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The Big Trail
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The Big Trail (1930) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.1/10   1,004 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?

Down 11% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Raoul Walsh
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Writer:

Hal G. Evarts (story)
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Contact:

View company contact information for The Big Trail on IMDbPro.

Release Date:

1 November 1930 (USA) more

Tagline:

The Most Important Picture Ever Produced

Plot:

Breck Coleman leads hundreds of settlers in covered wagons from the Mississippi River to their destiny out West. full summary | add synopsis

Plot Keywords:

more

Awards:

1 win more

NewsDesk:

The Big Trail
 (From The AV Club. 20 May 2008, 9:02 PM, PDT)

User Comments:

Pioneer Filmmaking Effort more (37 total)


Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

John Wayne ... Breck Coleman
Marguerite Churchill ... Ruth Cameron
El Brendel ... Gus, comical Swede
Tully Marshall ... Zeke, Coleman's sidekick
Tyrone Power Sr. ... Red Flack, wagon boss (as Tyrone Power)

David Rollins ... Dave 'Davey' Cameron
Frederick Burton ... Pa Bascom (conducts prayer, wedding)
Ian Keith ... Bill Thorpe, Louisiana gambler
Charles Stevens ... Lopez, Flack's henchman
Louise Carver ... Gus's mother-in-law
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Additional Details

Runtime:

125 min (35 mm version) | 158 min (70 mm version) | 120 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1 more

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Certification:

Australia:G | New Zealand:PG | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)


Fun Stuff

Trivia:

Gary Cooper turned down the role of Breck Coleman. more

Quotes:

Breck Coleman, Wagon Train Scout: We can't turn back! We're blazing a trail that started in England. Not even the storms of the sea could turn back the first settlers. And they carrie dit on further. They blazed it on through the wilderness of Kentucky. Famine, hunger, not even massacres could stop them... more

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs (2000) (TV) more

Soundtrack:

When It's Harvest Time in Peaceful Valley more


FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
17 out of 20 people found the following comment useful.
Pioneer Filmmaking Effort, 12 April 2002
Author: harry-76 from Cleveland, Ohio

Only three years after Able Gance's "Napoleon," was released in the revolutionary Spherical (1:33:1) and Triptych (4:00:1 aspect ratio) process, Raoul Walsh's "The Big Trail" hit the market, shot in then-experimental "Fox Grandeur 70 mm."

That alone makes "The Big Trail" a technically significant film. Word has it that it failed economically, in part due to only two U.S. theatres presenting its original format (NYC's Roxy and LA's Grauman's Chinese Theatres). The rest of the country's movie houses balked at the cost of the extra equipment necessary, after having recently converted to sound. (Does this seem reminiscent of the "'Star Wars' digital satellite controversy" of 2002?)

Finding a VHS or DVD widescreen print of "The Big Trail" is difficult. It's been shown on tv and in special movie houses that way on occasion. Generally, though, one gets a standard screen version, which fails to capture the eye-popping 70 mm. aspect ratio of the original.

The production's statistics are impressive--a 347 cast/crew, covering 7 states in 10 weeks, replete with wagons, cattle, oxen, mules, horses, et al., retracing the first settler's trek over the Oregon trail one hundred years earlier.

Twenty year old Marion Morrison was renamed John Wayne and teamed with nineteen year old Broadway actress Margurite Churchill for a hoped-for "hot screen combination." The two worked efficiently, with Wayne's untrained, natural talent in evidence.

The production looks very laborious and challenging--yet appropriate to the conditions of those early pioneers. European "superiority" vs. Native American "savagery" is expressed in the script--establishing a skewed perspective for numerous films to follow. Likewise, macho "frontier justice" is forcefully dramatized--a model for many later western efforts.

"The Big Trail," while a technical landmark, also presents a Hollywoodized depiction of American history. For a more complete understanding of this period and these events, one is prone to engage in more committed and comprehensive research.



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