Review of How the West Was Won (1962) by Andy L — 22 Jan 2011

How the West Was Won is a landmark Western in many ways but mainly one - Cinerama. Cinerama was a technique invented by Fred Waller and premiered in 1952 whereby a panoramic, triple-lens camera filmed three shots simultaneously and the result was projected onto a curved, widescreen and aimed to mimic mimic the eye's peripheral vision and increase the width of image the eye could perceive in the cinema.

The type of films shot mainly consisted of nature documentaries and more gimmicky subjects such as a rollercoatser rides to enable the audience the feeling they were experiencing what the image showed them.

It took ten years for the team behind Cinerama to decide to make a feature film and what better genre to show off the form to a wider audience but the Western. How The West Was Won is an epic production and has some of the most beautifully photographed sequences in cinema.

Its storyline mirrors its triple-lensed production and is split into three sets of characters travelling through the early 1830's to the late 1880's, the period in time where the West was colonized and conqured.

The family we journey the film with, the Prescotts meet mountain men who live off the land, other prospectors and pre-law lawmakers and thieves. Their children grow up, die, marry, create life and experience poverty and riches.

The film was also helmed by three directors; John Ford, Henry Hathaway and George Marshall and the star's range from John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, Debbie Reynolds, George Pepard, Carolyn Jones and Karl Malden.

It is a thrilling experience seeing the set-pieces for which Cinerama makes the most out of such as framing the Prescott's racing down the or George Peppard's exchanges with Henry Fonda in the Sierra Mountains.

Watching on DVD however, some of the actors are framed in minute detail to make the most of the background and one can easily see the two shadow-splits in the screen where the three lenses merged. Red River and the Searchers may be better and more thrilling but none were more beautiful to watch than How the West Was Won.