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How the West Was Won (1962)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
11/08
11/08:
How the West Was Won is a so-called Western epic that runs far long, clocking at nearly three hours with many songs
thrown in.
Altogether, there are probably two exciting action-packed scenes, and that's it. The story, which spans several generations,
goes nowhere. Looking at the names of the cast, I'm like, "Heck, why not throw in some more like Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson,
Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Alan Ladd, Burt Lancaster, Ben Johnson, William Holden, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Robert
Redford, Dean Martin, Emilio Fernández, Robert Mitchum, and Roy Rogers? This will be greatest cast ever in the history of
Western films."
But don't be fooled by the all-star cast although it looks impressive. Really, more than three-fourths, individually,
have a total screen time that's shorter than the lifetime of a mayfly. And is this the quickest John Wayne performance ever?
On the other hand, it's a three (is it four or five?) part picture with each of them seemingly unrelated to one
another. Going through each, I was like, "Okay, I am lost. What did just happen? Is this the same person?"
When I initially played the movie, I thought there was something wrong with my DVD copy because I saw lines separating the film
into three. It turns out back then it was called Cinerama with every scene being shot by not a single
camera but three separate cameras (or was it a three-lens camera)? It was eventually discarded due to high expense and the
awkwardness of dealing with such technique.
All in all, How the Sleep Was Won is more like it.