The first "epic" western of the talkie era, The Big Trail is motivated by a hero's search for the murderer of his father. Twenty-three-year-old John Wayne, hitherto limited to bit parts, was thrust into the difficult leading role, a young mountaineer put in charge of a huge California-bound wagon train. Over the next several months, Wayne and his fellow pioneers face every imaginable hazard and disaster, from blistering desert heat to blinding snowstorms, negotiating steep cliffs, treacherous
rivers, uncharted forests and other such natural obstacles. Meanwhile, Wayne's tentative romance with heroine Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill) is continually thwarted by a charming but duplicitous gambler (Ian Keith), and all-around villain Red Flack (Tyrone Power Sr.) and his henchman Lopez (Charlie Stevens) ceaselessly plot to double-cross the other wagon-trainers for their own financial gain. The Big Trail was a box-office disappointment, a fact which some have attributed its expensive production methods. Each scene was lensed twice, once in 35-millimeter and then in the 65-mm "Fox Grandeur" wide-screen process. And then, each dialogue scene was filmed in French and German, with totally different casts. Even if Big Trail has been a big hit, it would have lost money thanks to the time-consuming shooting and reshooting of virtually every scene. Whatever the case, it was John Wayne who suffered most from the film's failure; instantly demoted to "B"-westerns, it took him nearly a decade to rebuild his stardom. Long believed lost, The Big Trail was made available for exhibition again in the early 1970s -- and in the 1990s the original widescreen version was at last restored for public view. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Raoul Walsh believed that John Wayne would become a big star after his epic Western but he did not. A combo of factors account for this failure, not just Wayne's stiff acting but also the cool reception of the horseopera itself.
John Wayne's first movie, and a very early "talkie". Good to see for the nostalgia, but not much else.
July 3, 2011
John Yelverton
John Wayne's first movie is actually two movies. There is the 70 mm wide screen and the 35 mm square screen. Since 70 mm and sound movies were both new technologies in 1929 they literally filmed this movie with two separate cameras. The complex scenes they filmed simultaneously from two separate angles. Some of the
scenes had the actors perform twice for two different camera crews. This required the actors to duplicate their performance exactly the same twice. Watching the two versions is like watching a stage play twice on different days. One scene had one of the characters wearing a coat in the 70 mm version but was coatless in the 35 mm film. Other scenes the sound synched up perfectly but the camera angle was different. Towards the end of the movie John Wayne had to make a speech urging the pioneers not to turn back. Both were good and both started out the same but he started to ad-lib a little and the two versions aren't exactly the same. Due to mechanical problems with the new cameras there were some scenes in the 35 mm film that weren't in the 70 mm version and there were many scenes that were in the 70 mm version that weren't in the 35 mm version. There was a section of the 35 mm film were the travelers have to cross a desert (even though there is no desert on the Oregon Trail) but is totally left out of the 70 mm version. In the 70 mm version John Wayne's love interest is left behind and John Wayne has to go back to rescue them. This is left out of the 35 mm version. Over all the 70 mm is better but was only shown in two theaters and the rest of the country was shown the 35 mm version. In some sections the 35 mm is better. Sometimes the 70 mm is cleaner, sharper with better contrast and other times it's the 35 mm with the better photography. Overall the 70 mm version is 14 minutes longer than the 35 mm version. John Wayne played a young version of himself. You can see the John Wayne character begin his development into the character so familiar in his later movies. The story of the movie is the first wagon train to follow the Oregon Trail. They tried to make it look as accurate as possible by having oxen pull some of the wagons. They still have too many being pulled by horses and mules. In 1850 all the wagons were drawn by oxen. Also in 1850 nobody rode in the wagons. Wagons carried the food and supplies. The people walked. They wore out so many shoes the Indians would sell them moccasins along the way. They filmed the movie in 5 states but nowhere along the real Oregon Trail. In the movie there were too many trees and too many hills. For most of the movie everyone carried single shot guns, then all of the sudden in the middle of a buffalo hunt John Wayne pulls out a revolver and starts shooting. Before that all he had was a rifle. By todays standards this is a boring movie and in 1930 the places where they had to watch the 35 mm version they thought is was boring too.
No quotes approved yet for The Big Trail. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'The Big Trail'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
