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The Big Trail
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The Big Trail (1930)

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User Rating: 7.0/10 (704 votes)
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Overview

Director:
Raoul Walsh
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Writer:
Hal G. Evarts (story)
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Release Date:
1 November 1930 (USA) more
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. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
1 win more
NewsDesk:
The Big Trail (From The AV Club. 20 May 2008, 9:02 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Pioneer Filmmaking Effort more

Cast

 (Complete credited 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
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Additional Details

Runtime:
125 min (35 mm version) | 158 min (70 mm version) | 120 min (FMC Library Print)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
1.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric System)
Certification:
New Zealand:PG | Australia:G | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)
MOVIEmeter: ?
^ 1% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
This was his only talking film of Tyrone Power Sr., father of Tyrone Power. He died in 1931. more
Quotes:
Caption: Prairie schooners rolling west, praying for peace - but ready for battle. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs (2000) (TV) more
Soundtrack:
When It's Harvest Time in Peaceful Valley more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful:-
Pioneer Filmmaking Effort, 12 April 2002
Author: harry-76 from Cleveland, Ohio

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.



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