Everything about How The West Was Won Film totally explained
How the West Was Won is a
1962 epic Western film which follows four generations of a family (starting as the Prescotts) as they move ever westward, from western
New York state to the
Pacific Ocean. Filmed in the
Cinerama curving
widescreen process, the movie is set between 1839 and 1889.
The all-star cast includes
Carroll Baker,
Walter Brennan,
Lee J. Cobb,
Andy Devine,
Henry Fonda,
Carolyn Jones,
Karl Malden,
Harry Morgan,
Gregory Peck,
George Peppard,
Robert Preston,
Debbie Reynolds,
James Stewart,
Eli Wallach,
John Wayne, and
Richard Widmark. The introductory and closing narration is voiced by
Spencer Tracy.
The movie consists of five segments, three directed by
Henry Hathaway ("The Rivers", "The Plains" and "The Outlaws"), and one each by
John Ford ("The Civil War") and
George Marshall ("The Railroad"), with transitional sequences by the uncredited
Richard Thorpe. The screenplay was written by
John Gay (uncredited) and
James R. Webb. Popular western author
Louis L'Amour wrote a book based on the screenplay.
In 1997,
How the West Was Won was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Cast
Plot summary
The Rivers (1830s)
Mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart) is returning east to
Pittsburgh to trade his furs when he meets a group of settlers led by Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) heading west down the
Ohio River to the
Illinois country. His daughter Eve (Carroll Baker) and Linus are attracted to each other, but he isn't ready to settle down, and he leaves her.
Linus stops at an isolated trading post run by a murderous clan headed by "Colonel" Hawkins (
Walter Brennan). Linus is betrayed when he accompanies pretty Dora Hawkins (
Brigid Bazlen) into a cave to see a "varmint". She stabs him in the back and pushes him into a deep hole. Fortunately, Linus isn't seriously wounded, and is able to rescue the Prescott party from a similar fate. The bushwhacking thieves, including Dora, are dispatched with rough frontier justice.
The settlers continue down the river, but their raft is caught in
rapids, and Zebulon and his wife Rebecca (
Agnes Moorehead) drown. Linus, finding that he can't live without Eve, reappears and marries her, even though she insists on homesteading at the spot where her parents died.
The Plains (1850s)
Eve's sister Lily (Debbie Reynolds) chooses to go to
St. Louis, where she finds work performing in a
dance hall. She attracts the attention of professional gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck). After overhearing that she's just inherited a
California gold mine (and to avoid paying his debts), Cleve joins the
wagon train that will take her there. He and wagonmaster Roger Morgan (Robert Preston) court her along the way, but she turns them both down, much to the dismay of her new friend and fellow traveler Agatha Clegg (
Thelma Ritter).
Surviving an attack by
Cheyenne Indians, Lily and Cleve arrive at the mine, only to find that it's now worthless. Cleve leaves. Lily returns to work in a dance hall in a literal "Camp Town", living out of a covered wagon. Morgan finds her and again proposes marriage in a rather unromantic way. She tells him, "No, not ever."
Later, Lily is singing in the music salon of a
riverboat. By chance, Cleve is a passenger. When he hears Lily's voice, he leaves the poker table (and a winning hand) to propose to her, telling her of the opportunities waiting in the rapidly growing city of
San Francisco. She accepts.
The Civil War (1861~1865)
Linus joins the Union army in the
American Civil War. Despite Eve's wishes, their son Zeb (
George Peppard) eagerly enlists as well, looking for glory and an escape from farming. Corporal Peterson (
Andy Devine) assures them the conflict won't last very long. The bloody
Battle of Shiloh shows Zeb that war is nothing like he imagined. He encounters a similarly disillusioned Confederate who suggests deserting, to which Zeb agrees.
However, by chance, they overhear a private conversation between Generals
Ulysses S. Grant (
Harry Morgan) and
William Tecumseh Sherman (
John Wayne). The rebel realizes he's the opportunity to rid the South of two of its greatest enemies and tries to shoot them, leaving Zeb no choice but to kill him. Afterwards, Zeb rejoins the army.
When the war finally ends, he returns home, only to find his mother has died. She had lost the will to live after learning that Linus had been killed in the fighting. Zeb gives his share of the family farm to his brother and leaves in search of a more interesting life.
The Railroad (1860s)
Following the daring riders from the
Pony Express and the construction of the
transcontinental telegraph line in the early 1860s, two ferociously competing railroad lines, the
Central Pacific Railroad and the
Union Pacific Railroad, one building west and the other east, open up new territory to eager settlers.
Zeb becomes a lieutenant in the U.S. cavalry, keeping peace with the Indians with the help of buffalo hunter Jethro Stuart (
Henry Fonda), an old friend of Linus. When ruthless railroad man Mike King (
Richard Widmark) violates a treaty by building on Indian territory, the
Sioux Indians retaliate by stampeding buffalo through his camp. Disgusted, Zeb resigns and heads to Arizona.
The Outlaws (1880s)
In San Francisco, widowed Lily auctions off her possessions (she and Cleve had made and spent several fortunes) to pay her debts. She travels to Arizona, inviting Zeb and his family to oversee her remaining asset, a ranch.
Zeb (now a marshal), his wife Julie (
Carolyn Jones) and their children meet Lily at Gold City's train station. However, Zeb also runs into an old enemy there, Charlie Gant (
Eli Wallach). When Gant makes veiled threats against his family, Zeb decides he's to act rather than wait for Gant to show up someday. Suspecting Gant of planning to rob an unusually large gold shipment being transported by train, he prepares an ambush with the reluctant help of his friend, Gold City's marshal, Lou Ramsey (
Lee J. Cobb). Gant and his gang are killed in a shootout. In the end, Lily and the Rawlings travel to their new home.
Modern Los Angeles (1962)
A short epilogue shows Los Angeles in the early 1960s, with the famous four-lane freeway interchange downtown, indicating the growth of the West in eighty years.
Academy Awards and nominations
The movie won three
Academy Awards for:
It was also nominated for:
Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Art Direction — Set Decoration, Color
Best Cinematography, Color
Best Costume Design, Color
Best Music, Score — Substantially Original (Alfred Newman and Ken Darby)
Production
How the West was Won is one of only two feature films (the other being The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm) made using the three-strip Cinerama process. Although the picture quality when projected onto curved screens in theatres was stunning, attempts to convert the movie to a smaller screen suffer from that process's technical shortcomings. When shown on television in a Cinemascope print made from the original three-strip version, the joins between the three frames are clearly and sometimes glaringly visible; when seen in letterbox format the actors' faces are nearly indistinguishable in long shots. There have been efforts to put the three parts of the image together in a better way, and to make the Cinerama image look better on a flat screen, led by HP. The aspect ratio of Cinerama was 2:59:1.
John Ford complained about having to dress such huge sets since Cinerama photographed a much wider view than the standard single camera process to which Hollywood directors had become accustomed.
Stuntman Bob Morgan, husband of Yvonne De Carlo, was severely injured and lost a leg during an accident while filming.
Gallery
Image:Westwon trailer Stewart.png|James Stewart
Image:Westwon trailer Fonda.png|Henry Fonda
Image:Westwon trailer Peck.png|Gregory Peck
Image:Westwon trailer Wayne.png|John Wayne
Image:Westwon trailer Baker.png|Carroll Baker
Image:Westwon trailer Brennan Bazlen.png|Walter Brennan and Brigid Bazlen
Image:Westwon trailer Cobb.png|Lee J. Cobb
Image:Westwon trailer Jones.png|Carolyn Jones
Image:Westwon trailer Malden Moorehead.png|Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead
Image:Westwon trailer Peppard.png|George Peppard
Image:Westwon trailer Preston.png|Robert Preston
Image:Westwon trailer Reynolds.png|Debbie Reynolds
Image:Westwon trailer Ritter.png|Thelma Ritter
Image:Westwon trailer Wallach.png|Eli Wallach
Image:Westwon trailer Widmark.png|Richard Widmark
Further Information
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