This is the kind of film that’s enjoyable enough while you're watching it, but I’ll probably forget I saw it two weeks from now.
It chronicles four generations of a family who participated in taming the Wild West. It’s epic and filled with Hollywood legends from John Wayne to Henry Fonda to Jimmy Stewart to Gregory Peck. It has all the conventions of the Western crammed in from rapid runs to mountain men to Indian attacks to wagon trains to stampedes to a train robbery. Everything about the film smells of a Hollywood product and that’s why it works. It’s a treasure of a kind of filmmaking that doesn’t happen anymore. It’s the same gimmick that makes the OCEAN’S ELEVEN movies so fun.
The adventure tale is grand enough and contains enough stars to make you want to sit through the nearly three-hour running time. The film is narrated by Spencer Tracy (GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER?), who gives a very idealized rendition of the hardships and problems of winning the West. His statement that man had to conquer the elements and primitive man, however puts an uneasy Manifest Destiny vibe to the start of the film, yet the movie redeems itself a bit later on with its address of white men breaking promises with the Indians.
The film begins with Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden, PATTON) moving West with his family, which includes Eve (Carroll Baker, LAURA) and Lily (Debbie Reynolds, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN). On their way, Eve meets fur trapper Linus Rawlings (James Stewart, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE) and falls quickly in love.
After several tragedies, we move forward in time with Lily as a showgirl back East. She inherits a gold mine in California and sets out West with riding companion Agatha Clegg (Thelma Ritter, REAR WINDOW). Charming gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD) discovers Lily’s new good fortune and follows her on the wagon train. He and simple, but good-hearted, train leader Roger Morgan (Robert Preston, THE MUSIC MAN) vie for Lily’s hand.
After enduring hardships with these characters, we move forward again in time to an aged Eve and her family, which includes impetuous idealist Zeb Rawlings (George Peppard, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S), who convinces his mother to let him enlist in the army after the Civil War breaks out. He quickly finds that he has a dislike for killing. In this section we get cameos from John Wayne (STAGECOACH) and Harry Morgan (TV’s MASH) as William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant respectively. Famed Western director John Ford directed this section, while George Marshall helmed the train robbery and Henry Hathaway directed the other sections. Yep, this flick is so big it had three directors.
After the war, Zeb joins the cavalry, which is protecting the construction of the transcontinental railroad. This is where Zeb meets trapper Jethro Stuart (Henry Fonda, THE GRAPES OF WRATH), who knew his father. After yet more hardships, we move forward to Zeb married with three children as he gives up his marshal position to farm his aunt Lily’s land in Arizona. Along the way, Zeb has a run in with outlaw Charlie Grant (Eli Wallach, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY), who wants revenge for Zeb killing his brother. Local marshal Lou Ramsey (Lee J. Cobb, ON THE WATERFRONT) doesn’t want to have anything to do with the feud.
Look how long it took to describe the plot. It’s the generational feel to the picture that draws one in as the stories get better and better. The fact that each new segment is more interesting than the previous one is key to keeping the viewer's attention.
Though the characters are thinly developed at best and “America is the best” propaganda at the worst, the film still is able to make you care what happens. Some scenes seemed forced, but for the most part the pacing was perfect. And of course, it’s gorgeous to look at. It was the first film done in Cinemascope, which uses three cameras to film a widescreen image. You will notice two lines on the picture where the three images were blended. For mindless, nostalgia of a better time (that probably never existed), this film works as best as it can.
Buy "How the West Was Won" Here!
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
