Stagecoach : Visual Aspect

I remember the first time I ever watched Stagecoach I didn't quite grasp any real concepts or themes that director John Ford wanted audience members to get from the film.  Getting the chance to watch the film for a second time I started to pick up on some of the elements that really made Stagecoach the classic western that it is today.

I really liked how John Ford used visual style throughout the course of the film to emphasize the the main themes such as the social prejudices that were made between the main characters.  In the reading, it talked about how Ford would use deep space and deep focus to put certain emphasis on characters.  The reading gave the one example with Lucy, her friends, and Hatfield , in which it showed how Hatfield's character  was being judged by others and only in the end of the film perceivers  to become a noble character. A lot of the way Ford did the lighting for this film really changed general assumptions about characters that were made from the beginning , and slowly changed throughout the course of the film. The character named Dallas was a prostitute who was  getting kicked out of the town she lived in and to everyone else she seemed like a horrible person, but slowly she became a more likable character and by the end of the film not only do audiences pity her, but the others around her start to treat her more like a lady and less like a prostitute.  Ford accomplished this by having the lighting soften when ever it is a close-up shot on Dalla's face.  It makes her into more of a  lovable character.  

This was really shown during the scene where Mrs. Mallory conceived her baby.  As Dallas walked out of the bedroom holding the baby within her arms, all of the men in the room stood up to see it.  As each of their eyes met the baby's face, the noticed how Dallas was caring for it.  The focused shot of Dallas face to John Wayne's character's face, almost made her more innocent in the way the lighting softened her and caring for something that was at that point in time still innocent.  Without the different lighting and visual appeal in the film, I feel like the characters wouldn't have been given a chance to allow viewers to attach themselves to any of the characters.  After watching that scene with Dallas's character,  I honestly began to pity her because knowing that she was a prostitute she may never get any respect from anyone and may never have gotten the chance to have a baby.  

The Beginning of this Youtube clip shows the scene in which started to change feelings towards Dallas's character.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfnsKAdr0t4