How the West Was Won (film)

How the West Was Won
File:How the west was won322.jpg original film poster by Reynold Brown
Directed by	John Ford Henry Hathaway George Marshall Richard Thorpe
Written by	James R. Webb
Produced by	Bernard Smith
Starring	Carroll Baker Lee J. Cobb Henry Fonda Carolyn Jones Karl Malden Gregory Peck George Peppard Robert Preston Debbie Reynolds James Stewart Eli Wallach John Wayne Richard Widmark Walter Brennan Andy Devine Raymond Massey Agnes Moorehead Thelma Ritter
Narrated by	Spencer Tracy
Cinematography	William H. Daniels, ASC Milton Krasner, ASC Charles Lang, Jr., ASC Joseph LaShelle, ASC
Edited by	Harold F. Kress
Music by	Alfred Newman
Distributed by	MGM / Cinerama
Release date	November 1, 1962
Running time	162 min.
Languages	English, Arapaho
Budget	estimated $15,000,000

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, intermediate, 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 novelization 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".

Plot summary

The Rivers (1830s)

The settlers' raft is caught in rapids.

The film opens with a spectacular shot of the western mountains, signifying the young America and the untamed west--except for a few persons of note like the the Mountain men. Meanwhile in the East, the Erie Canal is opened to traffic, attracting settlers. Among these are a group of settlers led by Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) and his family. They later head west down the Ohio River to the Illinois country. While resting in one shore, Mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart) is returning east to Pittsburgh to trade his furs when he meets the Prescotts. 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 is not seriously wounded, and is able to rescue the Prescott party from a similar fate. The bushwhacking thieves (Lee Van Cleef was one), including Dora, are dispatched with rough frontier justice in a melee.

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 cannot live without Eve, reappears and marries her, even though she insists on homesteading at the spot where her parents died.

The Plains (1850s)

The wagon train is attacked by Cheyenne Indians.

America, meanwhile, expanded greatly, with more territory obtained from Mexico. Then, gold was discovered in a place called California, and the California Gold Rush is on. The epicenter for the "forty niners'" travels is St Louis, where Eve's sister Lily (Debbie Reynolds) chooses to go to, 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 has 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 is 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 steaming in California. 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)

American Civil War.

In Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln (Raymond Massey), then a young lawyer, foresees a "house divided" that will soon befell the nation--and which he will later lead. Meanwhile, 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. In one poignant scene as Zeb leaves, Eve goes to the graves of her parents and explains her sadness in failing to stop him. "He's Linus' boy" she says. Corporal Peterson (Andy Devine) assures them the conflict won't last very long. But the bloody Battle of Shiloh shows Zeb that war is nothing like he imagined and, unknown to him, his father, Linus, dies there. He encounters a similarly disillusioned Confederate (Russ Tamblyn) 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 has 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. And the war goes on.

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. Zeb gives his share of the family farm to his brother and leaves in search of a more interesting life.

The Railroad (1860s)

The construction of railroad.

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, trying to maintain peace with the Indians with the help of grizzled 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 Arapaho Indians retaliate by stampeding buffalo through his camp, killing many, including women and children. Disgusted, Zeb resigns and heads to Arizona.

The Outlaws (1880s)

The desperadoes who want to rob the train.

The cowboys were finally domesticated, but new frictions arose as other farming modes like sheep were introduced. Lawlessness became rife, but the citizenry and the law finally have the upper hand in taming it. Meanwhile, 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, outlaw Charlie Gant (Eli Wallach). When Gant makes veiled threats against his family, Zeb turns to his friend and Gold City's marshal, Lou Ramsey (Lee J. Cobb), but Gant is not wanted for anything in that territory, so there is little Ramsey can do. Zeb decides he has to act rather than wait for Gant to show up someday. This causes friction between Zeb and Julie. Suspecting Gant of planning to rob an unusually large gold shipment being transported by train, he prepares an ambush with Ramsey's reluctant help. Gant and his gang (one member played by Harry Dean Stanton) are killed in the train shootout. In the end, Lily and the Rawlings travel to their new home.

Epilogue (1962)

A short epilogue shows the growth of the West in 80 years in various panoramic vistas: The spectacular Hoover Dam, an open copper mine, a Great Plains wheat field, the San Joaquin Valley and its harvests, a logging scene, Los Angeles in the early 1960s with the famous four-level freeway interchange downtown, and San Francisco with its famous Golden Gate Bridge as the sung theme reaches its climax.

Cast

Actor	Character
Carroll Baker	Eve Prescott Rawlings
Lee J. Cobb	Marshal Lou Ramsey
Henry Fonda	Jethro Stuart
Carolyn Jones	Julie Rawlings
Karl Malden	Zebulon Prescott
Harry Morgan	Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Gregory Peck	Cleve Van Valen
George Peppard	Zeb Rawlings
Robert Preston	Roger Morgan
Debbie Reynolds	Lilith 'Lily' Prescott
James Stewart	Linus Rawlings
Eli Wallach	Charlie Gant
John Wayne	Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
Richard Widmark	Mike King
Brigid Bazlen	Dora Hawkins
Walter Brennan	Col. Jeb Hawkins
Andy Devine	Corporal Peterson
Raymond Massey	President Abraham Lincoln
Agnes Moorehead	Rebecca Prescott
Thelma Ritter	Agatha Clegg
Spencer Tracy	Narrator

Academy Awards and nominations

The movie won three Academy Awards for:

• Best Writing, Story and Screenplay — Written Directly for the Screen (James R. Webb)
• Best Film Editing
• Best Sound

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 dramatic 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, although Warner's new DVD release of the film claims the ratio was 2.89:1.

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.

The film would later inspire an ABC television series of the same name.

Gallery

• 
  James Stewart
• 
  Henry Fonda
• 
  Gregory Peck
• 
  John Wayne
• 
  Carroll Baker
• 
  Walter Brennan and Brigid Bazlen
• 
  Lee J. Cobb
• 
  Carolyn Jones
• 
  Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead
• 
  George Peppard
• 
  Robert Preston
• 
  Debbie Reynolds
• 
  Thelma Ritter
• 
  Eli Wallach
• 
  Richard Widmark

See also

• How the West Was Won (TV series)

External links

• How the West Was Won at IMDb
• How the West Was Won at the TCM Movie Database