Wonderful Westerns: ‘How the West Was Won’ (1962)
As television began to find a place in every American household, the movie industry started to worry about how to keep up with this more convenient form of entertainment, and the response to that was what we refer to now as Hollywood epics. These were movies that created an experience for the audience, movies that presented grand, adventurous stories and visuals that brought motion pictures to a new day and age.
Chances are you at least know of some epics: The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and The Longest Day (1962) just to name a few. And, of course, Westerns would eventually join in on the fun with How the West Was Won (1962). An episodic epic that spans the 19th century unfolded beautifully on silver screens through a widescreen process called Cinemara (one of two films to actually use this format, the other being The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm).
Earlier this year, Turner Classics Movies in collaboration with Fathom Entertainment re-released this film in theaters, and I totally regret not seeing in on the big screen. There are so many shots that capture a real sense of majesty and scale. Probably the best use of it was during the segment about the building of the railroad when the Arapaho Indians stampede a heard of buffalo through the construction site and camp. In combination with the sound design, you get a sense of how big and devastating the stampede is.
The story itself, as stated earlier, is episodic. Each segment begins and ends with narration by Spencer Tracy, which gives a sort of semi-documentary feel to it, and each part follows the lineage of a family as the West starts to grow. There are a total of five stories making up this anthology:
The River — The story of the Prescott family as they travel down the river only to get in trouble with river pirates and one of the daughters, Eve (Carroll Baker), falls in love with the mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart).
The Plains — Following the adventures of the Prescotts’ other daughter Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) as she travels from St. Louis, where she’s been performing in dance halls, to San Francisco where she inherited a gold mine. She’s joined by a riverboat gambler (Gregory Peck) who, at first, hopes to get some cash from her but soon falls for her.
The Civil War — Linus and Eve’s son Zeb (George Peppard of The A-Team) follows his father’s footsteps and joins the Army just as the American Civil War has started. During that time he sees the horrors of war and manages to rescue Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (Harry Morgan) and Gen. William T. Sherman (John Wayne) from a Confederate runaway.
The Railroad — After the war ends, Zeb continues his Army service, serving as a lieutenant in the cavalry, and is put in charge of maintaining the peace between the native Arapahos and the railway workers with the help of an old Buffalo Hunter (Henry Fonda). But relations get rocky after the railroad’s ruthless boss Mike King (Richard Widmark) breaks the treaty that had been settled with the natives.
The Outlaws — The final chapter sees Zeb as a marshal in Arizona and a family man, married to his wife Julie (Carolyn Jones of The Addams Family) as he readies for the arrival of his now-widowed Aunt Lilth. But trouble rises when the outlaw and Zeb’s old enemy Charlie Gant (Eli Wallach) arrives on the same train. With the help of another marshal, Lou Ramsey (Lee J. Cobb), they try to stop Charlie’s plans to rob the railway.
While far from being anything as deep or complex as something like Unforgiven (1992) or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), it does still tell really engaging stories. Each story shares the theme of expansion and the need to grow but doesn’t shy away from the dangers that occurred and the corruption that came as the west expanded.
Most of my qualms with the film involve the first two segments. For example, there’s a few too many musical numbers in the second bit for me, and there are some special effects that don’t hold up at all in the first part. When you watch the film, you’ll know what scene I’m talking about. And while James Stewart is a legend of Hollywood, he wasn’t a good choice as Linus — maybe as Linus just before he heads out to the Civil War but not the younger love interest in the first part. Mainly because Stewart is old enough to be Carroll Baker’s father in that scene; matter of fact, he’s older that the actor playing her father (Karl Malden). And his “oh gosh” personality doesn’t really fit the mountain man persona. Apparently, he thought he wasn’t fit for it either.
Where the film really picks up is during the final three parts when the story is centered around Linus and Eve’s son Zeb, and yes, Peppard does play Zeb in all three acts, and he’s surprisingly good. Peppard can perfectly convey a young adult with grand dreams but can also display a world-weary outlook upon seeing desolation and destruction by the hands of man, particular in “the Railroad” segment. With Zeb as the marshal in the final part, you can buy his concerns and frustration when his old enemy arrives back in town, all the while channeling Burt Lancaster’s portray as Wyatt Earp in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) it seems.
With John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall giving their directions to their respective segments, a marvelous cast and powerful scenery to go along with the action this is something that’s not to be missed. If get a chance to see it on the big screen, I say, take that opportunity.
