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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.

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