Rent The Big Trail (1930)

Go West - The Big Trail review by Steve

Astonishing pre-code western which isn't as well known as it should be. This is a truly epic adventure shot on location, but from the period when such films were in abeyance because of the limits of sound technology. Yet the audio is complex for 1930. Most impressive of all, this is shot in a revolutionary widescreen format.

Unfortunately, only two cinemas in the US could show it; there was also a release in academy ratio but it bombed and John Wayne had to wait another decade to become a star. He plays the wagon master leading a cast of thousands west along the Oregon trail, and surviving the trials of the Cheyenne and the bushwhackers...

And the hostile desert sun... When the film opens with the spectacle of covered wagons strung across the panorama, emerging in a cloud of dust, it's tempting to wonder if Raoul Walsh- not John Ford- should be considered the pioneer of the sound western. There are phenomenal action scenes across rivers and canyons.

Plus the buffalo stampede. Wayne romances a prickly pioneer played by Marguerite Churchill. There is folksy comedy, some foolin' and prayin' and a square dance. What a night at the cinema for the few! It's even not always bigoted towards native Americans... while still of its time. Of course, it's dated, but also, a landmark.