Classic Movie Review: How the West Was Won
By Josh Spiegel
September 4, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Recently, How The West Was Won was released on the Blu-ray format in a groundbreaking edition, which lets you watch the film in, essentially, the right way: one of the two discs has a Cinerama-style version that curves the screen as Cinerama domes did when presenting films in the unique format. Even on a high-definition TV screen, it is just a bit staggering to see some of the helicopter shots, where the camera gives us just about a real panorama of the Western plains, the mountains, the rolling hills. Unfortunately, How The West Was Won is 162 minutes long, and those awe-inspiring shots make up only a few minutes.
Yes, How The West Was Won is another epic from the age when epics were just about the most boring things coming out of Hollywood. Here we have a film with countless actors, all of whom are working here simply because of the massive proportions upon which the film is based. Where else would you see a film featuring actors like James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Karl Malden, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Preston, Lee J. Cobb, Eli Wallach, Walter Brennan, Richard Widmark, and George Peppard? There are even more actors here, but these are among the biggest in a film that's so big that it had three — yes, that number is correct — directors, including the iconic John Ford. Oh, and the narrator was Spencer Tracy. Like I said, we're talking a big movie here.
Big, as always, doesn't always mean good, though. Five vignettes make up the entirety of How The West Was Won, as we follow the Prescotts through 50 years of Western growth. First, the Prescotts are a simple family heading toward California; lonely daughter Eve (Carroll Baker) meets Linus Rawlings, a real-life mountain man, and is immediately attracted beyond even her wildest fantasies. At first, Linus is, while being attracted to the younger woman, not interested in settling down after such a long time of being a loner. Moreover, he is meant to be a bad man, someone who might not make such a fine fit with a proper, prim woman like Eve.
Here again, the movie doesn't work for one simple reason: Linus is played by Stewart, an actor who cannot, despite his films with Alfred Hitchcock or Anthony Mann, pull off a line such as this: "Eve, I'm a sinful man. I'm deep, dark, sinful. I'm on the way to Pittsburgh to be sinful again." No, Jimmy. No, you're not going to be sinful in Pittsburgh, or any other town, for that matter. It's one thing for Stewart and Baker, working with a nearly 25 year age difference, to get involved in the movie, but it's another thing entirely for Stewart, not Baker, to be playing the sinful one. Even in his darker roles, Stewart works from a place of subversion, as the filmmakers let the audience know that they're playing with the idea of the icon being the nicest man in Hollywood.
Still, whatever frustration may arise with these characters gets shuffled off pretty quickly, as the movie jumps to the next vignette. Next, the film focuses on Eve's sister, Lily (Reynolds), who leaves the family when their parents die in a treacherous journey and gets involved with a raffish gambler played by Gregory Peck, and a wagonmaster who is...not Gregory Peck. Okay, the actor is Robert Preston, but when you're up against Atticus Finch himself, who do you think Lily is going to choose? This sequence gives the filmmakers an excuse to let Reynolds sing for a few minutes, but it's sad to see how poorly Peck's charming talents are wasted, in a less unique way than Stewart's talents are misused. Of course, Lily chooses the gambler, and they go off to San Francisco to make money in the burgeoning city.
The story shuffles along to the Civil War, where Linus and Eve's son, Zeb (Peppard), goes off to fight alongside his already-there father (this is all just an excuse to not have Stewart appear, unfortunately for us). Once there, he just happens to stumble upon General William Sherman (Wayne) and General Ulysses S. Grant having a personal heart-to-heart. In only this sequence does How The West Was Won ever come close to seeming like Forrest Gump, in that all of the main characters happen to stumble upon the most major events of the 1800s. Still, the film staggers along, all the way through the War, to a short sequence set among the railroads being built after the War is over to its final sequence, set in Arizona.
It's only here that the film ever livens up, as an older Zeb, who is now a marshal, lives with his wife and kids. Lily, having sold off her possessions, shows up to live out the rest of her days with her nephew at her ranch, which is all she has left. Zeb runs afoul of an outlaw (Wallach) and his gang, and has to triumph over him during a staged heist on a moving train. I say this with no sarcasm, but the best sequence in the film is here, in the climactic train sequence, as Zeb and a fellow lawman (Cobb) fight off the outlaw and his posse. Some of the sequence utilizes special effects, obviously, but there's a surprising amount of stunt work here that looks thrillingly real. In some ways, the sequence is completely unnecessary, even moreso than the rest of the movie. No other major action sequence is set so well, as done here by Henry Hathaway (who was able to direct three of the vignettes, but apparently wasn't up for committing to all five).
No, the characters aren't what you care for here, but the train roars on the tracks, every bit of brush seeming closer than the last one; it may simply be the Blu-ray technology working its magic, but I won't complain. This action setpiece is far better than the film it closes out. So, too, are the actors, and so, too, is the cinematography, which opens up the vistas and plains of the country even more on Blu-ray than it may have ever done on a typical Cinerama screen. The restoration of this film is impressive; if only it had been done on a more deserving film. Obviously, the film has technical merit, and it stands relatively alone; the only other Cinerama feature film, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, has never been released on DVD.
So I can only recommend How The West Was Won for its visual splendor; though it captures places that seem foreign to us now (the final montage is set among the Los Angeles of 1962, not 2009, so it seems a bit...small), it's only worth it if you have the right technology at home. Just about every actor here has been in a finer film, be it a Western or something less expansive. Still, as much as I rail against its plot, the Academy at the time fell in love with, if anything else, its epic nature. How The West Was Won garnered eight Academy Award nominations and walked away with three, including one for Best Screenplay. The country was about to change, so the success of such an old-fashioned movie isn't surprising; it is, however, just a bit disappointing.