Video Essay. The Sound of Horses: Two John Ford Westerns

A new video essay explores the exceptional soundtracks of two classic Westerns, "Stagecoach" and "My Darling Clementine."
Will Ross

MUBI is showing John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) in the United States from August 24 - September 22, 2016.

In the years before and after the Second World War, John Ford directed his first sound westerns: the crowd-pleasing adventure of Stagecoach (1939) and the darker, more introspective My Darling Clementine (1946). The films share a number of tropes and structural quirks, but differ drastically in their respective tones and formal approaches.

This video essay explores the context and implications of those differences by comparing the soundtracks of each film in similar scenes. The result shows how a seasoned auteur can impart his experiences and worldview into every facet of a film, and how profoundly our perceptions are shaped by the simple act of listening.

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