Ford himself called Wagonmaster his most personal film or maybe even his best film.
Granted, several filmmakers know shit about their own works, but sometimes they are right. I think that Wagonmaster is Ford’s most poetic work and the clearest expression of his usual themes, the contrast between desert and paradise, between civilization and barbarism. And it has a great visual beauty. I assume with Wayne instead of Johnson in the lead it would be regarded as one of his best by everyone, so it is a film not that easy to find.
The usual share of silly Ford scenes and his cheap humour are in Wagonmaster for me less a problem than in other Ford westerns. Actually my last rewatch was emotionally so intensive that I’m willing to give Wagonmaster a 10/10, the only one for a Ford film.
Makes it one of the 10 or 20 best westerns.