The Big Trail

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The Big Trail
Movie Poster for The Big Trail
Directed by	Raoul Walsh
Produced by	Winfield R. Sheehan
Written by	Hal G. Evarts (story) Marie Boyle Jack Peabody Florence Postal Fred Sersen
Starring	Tyrone Power, Sr. John Wayne Marguerite Churchill
Music by	Arthur Kay
Cinematography	Lucien Andriot Arthur Edeson
Editing by	Jack Dennis
Distributed by	Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s)	1930
Running time	125 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Big Trail is a 1930 film starring John Wayne in his first leading role and was the second movie to be shown in widescreen format. Although the 23-year-old Wayne delivered an intriguing performance as wagon train scout Breck Coleman, the expensive shot-on-location movie was a huge flop as a result of being the first widescreen release during a time when theatres wouldn't change over due to the encroachments of the Great Depression. After The Big Trail, Wayne was demoted to cheap serials and low-budget westerns, and it would take another nine years and Stagecoach to make Wayne a major mainstream star. Legend has it that the director Raoul Walsh had co-star Tyrone Power, Sr. almost beaten to death for forcing himself on the leading lady, Marguerite Churchill. Power would die just a year later from a heart attack.

The Big Trail was shot in an early widescreen process using 70mm film called Grandeur (which was first used in Fox Movietone Follies of 1929). Widescreen, along with Technicolor, were picked up by movie studios as the next big technological advancement for films in 1929. In 1930, a large number of films were produced which featured either widescreen or color. Color fared a lot better than widescreen because no special equipment was needed to view color films whereas theatres needed to buy special projectors and screens in order to project widescreen films. Late in 1930, however, when the effects of the Depression were finally beginning to be felt by the public, studios abandoned the use of widescreen and color in an attempt to decrease costs. Because only a small number of theatres could play widescreen films, two versions of the widescreen films were always simultaneously filmed, with the cameras side by side and the widescreen camera getting the better angle. By doing this, the film would be able to played throughout the country in 35mm at the same time it was being played in deluxe theatres capable of screening widescreen films.

The original 70mm nitrate elements deteriorated in the 1960s, but a fine-grain CinemaScope-converted print of the 70mm version was found in 1972 and kept in the Library of Congress, and thus the film was restored to its full widescreen glory in the 1980s and re-screened at the Museum of Modern Art, and modern viewers wondered what audiences in 1930 had been thinking, since The Big Trail holds up astonishingly well given its age. The wagon train drive across the country was pioneering in its use of camerawork and the stunning scenery from the epic landscape. An extraordinary effort was made to lend authenticity to the movie, with the wagons drawn by oxen and lowered by ropes down canyons when necessary. Tyrone Power's character's clothing looks grimy in a more realistic way than has been seen in movies since, and even the food supplies the immigrants carried with them were researched. Locations in five states were used in the film caravan's 2000 mile trek. The movie was shot in both English and German (German-speaking leading men acted in the German version). Since it was filmed in both 35 mm and in 70 mm Grandeur film, there were two film crews. Amazingly enough, the 70mm version has been seen on cable television while only the 35mm version has been released to video and DVD.

Filming began in April, 1930, but John Wayne, a completely unknown actor recently promoted from prop man by director Raoul Walsh, fell sick from dysentery and was nearly replaced as the lead.

Another widescreen western was also produced the same year, Billy the Kid, starring Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett and Johnny Mack Brown as Billy the Kid. No widescreen prints of Billy the Kid survive, however, only a standard-width version shot simultaneously.

In December 2006 the film was recognized as a culturally, historically and aesthetically significant film by the National Film Registry ^[1]

[edit] Further reading

Chapter 8, "The Big Trail and Beyond", Donald Shepherd and Robert Slatzer with Dave Grayson, Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne, Doubleday (1985), hardcover, 372 pages, ISBN 0-385-17893-X