PAUSE IT: What do you see? A stagecoach rips across the Western Plains in director Ted Post’s remake of Stagecoach (1986). Note the placement of the horizon in the lower third of the frame. The composition draws our focus to the vastness of the open sky above. This is the wild, untamed West and the scale of the figures in relation to the landscape indicates as much. Legendary director, John Ford, famous for helming iconic westerns such as She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), knew a thing or two about the western and movie composition. Perhaps more than anyone else Ford helped to set the template for the classic Hollywood western while directing the original production of Stagecoach (1939). In fact, the old master famously once offered a bit of unsolicited advice (chastisement) to none other than a wide-eyed Steven Spielberg. Schooling the neophyte filmmaker Ford said: “When you’re able to distinguish the art of the horizon at the bottom of a frame, or at the top of the frame—but not going right through the center of the frame—when you’re able to appreciate why it’s at the top and why it’s at the bottom, you might make a pretty good picture-maker.”

Cast: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings
Cinematography by: Gary Graver
Available from Olive Films on DVD and Blu-ray: http://amzn.to/23m2Vms