“How the West Was Won”- A Brief and Spoiler-Free Movie Review

There are close to 2,000 DVDs at the library. We have all types of genres:

 

  • Action
  • Biographies
  • Classic
  • Comedies
  • Drama
  • Foreign
  • Instructional
  • Musical
  • Mystery
  • Sci-Fi
  • Romance
  • Horror/Suspense
  • TV series and
  • War

You will begin to see reviews here on our blog to encourage you to view some of these brilliant titles. The first title that we will highlight is “How the West Was Won.” This review will always be spoiler-free and written in a brief manner for easy consumption.

Quick Facts:

Released: 1962

Directed by: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall

Starring: Gregory Peck, John Wayne, and James Stewart

gregorypeck JimmyStewart JohnWayne

Why you should watch it: This is an epic film, meaning it involved a large scale production.  It was filmed with the 3 projector Cinerama process as is evident from this DVD copy. What this means is that it will look like there are lines going down the film. See here:

cinerama

This type of filming was only done for very few films. And it really isn’t much of a distraction after the first few minutes of the film. This film has some epic action sequences, including buffalo stampedes and train shootouts. They really don’t make them like this anymore.

Noted Trivia:

  • Won 3 Academy Awards for: Best Writing, Story, and Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound
  • James Stewart’s character was supposed to be 28 in the movies but Stewart was nearly 54 during
  • 12,000 extras were used, including several Indian tribes.
  • It was the top grossing film of 1962.

Watch the original trailer here:

*Photos retrieved from imdb.com and youtube.com

Check it out at the Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library! Available now at the circulation desk: DVD1

-Amanda Gomez, Education Librarian