Review of How the West Was Won (1962) by Dave L — 14 Feb 2011
I'm usually a sucker for these classing epics, but there's something about this one that just didn't do it for me.
The idea of 5 different stories run back to back showing the expansion of the old west within various generations of one family is interesting, but not very original... reminded me a little too much of the James Dean / Rock Hudson / Elizabeth Taylor epic "GIANT," which I loved.
The length of the film is a bit too much for something like this, especially considering not all the stories link up very well.
This was shot in an old short-lived film format called "Cinerama," which meant the film was shot on 3 cameras and each image is stitched togteher to create a wider, larger film space. This often becomes annoying due to the distance between actors, the appearance that each edge of the image seems to almost curve away from the screen and of course, the annnooyyinngg as all hell "patch-lines" where each frame has been not-so-seamelessly been stitched together.
The only thing that makes me give this film such a rating is the beautiful cinematography of the old west, and some fantastic cameo performances by some of the Western genres greatest actors including Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach, Karl Malden and of course the great John Wayne... who unfortunatley only appears for about 10 minutes.
Unfortunatley I didn't enjoy this film greatly, but there's no doubt that this film is an epic.
This review of How the West Was Won (1962) was written by Dave L on 14 Feb 2011.
How the West Was Won has generally received positive reviews.
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