How the West Was Won (1962)

John Chard

9.0

May 4, 2017

Bound for the promised land, indeed. One of the last great epic movies to come out of MGM that was a roaring success, How the West Was Won still has enough quality about it to warrant high praise. The story that drives the film on was suggested by the series of the same name that featured in "Life" magazine 1959. Narrative is formed around one family, the Prescott's, who set out on a journey West in 1839. They and their offspring fill out five segments of film that are directed by three different men, "The Rivers", "The Plains" & "The Outlaws" is under the guidance of Henry Hathaway, and "T…

Wuchak

7.0

Apr 14, 2021

_**Unique, entertaining all-star Western epic comprised of vignettes is a mixed bag**_ Released in 1962-63 and written by James Webb, "How the West was Won" is an epic Hollywood Western covering fifty years between 1839-1889 focusing on the Prescott family's move West and narrated by Spencer Tracy. This is a history lesson amped up with melodrama, romance, adventure, violence and song & dance. The film was done in Cinerama, which was a short-lived cinematic experiment involving three synchronized projectors and a huge curved screen. Only one other film with a traditional story line utili…

CinemaSerf

7.0

Jan 23, 2023

It's almost impossible to imagine how anyone could have amassed such a complete complement of Hollywood A-listers (both in front of, and behind, the camera) to make this epic tale of the pioneering American spirit in the 19th century. From the opening bars of Alfred Newman's score, you can rest assured that we are in for something grand - and, cinematographically speaking, we certainly are. The story is essentially episodic in nature, depicting three stages in the lives of families who emigrate west, encountering just about every obstacle and danger imaginable as the gold rush, railroads (and…