Westward Ho and watch out for the buffalo

How the West was Won, 1/6/13, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, 1963

1963 was quite the year for movies, that’s for sure: Cleopatra, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Tom Jones, just to name a few of the Oscar winners from that year. And How the West Was Won. Four hours covering the uniquely American idea of Manifest Destiny as the movie follows the Rawlings and Prescott families as they move Westward over about fifty years. It’s not your typical Western; it very nicely incorporates elements of cowboy life, but also the lives of settlers and the impact of the railroad. It’s an all-encompassing story, but it doesn’t wander and I really didn’t even mind the length. It’s broken up into ‘episodes’ with several different directors. The cast is golden, a cornucopia of acting talent, not just from the Western genre, although that is well-represented with Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne (don’t blink, or you’ll miss him), but also the dapper Gregory Peck, George Peppard, and Debbie Reynolds. The movie’s soundtrack was nominated for an Oscar, but it lost out to Tom Jones; I haven’t heard or seen Tom Jones, but if the soundtrack is supposed to capture the essence of the film, the soundtrack for this movie definitely does that; there are some great American songs on it, and by that I mean, perhaps ‘traditional’ or ‘American folk’? Songs many of us heard growing up, or sang in school, but hearing them in the period when they were popular gave them a new context to me. There is so much to like about this movie, and perhaps that’s why I’m so effusive, is because it really surprised me (I find my effusive ratio increases in direct proportion to how much I dread a movie and then really like it). Debbie Reynolds – I have to admit, I thought oh goody, a little song and dance and spunkiness, blech. But that wasn’t the case, she had an attitude, that’s for sure, and was independent-minded, and she did sing and dance, but it would have been a waste not to use that talent. The one scene that seemed really forced and ham-fisted was the scene at the camp as she and the wagon train are moving westward and she starts up this singalong that probably was not necessary, but again, why waste the talent, I suppose. Debbie Reynold’s character, Lilith Prescott, is the only character that is carried out through the whole movie, she ties it all together. George Peppard who comes of age in the Civil War (I didn’t recognize it was him until after the war, though) and becomes one of those idealists who believes that when you give a man your word, white man or Indian, you keep it; he fights to keep his integrity as a soldier as the railroad begins its expansion across the territory of the Native Americans. And the story itself, as it follows the expansion westward, first using the Erie Canal, then wagon trains and finally the railroads, with the different characters, river pirates (featuring Walter Brennan as the gang leader); gamblers; gold miners and railroad barons. I don't know if the whole movie was filmed in South Dakota, but from what I could gather from the credits, quite a bit was filmed there, and since that's so close, that made it fun to watch. The tales of the American West have captivated us since Horace Greeley first said ‘go west, young man’ and the penny novels of the era. If this was a history blog, we would be having a very different conversation, but since this is about the movies, the conversation is this, this movie is an American classic and depicts a great time of American expansion with a great story, some funny bits, and some good action. It’s not too violent or filled with curse words, so I would say this would be a good family movie (you can even break it up by episodes if you like).Westward Ho!!