IMDb > How the West Was Won (1962)
How the West Was Won
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How the West Was Won (1962) More at IMDbPro »

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How the West Was Won (1962) -- A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century--including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.
How the West Was Won (1962) -- Trailerfan.com - Trailer (Flash)
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Overview

User Rating:
7.0/10   5,629 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writer:
James R. Webb (written by) (suggested by the series "How the West Was Won" in LIFE magazine)
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Contact:
View company contact information for How the West Was Won on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
20 February 1963 (USA) more
Genre:
Adventure | Drama | Romance | Western more
Tagline:
A FABULOUS ROMANTIC ADVENTURE more
Plot:
A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century--including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Won 3 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(4 articles)
The Sunday Movie Quiz – The Answers
 (From HeyUGuys. 16 November 2009, 12:33 PM, PST)
The Sunday Movie Quiz
 (From HeyUGuys. 14 November 2009, 4:01 PM, PST)
User Comments:
"I Am Bound For The Promised Land." more (93 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Carroll Baker ... Eve Prescott

Lee J. Cobb ... Marshal Lou Ramsey

Henry Fonda ... Jethro Stuart

Carolyn Jones ... Julie Rawlings

Karl Malden ... Zebulon Prescott

Gregory Peck ... Cleve Van Valen

George Peppard ... Zeb Rawlings
Robert Preston ... Roger Morgan

Debbie Reynolds ... Lilith Prescott

James Stewart ... Linus Rawlings

Eli Wallach ... Charlie Gant

John Wayne ... Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman

Richard Widmark ... Mike King
Brigid Bazlen ... Dora Hawkins

Walter Brennan ... Col. Jeb Hawkins
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parents
Runtime:
162 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Arapaho
Color:
Color (Technicolor) (credited as Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.89 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) | Cinerama 7-Track (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Canada:G | Portugal:M/12 | USA:Approved (certificate #20143) | USA:G (re-rating) (1970) | West Germany:12 (f) | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | New Zealand:PG | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:K-16 | Norway:12 | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG (video rating) (1986) (cut) | UK:PG (video re-rating) (1995) (uncut) | UK:U (original rating)
Filming Locations:
Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA more
Company:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
James Stewart offered to play his own dead body in the Civil War story but was refused by John Ford who instead used a double who bore no resemblance to Stewart. When George Peppard imitates Stewart's voice during the grizzly bear reminiscence story he was reprimanded by Ford but yelled back that he wanted the audience to remember that Stewart played his father. more
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Zebulon Prescott sees the rapids on the river, he says they must have taken the wrong fork. But they are are headed downstream. If you are headed downstream and come to a fork, you have no choice which fork to take; you take the one headed downstream. You can only make a choice of which fork to take if you head upstream at some point. In those rafts on that river, they could not have taken the wrong fork. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Narrator: [as the camera pans over the Rocky Mountains] This land has a name today, and is marked on maps. But, the names and the marks and the maps all had to be won, won from nature and from primitive man.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "The Simpsons: How the Test Was Won (#20.11)" (2009) more
Soundtrack:
(Fifteen Miles On) The Erie Canal more

FAQ

How can I see How The West Was Won in CINERAMA?
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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
18 out of 24 people found the following comment useful.
"I Am Bound For The Promised Land.", 21 November 2006
9/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

I still remember seeing How the West Was Won in Cinerama when it made it into general release back in 1962. A motion picture theater equipped for Cinerama is the only way this one should be seen. The formatted VHS copy I watched tonight can't come close to doing it justice.

James R. Webb's original screenplay for the screen won an Oscar in 1962 and it involves an episodic account of the Presscott family and their contribution to settling the American west in the 19th century. We first meet the Presscotts, Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead going west on the Erie Canal and later by flatboat on the Ohio River. They have two daughters, dreamy romantic Carroll Baker and feisty Debbie Reynolds. The girls meet and marry mountain man James Stewart and gambler Gregory Peck eventually and their adventures and those of their children are what make up the plot of How the West Was Won.

Three of Hollywood's top directors did parts of this film although the lion's share by all accounts was done by Henry Hathaway. John Ford did the Civil War sequence and George Marshall the sequence about the railroad.

The Civil War piece featured John Wayne and Harry Morgan in a moment of reflection at the battlefield of Shiloh. Morgan did a first rate job as Grant in his brief cameo and Wayne was playing Sherman for the second time in his career. He'd previously played Sherman in an unbilled cameo on his friend Ward Bond's Wagon Train series. I'm surprised Wayne never did Sherman in a biographical film, he would have been good casting.

If any of the stars could be said to be THE star of the film it would have to be Debbie Reynolds. She's in the film almost through out and in the last sequence where as a widow she goes to live with her nephew George Peppard and his family she's made up as a gray haired old woman and does very well with the aging. Debbie also gets to do a couple of musical numbers, A Home in the Meadow and Raise A Ruckus both blend in well in the story. Debbie's performance in How the West Was Won must have been the reason she was cast in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Cinerama was rarely as effectively employed as in How the West Was Won. I well remember feeling like you were right on the flatboat that the Presscott family was on as they got caught in the Ohio River rapids. The Indian attack and the buffalo stampede were also well done. But the climax involving that running gun battle between peace officers George Peppard and Lee J. Cobb with outlaw Eli Wallach and his gang on a moving train even on a formatted VHS is beyond thrilling.

There is a sequence that was removed and it had to do with Peppard going to live with buffalo hunter Henry Fonda and marrying Hope Lange who was Fonda's daughter. She dies and Peppard leaves the mountains and then marries Carolyn Jones. Lange's part was completely left on the cutting room floor. Hopefully there will be a restored version of How the West Was Won, we'll see Hope Lange and more of Henry Fonda.

And it should be restored. All those Hollywood legends in one exciting film. They really don't make them like this any more.

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Jimmy Stewart was 53 years old when he made this film mitchflorida
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