How the West Was Won



How the West Was Won is a 1962 motion picture by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. It was the last major feature filmed in the classic 3-strip Cinerama format.

John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall directed the individual episodes of this sprawling epic which was originally released in Cinerama. It follows the Prescotts, an emigrant family, through four generations, from the Erie Canal in the 1830s to their home in the West half a century later. The episode directed by Ford, which focuses on the Civil War, is probably the best of the film's three parts. With James Stewart, John Wayne, Carroll Baker, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Carolyn Jones, Eli Wallach, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, and Richard Widmark. Nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, it claimed three: Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Screenplay.

(Description copied from "Brief Descriptions and Expanded Essays of National Film Registry Titles", which the Library of Congress has placed into the public domain.)

How the West Was Won was added to the National Film Registry in 1997.

"Hell-Bent for Leather, that's how the West was won."
 * All-Star Cast
 * Cassandra Truth: Ultimately subverted concerning Gant; the town marshal initially doesn't believe Zeb when he claims that Gant is trying to cause trouble but later agrees to help his attempt to ambush Gant during a planned train robbery.
 * Due to the Dead: Being a pious man, Zebulon believes that everyone deserves some sort of funeral and a spot in Heaven, no matter what they did in life, so after he and his party (including Linus) defeat the Indian rustlers that tried to ambush them, they burn the casualties in a funeral pyre made from the rustlers' portable trading post and, at the end of a brief prayer led by Zebulon, intercede for the rustlers. Later, after he himself dies trying and failing to save his wife, their remains, upon recovery, are buried under a nearby tree.
 * Epic Movie
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: The trope name is used as a Precision F-Strike in the title song.
 * Out-Gambitted: Gant didn't know Zeb's friend would agree to help ambush his gang during the attempted train robbery.
 * Precision F-Strike: In the title song, yet!

"Zeb Rawlings: Why did you make me do that?"
 * Sophisticated As Hell: "And now, let us pray: O Lord, we thank Thee for our salvation. We commit the souls of our dead to Thy gentle keepin'. We pray for the speedy recovery of our wounded. And now, another matter: O Lord, without consulting with Thee we have sent Thy way some souls whose evil ways passeth all understanding. We ask Thee humbly to receive them... whether You want 'em or not. Amen."
 * Title Drop
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Zeb to the Confederate "deserter" he had befriended before being forced to kill him to protect Generals Grant and Sherman.