LoginTo be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a solid cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, it was a pretty badass title, that’s for sure, and it was also a really ambitious Western epic. Indeed, it was involving no less than 4 directors (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe). It was also one of the very few fictional features shot in Cinerama which was a short-lived widescreen process involving a complicated three synchronized cameras and the projecting of the actual film on a huge deeply curved screen. Obviously, I didn’t see in its original format and, if you watch it nowadays, since it has been formatted so you can watch it on a regular TV, there is nothing really peculiar about it except that it was with a very widescreen aspect ratio. Anyway, from an historical point of view, this movie was still pretty neat since you get to see 60 years of the US history in a fairly accurate way. However, even if their approach was fairly neutral, the tone was just too light for me. Seriously, it was even borderline cheesy at some point. Concerning the cast, of course, there was the issue that James Stewart was at least 20 years too old to play his part and was therefore really miscast (Stewart did acknowledge this fact himself). At least, the rest of the cast was really neat and was actually pretty much spot-on (James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Karl Malden, George Peppard, Eli Wallach, Russ Tamblyn). Unfortunately, I didn’t care much for any of these characters though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
How the West Was Won Reviews
An average movie
Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 15 December 2021 02:50
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How the West Was Won review
Posted : 9 years, 12 months ago on 4 May 2014 01:55
Hathaway parts are as good as Ford segment (Wayne and Harry Morgan as generals Grant and Sherman discussing the war while Peppard and Tamblyn, north and south, play their own war). I like all the 'varmint temptation' of Stewart flirting with rural vamp Brigit Bazlen and Brennan gang and like Baker-Stewart romance.Tries to be an adult western in spite of Debbie Reynolds. Good action in spite of 3 screen process.
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west
Posted : 12 years, 5 months ago on 22 November 2011 11:30
Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 and 1889. Spencer Tracy narrates the film, which cost an estimated 15 million dollars to complete. In the first segment, "The Rivers," pioneer Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) sets out to settle in the West with his wife (Agnes Moorehead) and their four children. Along with other settlers and river pirates, they run into mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who sells animal hides. The Prescotts try to raft down the Ohio River in a raft, but only daughters Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) and Eve (Carroll Baker) survive. Eve and Linus get married, while Lilith continues on. In the second segment, "The Plains," Lilith ends up singing in a saloon in St. Louis, but she really wants to head west in a wagon train led by Roger Morgan (Robert Preston). Along the way, she's accompanied by the roguish gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), who claims he can protect her. After he saves her life during an Indian attack, they get married and move to San Francisco. In the third segment, "The Civil War," Eve and Linus' son, Zeb (George Peppard), fights for the Union. After he's forced to kill his Confederate friend, he returns home and gives the family farm to his brother. In the fourth segment, "The Railroads," Zeb fights with his railroad boss (Richard Widmark), who wants to cut straight through Indian territory. Zeb's co-worker Jethro (Henry Fonda) refuses to cut through the land, so he quits and moves to the mountains. After the railway camp is destroyed, Zeb heads for the mountains to visit him. In the fifth segment, "The Outlaws," Lilith is an old widow traveling from California to Arizona to stay with her nephew Zeb on his ranch. However, he has to fight a gang of desperadoes first. How the West Was Won garnered three Oscars, for screenplay, film editing, and sound production.
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