Summary
Ringo tells them he has a lame horse and wants to join the stagecoach. Curley wants to arrest Ringo, but the outlaw insists that he could be an asset on the road, as it’s been pretty dangerous in the territory recently. As the cavalry pulls up behind them, Ringo surrenders his gun, submits to arrest and climbs aboard the stagecoach. The stagecoach continues down the road.
Buck says to Curley, “Ain’t Ringo a fine boy!” before talking about the fact that although Ringo is not a law-abiding citizen he is “doing the Lord’s work.” Onboard, Gatewood confronts Ringo about his identity. “Ringo’s just a name I had as a kid. Name’s Henry,” Ringo replies, and Boone remembers Ringo from when he was a kid. “Are you Doc Boone?” says Ringo, smiling, and Boone confirms that he started working as a doctor after the Civil War. Hatfield tries to correct Boone, saying, “You mean the War for the Southern Confederacy, sir.” “I mean nothing of the kind!” protests Boone.
Ringo tells Boone that he was a good doctor, even if he’s a drunk. “What happened to that boy, whose arm I fixed?” Boone asks Ringo, referring to Ringo’s younger brother, and Ringo tells Boone he was murdered, as ominous music plays.
Hatfield tells Boone to stop smoking his cigar because it’s bothering Lucy, and Boone apologizes profusely to her. “A gentleman doesn’t smoke in the presence of a lady,” says Hatfield, to which Boone responds, “Three weeks ago, I took a bullet out of a man who was shot by a gentleman. The bullet was in his back!” As Hatfield protests, Ringo tells him to be quiet.
The scene shifts and we see the stagecoach arriving in a small station and the passengers get off. A woman at the station mentions that the troops have left and gone to Apache Wells, which upsets Lucy, who thought she would be reunited with her husband. She sits down despondently, as Gatewood insists that they continue towards Lordsburg, even though the troops that have been following them refuse to continue as well. Buck wants to return with the soldiers, but Ringo thinks that they could continue on their course without the troops.
The group goes into a room where a woman gets them some food. Curley suggests that they continue on to Apache Wells, where soldiers can escort them to a ferry, “then it’s only a hoot and a holler into Lordsburg.” He suggests that the men carry firearms, then asks Lucy’s permission to travel forward, given that she is a lady. She says, “I’ve traveled all the way here from Virginia, I’m determined to get to my husband. I won’t be separated any longer.” When Curley goes to ask another man on the journey, Ringo encourages him to ask Dallas, the other woman on the trip.
When Curley asks Dallas, she simply says, “What difference does it make? It doesn’t matter.” Gatewood insists that they continue, and Hatfield and Boone agree. Peacock is the only one to vote not to continue on, but he is outnumbered.
A woman serves them some food and they sit down to eat. Ringo invites Dallas to sit at the table with them, which shocks Hatfield and Lucy. Lucy and Dallas make antagonistic eye contact, as Hatfield sets a plate down in front of Lucy and Ringo puts a plate in front of Dallas. Hatfield offers to find Lucy another place to sit, so that she doesn’t have to sit next to Dallas. Ringo serves Dallas some food.
Lucy seems distraught and Hatfield asks what’s wrong, but she tells him that she’ll be alright. She asks him if he’s ever been to Virginia and he tells her that he was in her father’s regiment. At the other end of the table, Dallas asks Ringo why he’s staring at her, and he asks if he’s seen her somewhere before. She says, “I know who you are, I guess everyone in the territory does.” He responds, “I used to be a good cowhand but things happen.” Ringo then mentions that he won’t go back to prison until he’s finished a job in Lordsburg.
They re-board the stagecoach and embark on the next leg of their trip to Lordsburg. Lucy waves to a soldier from the window of the stagecoach and he rides away. The scene shifts and we see Buck and Curley arguing about the fact that neither of them is making good conversation. Buck tells Curley that he thinks he should let Ringo and someone named Luke Plummer shoot it out. Curley thinks it’s a bad idea, as Luke would undoubtedly kill Ringo in a gunfight, and has two brothers “just as ornery as he is.”
Onboard, Gatewood is ranting about the army, as Boone wraps a scarf around Peacock’s mouth and wipes his face comically. Gatewood continues to complain about the ways that the government regulates banks, saying that the country needs a businessman for president, all the while clutching his embezzled funds.
As Buck makes a turn, Curley asks him why he’s taking the mountain road, and Buck responds that it’s because Apaches don’t like snow. Dallas notices that Lucy looks somewhat ill and offers to have her put her head on her shoulder, but Lucy declines. Lucy asks for some water, and Curley passes back a canteen. Ringo watches skeptically as Hatfield pours some of the water into a small cup. As she drinks, Lucy recognizes the crest on the cup as being from Greenfield Manor, but Hatfield insists that he won the cup on a wager.
“How about the other lady?” Ringo asks, passing the canteen to Dallas. She takes a big swig.
Analysis
This section of the film marks the introduction of a central and infamous figure in the narrative, the Ringo Kid. Ringo has been talked about in hushed, dramatic tones before this, and is a local celebrity, though not necessarily for the right reasons. His entrance into the narrative reflects the mystique around him as a person. The stagecoach comes to a halt and we see Ringo, played by the famous actor, John Wayne, in closeup. This is the role that made John Wayne a star, and his grit, seriousness, and solidity as a performer give us a clue as to why. Before he has even opened his mouth, he is an archetype of masculinity, a true cowboy, seemingly unflappable and rooted to the ground with brazen machismo.
While Ringo is infamous in the territory, an outlaw whose name is conjured with an air of fear, he is ultimately on the side of good. Even though he is not necessarily a true law abider, he does what is right and has his own moral high-mindedness that informs his actions. This is particularly reflected in his equitable treatment of the people around him, particularly Dallas. Not knowing that she is a prostitute and has a dishonorable reputation, he treats her with respect, something that not many other people are willing to show anyone perceived as "below" them in station. In contrast with Lucy and Hatfield's phobic snobbery, Ringo tries to treat people like human beings.
The tension between upper-class individuals and society's outcasts is central to the film, and seems to reflect broader realities of the changing American West around the turn of the century. in Stagecoach, gentlemen and ne’er-do-wells are placed in the same small space and forced to deal with one another. Ringo belongs in the ne’er-do-well camp, but he has no respect for the distinctions that dictate how class works in their company. He looks after Dallas, the prostitute, when no one else will, and he treats everyone with an equitable kind of respect. While it might not jive with societal expectations, Ringo shows himself to be a moral leader of sorts.
The film is subdivided by sweeping shots of Monument Valley, which conjure the grand expansiveness of the American West. In between small scenes that show the viewer the social dynamics at work on the open frontier are dramatic landscapes, seemingly unpopulated and majestic in scale and beauty. The stagecoach is just a small structure in a boundless desert, and the giant size of the landscape only highlights more the smallness of the social struggles that the travelers face when compared to the largeness of the desert surrounding them, and their tenuous fight for survival.
In spite of more pressing concerns—the unforgiving landscape, Geronimo—the social tension between passengers on the stagecoach is acute. The Southern gentleman, Hatfield, does not ingratiate himself to the other men on the stagecoach, but takes a protective approach to Lucy’s wellbeing. At one point, the drunken Doc Boone sarcastically references Hatfield’s chivalry, subtly suggesting that Hatfield would not be above shooting a man in the back. Additionally, there is pronounced tension between Lucy, a Southern society lady, and Dallas, a prostitute run out of her town. Ringo takes a protective approach to Dallas, and in many ways, they are equivalents, because they are both barely allowed access to respectable society. As they sit at the table in town, Ringo turns to Dallas conspiratorially and says, “I guess you can't break out of prison and into society in the same week.” Both grapple with the fact that they are unwelcome, even though neither feels particularly guilty or irredeemable.
