The Big Trail
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Hal G. Evarts, Marie Boyle, etc.
1930/US
Fox Film Corporation
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
Breck Coleman, Wagon Train Scout: We can’t turn back! We’re blazing a trail that started in England. Not even the storms of the sea could turn back the first settlers. And they carried it on further. They blazed it on through the wilderness of Kentucky. Famine, hunger, not even massacres could stop them. And now we picked up the trail again. And nothing can stop us! Not even the snows of winter, nor the peaks of the highest mountain. We’re building a nation and we got to suffer! No great trail was ever built without hardship. And you got to fight! That’s right. And when you stop fighting, that’s death. What are you going to do, lay down and die? Not in a thousand years! You’re going on with me!
This ambitious tale of pioneers on the Oregon trail combines a simple plot, a cast of thousands, and the launch of a natural born star.
As the story begins, hundreds of settlers (here called pilgrims) are gathered in Missouri preparing to set off for new homes in Washington State on the Oregon Trail. Â Young Indian Scout Breck Coleman is hanging around the camp preparing to set out for parts unknown. Â Then he notices that Red Flack (Tyrone Power Sr.), whom he suspects of killing his friend is wagon master. Â Breck is convinced to sign on.
He meets awkwardly with single beauty Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill) and they spar for most of the rest of the film as she rejects his advances. Â Ruth is also being courted by a fugitive con man who is more “civilized” than Brent but is really after her money.
The journey is beset by raging river crossings, indian attacks, torrential rain and mud, steep mountains, and finally snowstorms. Â Meanwhile, our revenge and love triangle plots get sorted out satisfactorily.
The 23-year-old John Wayne went straight from the prop department to a leading role here and was oozing star quality right out of the box. Â The other actors are OK but you can’t take your eyes off of Wayne. Â The other outstanding aspect of the film is the awesome photography and choreography of the epic wagon train scenes and animal crossings. Â Truly ahead of its time.
Unfortunately the high cost and technology adopted by this movie – it was shot simultaneously in 70 and 35 mm and in four separate language versions – ensured it would be a box office flop. Â So Wayne would be relegated back to B movies until John Ford made a star of him with Stagecoach (1939).
