The Big Trail (1930)

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writer:

Hal G. Evarts (story)

Release Date:

1 November 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Western | Romance

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.

Plot Keywords:

Cliff | Mississippi | Desert | Settler | Wagon Train

Awards:

1 win

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

Runtime:

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

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Certification:

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

Filming Locations:

Buttercup Dunes, Imperial County, California, USA

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Gary Cooper turned down the role of Breck Coleman.

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...

Movie Connections:

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

Soundtrack:

When It's Harvest Time in Peaceful Valley

Pioneer Filmmaking Effort

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.