The Big Trail. 1930. Directed by Raould Walsh.

(2/5/00)

The first thing one notices about The Big Trail is that it is in wide screen which was unusual for 1930. And it is a film which really filled that wide screen with detail. Many of the shots are like panoramic landscape paintings carefully composed with regards to foreground, middleground and background.

I was unfortunately very tired during this film and couldn't really enjoy it. It is also unfortunate that I wasn't able to hear the primitive soundtrack very well and consequently unable to follow a lot of it.

It was a very unusual experience to see such a young John Wayne, as he didn't really resurface until 1939. He is a lot different from the Wayne we know. He still has a fine presence and is surprisingly romantic in his scenes with Marguerite Churchill. I really liked the speech about how you can get used to someone not liking you andthen when they're gone you can miss them not likingyou. Churchill is very endearing as the reluctant love interest who eventually comes round.

The ending ws really poignant. Wayne has gone away to take care of his mission of administering justice to the villains. Churchill fears that he won't come back.. Zeke (don't know the actor's name) hears him call in the woods and tells Churchill about a present Wayne supposedly left for her which is in the hollow of a redwood tree. Sending her off for it is his way of ensuring that she and Wayne can have some privacy when they meet. She sees him on the trail, far off, and stops because she is so surprised. Their meeting takes place without words.

I did feel that The Big Trail went on for too long, but that might have been due to the fact that I was tired and couldn't hear a lot of it.

(2/8/00)

As an epic of westward migration it wasn't quite as inspiring as The Covered Wagon, but the scene in which the pioneers lower the wagon over the cliffs was an amazing thing to see.

I found comedian El Brendel tiresome. His humor is one aspct of this film which doesn't wear well.