How the West Was Won (1962)

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.

Directors:

John Ford, Henry Hathaway

Writer:

James R. Webb

Stars:

James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck

Won 3 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 5 nominations.

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

Storyline

Setting off on a journey to the west in the 1830s, the Prescott family run into a man named Linus, who helps them fight off a pack of thieves. Linus then marries daughter Eve Prescott (Carroll Baker), and 30 years later goes off to fight in the Civil War with their son, with bloody results. Eve's sister, Lily, heads farther west and has adventures with a professional gambler, stretching all the way to San Francisco and into the 1880s.

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Plot Keywords:

arizona | ulysses s. grant character | abraham lincoln character | national film registry | arizona territory | 

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Taglines:

The epic journey of four generations of Americans who carved a country with their bare hands

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Arapaho

Release Date:

20 February 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

Das war der wilde Westen

Filming Locations:

Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$46,500,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$50,000,000, 31 December 1969

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM),Cinerama Productions Corp.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

164 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) Cinerama 7-Track (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Metrocolor) (uncredited)

Aspect Ratio:

2.89 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Debbie Reynolds and George Peppard are the only cast members who appear in three of the five sequences in the film. According to Ms. Reynolds, in an interview for the documentary Cinerama Adventure (2002), her character of Lilith was originally supposed to have drowned in the river. However, it was decided that Lilith would best tie the generations of Prescotts together, so, she remained in the story to become an elderly lady in the film's conclusion.

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Goofs

Ma and Pa Prescott are buried on the bank of the river in which they drowned. When Eve visits her parent's graves decades later, there is no sign of a river anywhere near the farm.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: [as the camera pans over the Rocky Mountains] This land has a name today, and is marked on maps. But, the names and the marks and the maps all had to be won, won from nature and from primitive man.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits: Except for historical events and characters, the events and characters depicted in this photoplay are fictitious and any similarity to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.

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Alternate Versions

DVD versions list various running times: 150, 162, 165 minutes long. The theatrical version is listed as 162 minutes long.

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Connections

Spoofed in Wuzzles: Hooray for Hollywuz (1985)

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Soundtracks

(Fifteen Miles On) the Erie Canal
(uncredited)
Traditional
Sung off-screen by Dave Guard and The Whiskeyhill Singers
Judy Henske, Cyrus Faryar, David Buck Wheat

User Reviews

A Wow Of a Blue Ray!!

Three cheers are much in order for Warner Home Video with their release of this superb issue on Blue Ray disc of MGM's 1962 blockbuster epic HOW THE WEST WAS WON! Firstly the nine star rating adjudged the disc is NOT for the movie - which I think is generally agreed to be something of a much flawed western extravaganza - but for the quite awesome two disc presentation this time around on Blue Ray.

Virtually gone are the once irritating panel lines that were left by the filming with three cameras. Now we have the definitive version of the movie that is nothing short of stunning! With extremely well defined sharp as a button imagery, pluperfect colour resolution and outstanding audio sound (Alfred Newman's brilliant score comes across with dynamic clarity!) the entire visual experience is certainly something to behold!

The first disc presents the film in a terrific 2.35 widescreen version with some excellent extras that includes a documentary giving us the history of Cinerama and how the public responded to its introduction in the early fifties. There are also some great clips from the first Cinerama picture "This Is Cinerama" (1953) presented by explorer and Cinerama pioneer Lowell Thomas.

But it is disc two that really takes the biscuit! Here we get a "smile box" version of the complete HOW THE WEST WAS WON. This is the "wrap around" totally curved format of the film which simulates the cinema Cinerama viewing experience. And by simply moving your seat closer to your TV (the greater your TV screen the greater the effect) you can well imagine watching the movie in your bygone Cinerama theatre. It is all quite astonishing really and makes a great fun demo. to show off to your friends!

Amazingly this unique presentation - with all its technical brilliance - actually makes the movie better than it really is!

GO FETCH!!