YMMV / Stagecoach

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• Adaptation Displacement: Most people don't know this was based on a book.
• Award Snub: A minor one, but notable. This was the only Western John Ford directed that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. He lost out to Victor Fleming on Gone with the Wind.
• Genre Turning Point: The film marked the true start of the modern Western. It marked the star-making role of the greatest Western star, John Wayne, location shooting of Monument Valley (the first time Ford shot there), realistic action sequences and also the use of the Western genre to make social commentary with civilization positioned as a corrupting influence on the natural and rugged frontier with greedy bankers standing in for acceptable targets during the Depression.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Gatewood complains that America should have a businessman president. It got three, Herbert Hoover, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Considering that Hoover had already been president by the time the film was made, it's possible that the reference was almost certainly deliberate on Ford's part towards Hoover.
• Once Original, Now Common: While it's still highly-regarded by critics and most Western fans, the basic plot and Western tropes Stagecoach helped codify have been imitated, subverted, parodied or otherwise used in so many subsequent films (not all of them Westerns) that it doesn't seem as fresh or innovative as it originally did.
• Out of the Ghetto: This was the first western to attract the seriousness, critical attention and commercial appeal. It was nominated for Best Picture but for a long time, it was the yardstick by which all westerns were measured against, including John Ford's later Westerns.
• Sequelitis: More like Remake-itis, but the 1966 remake was considered to be a severe disappointment in comparison to the original. Despite an improved script (the Gatewood subplot is particularly satisfyingly tied in to the Ringo plot, with Keenan Wynn's delightfully nasty Luke Plummer being fatally hired by the defaulting banker) and a remarkably strong showing by Bing Crosby as Doc Boone, the film is killed dead by Alex Cord's leaden performance as the Ringo Kid.
• Signature Scene: The eight-minute long Chase Fight as the stagecoach and its passengers makes its way across a salt flat with Apaches attacking from all sides.

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