The Far Horizons (1955)

Director:

Rudolph Maté

Writers:

Della Gould Emmons (novel)
Winston Miller (writer)

Release Date:

7 August 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

History | Western

Plot:

United States has just acquired Louisiana from France. An expedition led by Lewis and Clark is sent...

Plot Keywords:

Lewis And Clark | Explorer | Thomas Jefferson | Missouri River | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Fred MacMurray	...	Captain Meriwether Lewis
Charlton Heston	...	Lt. William Clark
Donna Reed	...	Sacajawea
Barbara Hale	...	Julia Hancock
William Demarest	...	Sgt. Gass
Alan Reed	...	Charboneau
Eduardo Noriega	...	Cameahwait
Larry Pennell	...	Wild Eagle
Argentina Brunetti	...	Old Crone
Julia Montoya	...	Crow woman
Ralph Moody	...	Le Borgne
Herbert Heyes	...	President Thomas Jefferson
Lester Matthews	...	Mr. Hancock
Helen Wallace	...	Mrs. Marsha Hancock
Walter Reed	...	Cruzatte (helmsman)

Also Known As:

Blue Horizons (USA) (working title)
Untamed West (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Grand Teton National Park, Moose, Wyoming, USA

Company:

Pine-Thomas Productions

Trivia:

The lead roles were originally offered to Gary Cooper and John Wayne, but Cooper vehemently rejected the offer.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During her talk with Sacajawea, Julia calls The President's Mansion "The White House". The scene takes place in 1806; the earliest reference to The President's Mansion being called "The White House" is in 1811.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Colgate Comedy Hour: (#5.31)" (1955)

A not very true glimpse on early America's History.

I think that the best thing this movie did to me was to unveil that wonderful character, namely Sacajawea, the Shoshone squaw who helped and guided the Lewis-Clark Expedition. After seeing it I discovered on a very old Reader's Digest issue something about her, just to realize that Sacajawea didn't have any romance with William Clark, because she was already a married woman, namely a guy named Charbonneau with whom she stayed till his death. The real Sacajawea story (or biography), as well as the real Lewis& Clark expedition, are certainly much more interesting than this Hollywood make believe-"historical" movie. For instance, it was lovely to know how Sacajawea was amazed to see a whale skeleton on a West Coast beach. However when she tried to tell this to her tribe's people, they just laughed at her, convicted that she was a liar, that no "fish" could be so big. So the "romantic" approach used in the screenplay, wasted a good opportunity to show either how fascinating the real expedition history has been or the cultural shock experienced by this simple Indian young woman when her tiny inner word was broadened by the unique opportunity she had to explore the unknown, together with the duo of white explorers and their fellows. Other than this, I remember how curious I was to differentiate the optical process used by Paramount (VistaVision) from the CinemaScope, the latter implemented by 20th Century Fox and other companies. Other than a sharper resolution, quite between us, it has been deceiving. In short, expeditions like the one the film stages, have a certain similarity with many similar expeditions carried out in Brazil, especially in the XVII century.The difference is that Lewis & Clark has been an official enterprise and the ones in Brazil have been a matter of private nature, mostly by adventurers, gold rushers, or cruel people seeking Indians for slavery, a thing that didn't work.Indians were either fragile as to Whites' diseases or too much independent to become slaves. So our Portuguese colonizers turned themselves to Africa.Too bad for it.But very good as to the splendid cultural heritage brought either by Africans or the mix of the three cultures:Indians,African and Portuguese Whites. Other than this I remember Donna Reed's performance, while I hardly remember Charlton Heston in his deep blue uniform. An I had forgotten Fred Mc Murray was on the film. In short, some thrill, some sightings in true Technicolor, but as to History, Hollywood just tried it...