Natural Wonders of the West (1938) User Reviews

Gutzon Borglum

[boblipton · 6/10 · 4 November 2020]

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras to some of the more interesting geology of the American west under the supervision of Winton Hoch. We get to look at the Grand Canyon, long a sure subject for travelogues; the Devil's Tower, in close enough focus that we can gawp at the eroded pipes of stone; and Mount Rushmore, with Gutzon Borlgum hard at work, with Teddy Roosevelt not even begun.

Of course in the eighty and more years since this travelogue was produced, attitudes have shifted from Fitzpatrick's patriotic admiration. Today there's a lot of talk about how the land was stolen from the Amerindian tribes int he area. True enough. It's still a heck of a work.

See Mt. Rushmore Before It Was Finished

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 28 May 2014]

The focus of this short is on natural wonders of the western US. The Grand Canyon, Devil's Tower, and Bryce Canyon are all featured. The short ends with some footage of Mount Rushmore. This is particularly interesting historically as the monument wasn't finished at the time of this short so you get to see footage of it in progress. Jefferson and Lincoln's heads aren't completed and Roosevelt wasn't even started yet.

I'm a big fan of the James A. Fitzpatrick Traveltalks series of Technicolor travelogues. In the 1930s the series, including this entry, was photographed by the great Winton C. Hoch. He would go on to become the legendary cinematographer of such classics as The Quiet Man and The Searchers. The footage here is great but it's not one of my favorites in the series. I prefer the entries that feel more like a time capsule of the people and places of the era. While this does feature some footage of Native Americans and the Mt. Rushmore stuff is great historically, it just seems to be lacking a little something the better Traveltalks shorts had.

in progress

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 7 November 2020]

Traveltalks does a clip show of the natural wonders of the west including the Grand Canyon and the Devil's Tower. Under the Tower, a group of Sioux Indians performs a sun dance. Another group performs a war dance. Meanwhile in the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore is still under construction as Lincoln is being finished after Washington. It's great to see the monument in progress.

TravelTalks

[Michael_Elliott · 5 February 2010]

Natural Wonders of the West (1938)

*** (out of 4)

One of the better entries in MGM's TravelTalks series takes a look at (as the title says) various wonders of the West. These images include the Devil's Tower, the Grant Canyon and various mountain ranges. The most interesting visit here is to Mount Rushmore where we see sculptor Gutzon Borglum working on the National Memorial. We hear why he made Washington's nose twelve-inches longer and we also see that Roosevelt's head hasn't even been started on. Seeing them work on Lincoln was certainly very fascinating as we're actually watching history in front of our eyes. You can't help but wish they'd spent the entire 9-minutes right here.

The soundtrack of this mendacious propaganda piece . . .

[cricket30 · 6/10 · 10 November 2020]

. . . closes with "Dixie," the traitors' marching song during The War to Outlaw Lazy Southern Race-Based Human Slavery. What is this sorry ditty commemorating in the context of NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WEST? A planned 465-foot tall tower to glorify the most infamous private parts assaulter in U.S. History. A clueless narrator promises here that this phallic pinnacle will endure for "a million years or more." Today, when it's inevitable that this sacrilegious politically-incorrect anathema will be blasted from the Face of the Earth and from Human Memory any day now, most viewers will shudder with incomprehension at a film outfit so misguided that they'd consider such an artificial "Devil's Tower" monstrosity to fall under the "natural wonders" classification. In These Troubled Times, many ask "Where did America go wrong? Why is God punishing us so severely?" NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WEST is a good starting point to answer such questions.

America the beautiful

[nickenchuggets · 9/10 · 22 May 2022]

I remember this rather depressing show from about ten years ago that details what will happen to the buildings and monuments humanity leaves behind after we're all dead. This episode of TravelTalks actually reminds me of this, but only because of one thing they mention towards the end. In this installment, Fitzpatrick goes to various locations in the western United States in order to visit such wondrous attractions as the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Devil's Tower in Wyoming. The latter is very visually impressive since there's absolutely nothing of comparable height anywhere near it. It's just standing by itself in the middle of a forest, being about 1000 feet tall. Looks like something you'd see in a fantasy movie. It's also completely flat on top, which raises questions as to how it was formed. Also showcased are mountain ranges, which are so old that some estimate they've been there for 40 million years or more. The real highlight though comes in the closing minutes, when they show Mount Rushmore. Very interesting, it's not even completed yet. Roosevelt's face is nowhere to be found, but the other three are in various states of completion. Predictably, Washington was the one they finished first. The reason why this part reminds me of that tv program I mentioned is because Fitzpatrick says 100 thousand years from then, the monument will still look basically the same. In that unimaginable amount of time, everything people have ever made will be long gone, but because erosion is such a slow process, things like Mount Rushmore will basically be there forever. I thought this short was good and stands out among the other TravelTalks because of the Rushmore footage.