How the West Was Won (1962)

Directors:

John Ford
Henry Hathaway

Guionista:

James R. Webb (written by) (suggested by the series "How the West Was Won" in LIFE magazine)

Release Date:

20 febrero 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance | Western

Frase comercial:

A FABULOUS ROMANTIC ADVENTURE

Plot:

A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century--including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.

Plot Keywords:

Fight On Train Roof | Male Female Relationship | Song | Family Relationships | Pioneer

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

"I Am Bound For The Promised Land."

Cast

Carroll Baker	...	Eve Prescott Rawlings
Lee J. Cobb	...	Marshal Lou Ramsey
Henry Fonda	...	Jethro Stuart
Carolyn Jones	...	Julie Rawlings
Karl Malden	...	Zebulon Prescott
Gregory Peck	...	Cleve Van Valen
George Peppard	...	Zeb Rawlings
Robert Preston	...	Roger Morgan
Debbie Reynolds	...	Lilith 'Lily' Prescott
James Stewart	...	Linus Rawlings
Eli Wallach	...	Charlie Gant
John Wayne	...	Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
Richard Widmark	...	Mike King
Brigid Bazlen	...	Dora Hawkins
Walter Brennan	...	Col. Jeb Hawkins

También conocida como:

Conquista del Oeste, La (Argentina) (Spain) [es]

Duración:

162 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English | Arapaho

Color:

Color (Technicolor) (credited as Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sonido:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) | Cinerama 7-Track (Westrex Recording System)

Clasificación:

USA:G (re-rating) (1970) | USA:Approved (certificate #20143) | Canada:G | Portugal:M/12 | West Germany:12 (f) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:K-16 | Norway:12 | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG (video rating) (1986) (cut) | UK:PG (video re-rating) (1995) (uncut) | UK:U (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivialidades:

Due to the detail that would have been shown via the Cinerama process, the costumes had to be sewn by hand, rather than with a sewing machine, as they would have been during the time periods depicted in the movie.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Civil War has recently ended (April-May 1865) and the Union Veteran older brother is leaving the family farm/homestead in Ohio to his younger brother. However, in the very next scene the Pony Express is mentioned, which ended about 3-1/2 years earlier in October 1861.

Quotes:

Narrator: [speaking about the Erie Canal] ...about 150 years ago, an idea took shape in the mind of a man named DeWitt Clinton. And in the way Americans have of acting out their dreams, it came to be.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Quantum Leap: How the Tess Was Won - August 5, 1956 (#1.5)" (1989)

Soundtrack:

How the West Was Won

"I Am Bound For The Promised Land."

I still remember seeing How the West Was Won in Cinerama when it made it into general release back in 1962. A motion picture theater equipped for Cinerama is the only way this one should be seen. The formatted VHS copy I watched tonight can't come close to doing it justice.

James R. Webb's original screenplay for the screen won an Oscar in 1962 and it involves an episodic account of the Presscott family and their contribution to settling the American west in the 19th century. We first meet the Presscotts, Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead going west on the Erie Canal and later by flatboat on the Ohio River. They have two daughters, dreamy romantic Carroll Baker and feisty Debbie Reynolds. The girls meet and marry mountain man James Stewart and gambler Gregory Peck eventually and their adventures and those of their children are what make up the plot of How the West Was Won.

Three of Hollywood's top directors did parts of this film although the lion's share by all accounts was done by Henry Hathaway. John Ford did the Civil War sequence and George Marshall the sequence about the railroad.

The Civil War piece featured John Wayne and Harry Morgan in a moment of reflection at the battlefield of Shiloh. Morgan did a first rate job as Grant in his brief cameo and Wayne was playing Sherman for the second time in his career. He'd previously played Sherman in an unbilled cameo on his friend Ward Bond's Wagon Train series. I'm surprised Wayne never did Sherman in a biographical film, he would have been good casting.

If any of the stars could be said to be THE star of the film it would have to be Debbie Reynolds. She's in the film almost through out and in the last sequence where as a widow she goes to live with her nephew George Peppard and his family she's made up as a gray haired old woman and does very well with the aging. Debbie also gets to do a couple of musical numbers, A Home in the Meadow and Raise A Ruckus both blend in well in the story. Debbie's performance in How the West Was Won must have been the reason she was cast in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Cinerama was rarely as effectively employed as in How the West Was Won. I well remember feeling like you were right on the flatboat that the Presscott family was on as they got caught in the Ohio River rapids. The Indian attack and the buffalo stampede were also well done. But the climax involving that running gun battle between peace officers George Peppard and Lee J. Cobb with outlaw Eli Wallach and his gang on a moving train even on a formatted VHS is beyond thrilling.

There is a sequence that was removed and it had to do with Peppard going to live with buffalo hunter Henry Fonda and marrying Hope Lange who was Fonda's daughter. She dies and Peppard leaves the mountains and then marries Carolyn Jones. Lange's part was completely left on the cutting room floor. Hopefully there will be a restored version of How the West Was Won, we'll see Hope Lange and more of Henry Fonda.

And it should be restored. All those Hollywood legends in one exciting film. They really don't make them like this any more.