail to avenge the death of his brother, hitching a ride with a stagecoach of passengers—the proverbial cross section of American society. The attack by Apaches and tense showdown have become genre clichés, yet the subtle ways Ford reveals social prejudice and redemption, as well as the film’s lyrical yet formal style always impress anew. By Bucko of Cowboylands