THE BIG TRAIL.
US, 1931, 125 minutes (35mm version), 158 minutes (70mm version), Black and white.
John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, El Brendel, Tully Marshall, Tyrone Power Sr.
Directed by Raoul Walsh.
The Big Trail is an interesting western on many counts. While it was not the first film that John Wayne appeared in, he had appeared in eighteen films before this, it was his first major film. However, he continued making ordinary films during the 1930s (many of which are already available on DVD). But it was not until Stage Coach in 1939, directed by John Ford, that he emerged as the star that he became. He continued making westerns for almost thirty years, many with Ford, ultimately winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, 1969. His final film, The Shootist, is a fine an by Don Siegel, a kind of elegy to Wayne and the kinds of westerns that he appeared in.
The film was directed by Raoul Walsh, who had been directing films since 1913, even with Pancho Villa. He had a long and very successful career with many action films in the 1930s, war films in the 1940s, colourful action adventures in the 1950s and 1960s.
What is particularly interesting about The Big Trail is that it was made in two versions, 35mm and 70mm. At this stage, the studios were experimenting in different-size stock to use for widescreen effect. However, with the introduction of sound and the aftermath of the Depression, these experiments were not popular and did not flourish – until resurrected at the beginning of the 1950s.
The screenplay is a standard one: the hundreds of settlers and the covered wagons travelling from the Mississippi westwards.
1. What was the impact of this film? What would it have been in 1930? What difference now? Why?
2. Comment on the use of conventions; the use of sound and recording, the silent techniques of acting and the screen images? The use of captions. the episodic nature of the film, the confined nature of camera movement? Did these detract from the film?
3. How well did the film use the conventions of the western? How fresh would they have been originally? How do they seem now: the big trail, the trek, the people on the trek, pioneering, the hero cowboy, the criminals, the dangers, Indians?
4.How important were westerns like this for audience consciousness of American history? The pride in American pioneering, the quality of the people concerned, their confronting dangers and building the west? How well was this communicated?
5. The importance of the landscapes; the desert, snow, the going down cliffs, rivers, the last outpost? What picture of the American west did this give?
6. The picture of the Indians? Friendly scouts, the nature of the attack? The American view of the Indians in the films of the 30s?
7. How good a hero was Coleman? The young John Wayne and his style, the loner, his skills his following good and thwarting bad, his capacity to lead even though young, the romantic attachments, his old friends, skirting dangers and winning through? Coleman as a typical American screen hero?
8. How attractive was the heroine? Meeting her on the steam boat, her sweetness, relationship with Thorpe, the possibility of her being deceived, the attraction for Coleman and misunderstanding him, the changes throughout the trek, the happy ending?
9. How was Thorpe a conventional villain? His role on the river boat, his lies about plantations, his gambling and shooting, his going to kill Coleman, his being shot? Was he merely a conventional villain?
10. Flake and Lopez as evil characters? Dil they seem real or caricatures? The cigar clues, leading the trek, in the snow and at the end?
11. Zeke and the other friends of Coleman? Conventional friends and conventional comics?
12. The mirror characters: the heroine’s brother, the hard mother, the dim-witted son? What did they add to the film?
13. The ingredients of comedy, adventure, location photography? How well were these incorporated into the film? How enjoyable was the film on the whole? How important a contribution to film history?
