Stagecoach raised the genre from being routinely dismissed as the home of lightweight matinee fodder to the realm of artistic works capable of complex characterizations and profound psychology.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 10, 2025

Stagecoach seems so familiar and ingrained into our conceptions of what makes a good story. It’s simplicity is what makes the film so easy to ingest.

| Jul 31, 2024

Ford directs with characteristic reserve and passion for capturing the beauty of the natural world, and his dramatic camerawork helped to make this a landmark entry in the genre.

| Feb 1, 2023

For the sake of the view, you forgive all. In Stagecoach, the view is certainly something, and it hardly matters at all what goes on. The credit for the valuable things in this film unquestionably belongs to the cameramen.

| Aug 15, 2022

The characters are interesting, the politics and social class discord intriguing, and the action-oriented cinematography above standard.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 30, 2020

Directorially, production is John Ford in peak form, sustaining interest and suspense throughout, and presenting exceptional characterizations. Picture is a display of photographic grandeur.

| Feb 18, 2020

The rugged background of Monument Valley, Ariz..., the admirable pace given to the screen play by Writer Dudley Nichols and Director John Ford, the unostentatious acting of a well-chosen cast make it one of the season's most satisfactory pictures.

| Feb 18, 2020

Everything about this picture is perfection.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 18, 2020

The director has selected his players not because' they are highly publicised stars, but because they are competent actors, who bring to life the characters they portray in a fashion that is highly entertaining.

| Feb 18, 2020

One of the most fascinating motion pictures ever released is Walter Wanger's Stagecoach, which definitely should go on your "must see" list. In fact, I urge you to go out of your way to see it.

| Feb 18, 2020

With Stagecoach, previous frontier sagas seem like flimsy pasteboard. Here, the old West really lies. Credit for the dusty realism and the vivid humanity of Stagecoach go to director John Ford and his team of nine character actors.

| Feb 18, 2020

Depending upon story rather than boxoffice names this narrative of the opening of the West manages to be one of the more significant achievements of the cinema in recent months.

| Feb 18, 2020

Stagecoach is a western to end all westerns.

| Oct 22, 2019

Its virtues remain intact.

| Feb 10, 2012

Modern movies began here.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 10, 2012

Classic, yet hopelessly dated.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 10, 2012

With this, Ford transformed the western from fading B-movie filler into genuine adult fare.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 10, 2012

Seen today, Stagecoach may not seem very original. That's because it influenced countless later movies in which a mixed bag of characters are thrown together by chance and forced to survive an ordeal.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 24, 2011

[VIDEO] Orson Welles famously said he watched "Stagecoach" 40 times before he made "Citizen Kane." It's easy to see why.

| Original Score: A | Nov 21, 2011

One of the best early westerns ever made.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 16, 2011