100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #75: Stagecoach (1939)

Directed by John Ford. Starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne.

We are all together on the same boat on a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty - G.K. Chesterton

Sociologist Robert Putnam identified in Bowling Alone and other studies, the enormous loss of community connection that has taken place over decades in our society. Movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age carry a mysterious aesthetic and moral power to rebuild this lost social capital and unity.

Recently at the Educational Guidance Institute (EGI) we finalized our new curriculum, Teaching and Learning Civic Engagement through the Art of Classic Film. There, our Unit 2 features the theme of care and defense of the Common Good with classic westerns like High Noon and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Yet it was just within the past several weeks when Sam Morales, Cameron DeLaFleur and I got together for a podcast and Sam asked me to write a piece on Stagecoach that I realized:

John Ford’s 1939 masterpiece is one of the best vehicles for middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students and young adults to ponder the question: WHAT MAKES A GOOD CITIZEN?