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How the West Was Won (1962)

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76 comments in total

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44 out of 61 people found the following comment useful :-
HTWWW at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, 19 septiembre 2003

Author: (mrow) de Orange County, Calif.

It was a good payoff; the print was as perfect as could be expected and the Pacific Cinerama theater is in top form. Seating was fine (it's reserved, so you know ahead where you'll be. Because you're looking at three separate 35mm projections, the sum total of the three result in a very large, clear and bright picture, just as good as a 70mm film, and perhaps better in some respects. The prints were vivid and sharp.

At the Dome, a theater executive came out to discuss the film and the theater history with the audience just prior to the start of the picture; he spoke for 10-15 minutes discussing the pros and cons of the process, why it wasn't practical to continue making films this way etc. One of the plus aspects is that with the small lenses they used, the focus was fixed and any object from 2 ft to infinity was always in focus (therefore, all the scenery was sharp except for certain single-camera and process shots). One of the downside aspects is that extreme closeups are not possible in Cinerama, and he said that the directors hated that. Then he tells inside trivia about the film, how it includes about a minute of footage from two other films (one was The Alamo) because the scenes fit perfectly in the storyline. He also mentioned that back in the 1960's it took 5 people to run the show: three projectors, the 35mm sound projector and one master projectionist - total of 5. The gentleman said that today, with all the modern technological improvements, they were now able to produce the identical result -- with just 5 projectionists! In other words, nothing had changed. Another reason the process could not survive. Got a big laugh. He then introduced each projectionist to the audience.

Anyway, the whole thing came off without a hitch and I had forgotten much of the film's vivid details and incredible scenery, so it was very much like seeing it for the first time. I had not seen it in Cinerama ever, and when I did see a blended 35mm print in a local Edwards theater back in '64, it was somewhat of a disappointment. The magnetic 6-track sound was on still another 35mm film strip, so 4 separate strips are actually required to comprise the presentation). The sound was fine - clear and sharp - with lots of separation in the six channels, but it was not as boomy as the sound we hear in today's pics. For anyone interested in what it might have been like to see a state-of-the-art presentation in the early 1960's, this presents a magnificent opportunity, and the film is a trip. --- DFR

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31 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
Awesome - American history on a grand scale, 16 septiembre 2005

Author: trpdean de New York, New York

As a seven year old boy who adored history, I was brought by my mother to see this in Cinemascope on a huge screen. Anyone who has seen this can just imagine the impact.

There has always been a healthy dispute about what historical developments most influenced the outlook and behavior of Americans. Among the candidates are: i) the development of an entirely new world on distant shores - a world where the rules were there to be made as the Pilgrims/Puritans/Quakers and others determined, ii) the colonists' growing self-identity as Americans, the evolution of that separate identity, and these peoples' coordination and cooperation from 1607 to the Albany Union conference in 1759, the Stamp Act Congress in 1763 and the Second Continental Congress' decision to declare independence in 1776, iii) the workings of a multi-racial society due to the presence of aboriginal people and the importation of slaves, iv) the role of the frontier and settlement of a continually receding West, v) the enormity of immigration and their inter-action with the native-born from about the 1840s to the present, vi) the sheer size and diverse conditions of topography and climate, vii) the evolution of democracy over four centuries on a large scale, viii) the experience of modernization over the past century on a scale unknown to, and before, the rest of the world.

This movie in effect tells the fourth story - and tells it in a thrilling, colorful way -- from the 1840s when the frontier was still the Ohio Valley to about 1885 - not so long a time. (Contrast this with the 169 year colonial period).

The movie is stunning - beautifully cast - music you'll always remember - and many powerful and moving scenes. So many scenes live forever in my mind

- the return of the George Peppard character from the Civil War to his family's farmstead in Ohio,

-- the astonishing speech by the Richard Widmark character after the buffalo stampede has killed so many,

-- the wonderfully written emotional scenes whenever Debbie Reynolds was dealing with either Robert Preston's clumsy attempt at courtship ("why with hips like yours, having children would be as easy as rolling off a log") or her own love for the roguish Gregory Peck,

-- the George Peppard family (with the wonderful Carolyn Jones and Debbie Reynolds) singing Greensleaves as the movie nears its end,

-- and the astonishing scene of the West transformed into cloverleaf highways and overpasses after we've been watching a deserted West for several hours.

The pride in those who won the West is so evident throughout the movie - yet it's shown along with losses (the deep sadness of Henry Fonda's mountaineer at the continuing encroachment of civilization, the breach of the boundary set in an Indian treaty due to the railroad's need to set a straight course - and the resulting catastrophe).

Not too many years would pass before movie makers would be telling audiences that the settlement of the West was a triumph of vicious villains, charlatans, cynics and fast-buck artists in movies like McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Soldier Blue, Little Big Man, The Wild Bunch.

But I'm deeply grateful that I was old enough to see how the West was won in a movie like this.

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30 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
A whole constellation of magnificent spectacle!, 21 octubre 2000

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) de Mexico

Ford's most distinctive work has dealt with the white American's conquest of the wilderness... He has made films about most of the significant episodes in American history—early colonization of the West, the Civil War, the extermination of the Indians—and in so doing he has recounted the American saga in human terms and made it come alive...

Ford directed one of the episodes of "How the West Was Won," the Civil War... His brief but redeeming contribution effectively recounted the bloody Battle of Shiloh and its aftermath...

Hathaway's strong points were atmosphere, character and authentic locations... He directed, in the film, the episodes of 'The Rivers,' 'The Plains,' and 'The Outlaws.'

George Marshal—the most prolific and most versatile of all major Hollywood filmmakers—directed the episode of 'The Railroad.'

As seen through the eyes of four generations of a pioneer family of New England farmers as they made their way west in the l840s, the scope of "How the West Was Won" is enormous, with essays on the physiology of the West (pioneers, settlers, Indians, outlaws, and adventurers).

The film describes the hard life and times of the Prescott's family across the continent and their fortune to the western shore after years of hardship, loss, love, war, danger and romance...

Stewart appears in the first half hour as a trapper named Linus Rawlings, who marries the daughter (Carroll Baker) of a family migrating West…

The story touched all the bases: runaway wagon trains; Indians stampeding Buffalos; confused and erratic river rapids; the grandeur of Monument Valley, Utah; the rocky mountains; the Black Hills of South Dakota; the clamor of gold in St.Louis; the Cheyenne attack; the Pony Express; the overland telegraph; the coming of the steel roadway of the iron horse; the bloody battle between cattlemen and homesteaders; and some thrilling hand-to-hand fighting…

The result is a stupendous epic Western with 8 Academy Award Nominations including Best Picture and three Academy Awards including Best Original Story and Screenplay; Best Soundand Best Film Editing...

Narrated by Spencer Tracy, "How the West Was Won" enlists the services of such top stars as: Carroll Baker, the strong-minded woman; Gregory Peck, the luckiest gambler; Debbie Reynolds, the perplexing talented singer and dancer; Henry Fonda, the buffalo hunter with gray flowing hair and mustaches; George Peppard, the man with a star; Robert Preston, the decent character with moral flaws; Thelma Ritter, the character woman; Karl Malden, the patriarch; Agnes Moorehead, the unfortunate wife and mother; John Wayne, the major architect of modern warfare; Richard Widmark, the 'king' of the railroad; Russ Tamblyn the Confederate deserter; Andy Levine, the Corporal Ohio volunteer; Lee J. Cobb, the lawman; Carolyn Jones, the worried wife; Eli Wallach, the dangerous outlaw; Rodolfo Acosta, the train robber; Raymond Massey, the great Abraham Lincoln; Walter Brennan and Lee Van Cleef, the thieves to fear…

Alfred Newman and Ken Darby's majestic music takes the pioneers through every conceivable encounter in the West, achieving with conviction a whole constellation of magnificent spectacle...

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
"I Am Bound For The Promised Land.", 21 noviembre 2006

Author: bkoganbing de Buffalo, New York

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.

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17 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
More quantity than quality, but a truly all-star cast, 10 abril 1999
Author: Brian W. Fairbanks (brianwfairbanks@yahoo.com) de Cleveland, Ohio

Watching a letterboxed version of "How the West Was Won," I noticed the dividing lines on the screen, and it was clear that much of the picture was still missing even in this format. But neither hindered my enjoyment of this sprawling epic, even if James R. Webb's Oscar winning screenplay left something to be desired. Alfred Newman's music score is terrific, and so is that all-star cast. Unlike those disaster flicks of the 70s like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" that claimed to be stuffed with stars but actually boasted "names" (usually familiar performers, primarily from TV, who rarely headlined a first class feature), "How the West Was Won" has the genuine article. John Wayne, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Carroll Baker, and Debbie Reynolds may mean little at the ticket windows of the 90s (and many of them are dead, anyway), but all were above the title stars who carried their own films at the box-office in the early 60s.

Three directors helmed this project but I'd be hard pressed to distinguish whether John Ford, George Marshall or Henry Hathaway were behind the camera during any particular episode if the opening credits didn't identify each segment and its director. I suppose "How the West Was Won" is more quantity than quality, but it's entertaining overall.

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32 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
I can't believe this movie won an Oscar for best screenplay., 15 julio 2004

Author: Stephen Alfieri (stevealfie@verizon.net) de Blauvelt, NY

"How The West Was Won" was part epic part gimmick. The gimmick being one of the first non-documentary films made in Cinerama. I agree that a story about the opening of the frontier sounds like a terrific idea for this type of gimmick. But the screenplay, and even some of the acting is so ridiculous that the gimmick can't pay off.

Yes it's great to see all of these great actors on screen together. But what were they thinking when they decided to let Debbie Reynold's character be the thread that holds the stories together? She's not bad through most of the movie, but when she is an old woman, this is cartoon time.

She's not helped by the inane script. Unfortunately, I believe Richard Widmark has the worst of it, as a demanding railroad owner. And could someone please tell me what that scene between Henry Morgan (looking like a dwarf as Ulysees S. Grant) and John Wayne was about?

I did think that Karl Malden, as a Quaker from the waterfront, playing Carrol Baker's father was humorous. And James Stewart as her beau (must have been 30 years older than her)was hard to watch. But wonderful Thelma Ritter saved the day.

Beautiful scenery, great cast, lousy writing, uneven acting, different directing styles that don't mesh, and lines running up and down your screen because of the gimmick, add up to a movie that should be seen but not taken seriously.

6 out of 10

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24 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
A Grand Epic, 20 agosto 1999
Author: Eric-62-2 de Morristown, NJ

I'm not a fan of westerns in particular, but this magnificent epic is an exception for me because it has all the wonderful elements of a sprawling historical epic that only Hollywood could do so wonderfully in the 50s and 60s. And yes, I embrace it for holding to a perspective that today's PC revisionists who see evil in everything associated with the rise of America as a great nation are always so quick to condemn. While this is by no means a flawless look at history, it is only those who dare to liken the American pioneers with "Nazis" as one reviewer did who end up "creating history" more than a film like this does.

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14 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
A Great Epic... and I Generally Detest Westerns, 28 enero 2001

Author: Jon Kolenchak de Pittsburgh, PA USA

I have not been fortunate to view this film in its original Cinerama format, but I have seen various prints of it over the years, and have recently watched the newly released DVD version.

Even in DVD's digital format, I can see how the color in some sections of the film has faded -- a pity, for there are vistas of incredible beauty in this film.

There are several reasons why this film works. The photography is simply breathtaking. The story is epic in proportions, yet as simple as the pioneers. Alfred Newman's score is lovely; This is the best film music that he had written since The Song of Bernadette. Ken Darby's vocal arrangements add just the right feel of authenticity to the sonic scheme. And, the actors are truly actors, not just "personalities". I absolutely fell in love with Thelma Ritter, Agnes Moorehead, Karl Malden, and Walter Brennan. These were just the "supporting" members of the cast. Debbie Reynolds and Gregory Peck made a great duo, James Stewart was independent, strong, yet vulnerable, and Carol Baker was sweet, if just a little conniving.

I was surprised how many times while watching the film I was moved to tears -- and not always during the sad scenes. (The scene at her father's grave when Carol Baker sends her son off to war, long after her husband has also gone, is very moving.) What was it that made me so misty-eyed? I found myself getting caught up in the lives of these pioneers, with their hopes, dreams, and disappointments, and all too human frailties.

Now for the flip side -- I must admit that I cringed when I heard Spencer Tracey's narration stating that "the west had to be won...from primitive man." It made me think about how one-sided this presentation was with regards to our treatment of Native Americans. George Peppard's character is an ally of the Native Americans, but this plot development occurs far too late to provide any kind of real balance to the story.

In the final analysis, we have a film that is not very politically correct, but is a tale told well, filmed beautifully, about people who sacrificed everything they had to pursue their dream.

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12 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Deep Cast Main Attribute Of Otherwise So-So Film, 12 marzo 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 de Lockport, NY, United States

This isn't as spectacular as you might think after checking the cast credits, which are almost beyond description. However, it's still a pretty solid movie. For a western, I was shocked years later to view this on widescreen VHS and discover the number of songs in here, most by Debbie Reynolds. Early on, I wondered if I wasn't watching a musical rather than a western.

The real story of this movie, it would seem, is the cast. If you want to see a "Who's Who" of the time period, then you have to check this film out. Narrated by Spencer Tracy, it features - in alphabetical order - Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Reynolds, James Stewart, Eli Wallach, John Wayne and Richard Widmark and a bunch more. Are you kidding me???!!!!!

This was also one of the first Cinerama widescreen films put on a VHS tape, I think. I was anxious to see it in that format, but then disappointed there weren't more panoramic scenes. Outside of two - a buffalo stampede and a train robbery - the scenery was just fair.

Peppard had the best part of the film, in my opinion. He was featured in the final third. (The film seemed divided into three distinct segments.) Stewart was the key man in the first third and Peck in the middle. Baker and Reynolds provided the eye candy. I was surprised how small a role Wayne had in here.

The VHS box says the movie is 162 minutes long but it you eliminate three overtures (the eginning, the intermission and ending) you can chop off another 15 minutes of actual footage. In summary, the cast is the only thing special as the story and the songs are just so-so.

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
A life-affecting movie for me, 8 septiembre 2005

Author: smalloy-1

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie has made a life-long impression on me from the time I saw it at the age of 10 until this day (over 40 years). Growing up a fan of westerns and loving the West and its beautiful history, I've claimed this one as my all-time favorite movie. I found the love scenes between Eve and Linus the most romantic I'd ever witnessed and to this day, it still gives me goose bumps. Eve knew her heart, and her boldness with the resisting Linus is just wonderful. I still get a tear when Eve lets her son Zeb leave for the war. When she comments that he must take off his shirt so that she can wash it (it's the only one he has), and she pats his shoulder, I feel my motherly instincts crying for my own son. It still moves me deeply. And when she drops to her knees, praying at her father's grave, it's simply heart-wrenching. But just the scenery alone would have done it for me. Add the beautiful score and it's over the top. Yes, the critics saw many flaws in this epic. They are the professionals who understood the problems of the split screens, the sometimes less than realistic writing, some obviously fake scenery (wasn't there at least one cardboard saguaro cactus in the train scene?), the too-long running time, the weak characters for major actors, on and on. But for me, I've enjoyed my original 33 rpm album soundtrack all these years, became a national park ranger, traveled and lived all over the West, and today still find the main characters of the story close to my heart. It was a life-affecting movie for all the right reasons. Entertainment doesn't get any better than that. I recently found the whole movie soundtrack on a double CD set that is really incredible. It contains extensive tracks not heard on the original album and is absolutely a must for any HTWWW fan.

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