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How the West Was Won (1962)
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Overview
User Rating:
Directors:
Writer:
Release Date:
20 February 1963 (USA)
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Tagline:
A FABULOUS ROMANTIC ADVENTURE more
Plot:
A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century--including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Won 3 Oscars.
Another 6 wins
&
5 nominations
more
NewsDesk:
(5 articles)
Interview: Debbie Reynolds Dishes on Her Lucky Star Career
(From HollywoodChicago.com. 23 November 2009, 9:04 AM, PST)
The Sunday Movie Quiz – The Answers
(From HeyUGuys. 16 November 2009, 12:33 PM, PST)
(From HollywoodChicago.com. 23 November 2009, 9:04 AM, PST)
The Sunday Movie Quiz – The Answers
(From HeyUGuys. 16 November 2009, 12:33 PM, PST)
User Comments:
A whole constellation of magnificent spectacle!
more (93 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Carroll Baker | ... | Eve Prescott | |
| Lee J. Cobb | ... | Marshal Lou Ramsey | |
| Henry Fonda | ... | Jethro Stuart | |
| Carolyn Jones | ... | Julie Rawlings | |
| Karl Malden | ... | Zebulon Prescott | |
| Gregory Peck | ... | Cleve Van Valen | |
| George Peppard | ... | Zeb Rawlings | |
| Robert Preston | ... | Roger Morgan | |
| Debbie Reynolds | ... | Lilith Prescott | |
| James Stewart | ... | Linus Rawlings | |
| Eli Wallach | ... | Charlie Gant | |
| John Wayne | ... | Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman | |
| Richard Widmark | ... | Mike King | |
| Brigid Bazlen | ... | Dora Hawkins | |
| Walter Brennan | ... | Col. Jeb Hawkins |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
162 min
Country:
Color:
Color (Technicolor) (credited as Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.89 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) |
Cinerama 7-Track (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Canada:G |
Portugal:M/12 |
USA:Approved (certificate #20143) |
USA:G (re-rating) (1970) |
West Germany:12 (f) |
Australia:PG (DVD rating) |
New Zealand:PG |
Argentina:Atp |
Australia:G |
Chile:TE |
Finland:K-16 |
Norway:12 |
Spain:7 |
Sweden:11 |
UK:PG (video rating) (1986) (cut) |
UK:PG (video re-rating) (1995) (uncut) |
UK:U (original rating)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Features more than 12,000 extras, including several Indian tribes.
more
Goofs:
Plot holes: When Linus meets the Prescott family he says he is going up stream to sell is beaver pelts. The Prescott family is going down stream. The pirates are down stream from the Prescott camp. Linus should have passed the pirates when he came upstream. He couldn't happen upon the pirates when he left the Prescott camp.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
Referenced in The Making of 'How the West Was Won' (1998) (V)
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Soundtrack:
Bound for the Promised Land
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FAQ
How can I see How The West Was Won in CINERAMA?more
more (93 total)
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Ford's most distinctive work has dealt with the white American's conquest of the wilderness... He has made films about most of the significant episodes in American historyearly colonization of the West, the Civil War, the extermination of the Indiansand in so doing he has recounted the American saga in human terms and made it come alive...
Ford directed one of the episodes of "How the West Was Won," the Civil War... His brief but redeeming contribution effectively recounted the bloody Battle of Shiloh and its aftermath...
Hathaway's strong points were atmosphere, character and authentic locations... He directed, in the film, the episodes of 'The Rivers,' 'The Plains,' and 'The Outlaws.'
George Marshalthe most prolific and most versatile of all major Hollywood filmmakersdirected the episode of 'The Railroad.'
As seen through the eyes of four generations of a pioneer family of New England farmers as they made their way west in the l840s, the scope of "How the West Was Won" is enormous, with essays on the physiology of the West (pioneers, settlers, Indians, outlaws, and adventurers).
The film describes the hard life and times of the Prescott's family across the continent and their fortune to the western shore after years of hardship, loss, love, war, danger and romance...
Stewart appears in the first half hour as a trapper named Linus Rawlings, who marries the daughter (Carroll Baker) of a family migrating West
The story touched all the bases: runaway wagon trains; Indians stampeding Buffalos; confused and erratic river rapids; the grandeur of Monument Valley, Utah; the rocky mountains; the Black Hills of South Dakota; the clamor of gold in St.Louis; the Cheyenne attack; the Pony Express; the overland telegraph; the coming of the steel roadway of the iron horse; the bloody battle between cattlemen and homesteaders; and some thrilling hand-to-hand fighting
The result is a stupendous epic Western with 8 Academy Award Nominations including Best Picture and three Academy Awards including Best Original Story and Screenplay; Best Soundand Best Film Editing...
Narrated by Spencer Tracy, "How the West Was Won" enlists the services of such top stars as: Carroll Baker, the strong-minded woman; Gregory Peck, the luckiest gambler; Debbie Reynolds, the perplexing talented singer and dancer; Henry Fonda, the buffalo hunter with gray flowing hair and mustaches; George Peppard, the man with a star; Robert Preston, the decent character with moral flaws; Thelma Ritter, the character woman; Karl Malden, the patriarch; Agnes Moorehead, the unfortunate wife and mother; John Wayne, the major architect of modern warfare; Richard Widmark, the 'king' of the railroad; Russ Tamblyn the Confederate deserter; Andy Levine, the Corporal Ohio volunteer; Lee J. Cobb, the lawman; Carolyn Jones, the worried wife; Eli Wallach, the dangerous outlaw; Rodolfo Acosta, the train robber; Raymond Massey, the great Abraham Lincoln; Walter Brennan and Lee Van Cleef, the thieves to fear
Alfred Newman and Ken Darby's majestic music takes the pioneers through every conceivable encounter in the West, achieving with conviction a whole constellation of magnificent spectacle...