The Caravan (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The caravan |
| Original title | The Covered Wagon |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1923 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | James Cruze |
| script | Jack Cunningham |
| production | Paramount Pictures |
| music |
Hugo Riesenfeld John Stepan Zamecnik |
| camera | Karl Brown |
| cut | Dorothy Arzner |
| occupation | |
| |
The Caravan (Original: The Covered Wagon ) is an American western directed by James Cruze from 1923.
action
The action is set in 1848. Two caravans of expatriates unite in Kansas and travel 2,000 miles west to start a new life in Oregon . The leader of the settlers is the elderly father and natural authority Wingate. Scouts are the headstrong Sam Woodhull and the kind-hearted and talented Will Banion. Banion, however, has a secret around a crime that he is said to have committed in the army. Along the way, they suffer a number of hardships such as hunger and bad weather. In addition, Sam Woodhull, who is one of the leaders of the caravan, embroiled the settlers in clashes with Indians and later aroused the gold fever in some when news of gold discoveries reached the settlers. A dispute ensues and many leave the caravan and move to California . Time and again Sam Woodhull causes problems, who got caught up with Will Banion in a power struggle for the leadership of the caravan and also for the favor of the young Molly Wingate. Fortunately, Banion stands by his old friend William Jackson, but in the end he also leaves the caravan shortly before Oregon for California in order to seek his luck there, because Molly's father forbids a connection with his daughter. Woodhull, who is spurned by Molly because she continues to love Banion, wants to get rid of him in California. He plans to shoot him from ambush. Fortunately, Jackson watches the scene and in turn shoots Woodhull on his back. With the news that Molly is expecting him in Oregon, Will Banion and his wealth are on their way to Oregon and can finally take Molly into his arms.
background
The film, which also ran under the alternative title Der Coverwagen in Germany , is based on the novel The covered wagon by Emerson Hough . The Caravan was director James Cruze's first major success and the breakthrough for Lois Wilson. 3,000 extras took part in the shooting. The film was the first ever large budget western to be shot, and it reinvigorated the genre. Dorothy Arzner's work as a film editor is the only one of the silent film era that has been officially recorded. The film was the eighth highest-grossing silent film of all time, grossing $ 3,800,000.
Reviews
“The script is without a doubt the weakest part of the film. But James Cruze, who until then had shot comedies and a few unimportant dramas, let these shortcomings be forgotten through his staging. He boasted that everything in this film was real, that there wasn't even a fake mustache on the screen. In fact, his image of the old west seems authentic and unadulterated. But more important was his sure eye for the visual values of the landscape, his feeling for the rhythm of the montage, which suddenly turned a melodrama into the great epic of the conquest of the land, the departure into a new world. "
“Cruze shows the Big Trail to Oregon as a daring pioneering act that is full of agony and pain for everyone - and yet again and again offers short moments of joy and wellbeing. […] Scenes of the long wagon train through the wilderness are followed every now and then by pleasurable pictures of the rest: of women cooking and sewing, of children playing, crying or laughing, of groups singing and dancing, sometimes also of Banion and how he makes a doll for a small child (which Molly observes by chance and which immediately warms her heart). And again and again, albeit very casually, it is about departure and abandonment, emergence and passing: one dies, others give birth to children. "
Awards
In 1923 Die Karawane received the Photoplay Award for best film. 1925 a Kinema Jumpō Prize .
literature
- Variety dated June 21, 1932.
- Kevin Brownlow : pioneers of film. From silent films to Hollywood. Basel / Frankfurt am Main 1997.
- Robert K. Klepper: Silent Films, 1877-1996. A Critical Guide to 646 Movies. Jefferson (NC) / London 1999.
- Norbert Grob , Bernd Kiefer , Marcus Stiglegger : The covered wagon. In: Bernd Kiefer, Norbert Grob (ed.), Marcus Stiglegger (collaboration): Filmgenres. Western (= RUB . No. 18402). Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018402-9 , pp. 44-49 [with references].
Web links
- The caravan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The caravan at imagesjournal.com
- Variety of June 21, 1932 ( Memento of November 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert K. Klepper: Silent Films, 1877-1996. A Critical Guide to 646 Movies. Jefferson (NC) / London 1999, pp. 249f.
- ↑ Kevin Brownlow: Pioneers of Film. From silent films to Hollywood. Basel / Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 339.
- ↑ Variety of June 21, 1932 ( Memento of November 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Dieter Krusche with the assistance of Jürgen Labenski: Reclams Filmführer. Reclam, Stuttgart 1973, p. 47.
- ↑ Norbert Grob, Bernd Kiefer, Marcus Stiglegger: The covered wagon. In: Bernd Kiefer, Norbert Grob (ed.), Marcus Stiglegger (collaboration): Filmgenres. Western (= RUB . No. 18402). Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018402-9 , pp. 44–49, here 45.