Alicia I love this movie so much

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

xpat-55192 I first saw this movie when I was nearly 13 when it was released.Then, I was disappointed and bored to distraction.Now I am nearly 68 and I recently bought the special 3-DVD set to see if time had changed my opinion of this cavalcade of stars.It had! It filled me with iration for my earlier accurate assessment of it!No "Dances with Wolves" or "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee"; what should have been spectacular and historically accurate entertainment was a tedious, specious, disted mess.Cons: A waste the of top acting talent of that time. Pros: Better used as an alternative to chemical sleeping inducements.

kz917-1 Really, all these rave reviews?! Did I watch the same movie?Apparently this was a grand spectacle at the time it was released. Twenty Four amazing actors and the filming of all the broad vistas were meant for the audience to ooh and ahh...But the story, oh the story is a mish mosh of plot points that in the end don't add up. Yes the writers and directors manage to pull the film full circle revolving mostly around one family.But ugh. Parts of the film were downright painful. Three to four different directors does not make for the most cohesive film!

ma-cortes Turbulent and mighty story about a family saga set against the background of wars and historical deeds ; covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century--including the Gold Rush , the Civil War, , Pony Express , Telegraph , confrontation between cattlemen and homesteaders . And of course , the building of the railroads and career between Union Pacific and Central Pacific to arrive in Promontory Point ; among other epic events . As a family of Western settlers from the 1830s to the 1880s , beginning with their voyage on The Eerie Canal and going on to encom a Civil War battle and other happenings .The picture gets great action , expansive Western settings , shootouts , love stories , it is quite entertaining and there some some scenes still rate with the best of the West , including marvelous moments along the way . It efficiently describes an attractive panoramic view of the American Western focusing on the tribulations , trials and travels of three generations of a family . It's a big budget film with good actors , technicians, production values and pleasing results . Awesome as well as spectacular scenes such as an exciting white-water rafting sequence , a train robbery , a thundering buffalo stampede and Indian attacks . The Civil War is the shortest part and the weakest including a brief acting by John Wayne as General Sheridan and Harry Morgan as General Ulysses S Grant . Particularly supreme for its all-star cast list with some actors epitomising the spirit of the early West , at least as Hollywood saw it , including a Mountain man as James Stewart , a rogue card player , Gregory Peck , and Debbie Reynolds is notable here as a gorgeous dancer seeking fame and fortune . Not many of the players have a chance to as a bearded Henry Fonda as a scout , Walter Brennan , Lee Van Cleef , Agnes Moorehead , Ken Curtis , Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln , Agnes Moorehead , Thelma Ritter , Mickey Shaughnessy , Russ Tamblyn and an interminable list ,Impressive cinematography filmed in Cinerama, and photographed in splendorous Metrocolor , though it loses much of its breathtaking visual impact on TV but otherwise holds up pretty well . All four cinematographers were Oscar-winners such as William H. Daniels , Milton R. Krasner , Milton Krasner , Charles Lang Jr and Joseph LaShelle . Rousing musical score by the classical Alfred Newman , including an immortal leitmotif . The motion picture was spectacularly directed by three veteran filmmakers , they were enlisted by producer Bernard Smith to handle the multi-part frontier stories relating exciting exploits of an ordinary family . Of the five segments, Henry Hathaway directed "The Rivers", "The Plains" and "The Outlaws", John Ford directed "The Civil War" and George Marshall did "The Railroad". Some uncredited work was done by Richard Thorpe. The picture won Oscar 63 to Film editing , Sound , Story and Screenplay . Rating : Extraordinary film , essential and indispensable watching . It's a magnificent example of the kind of old-fashioned blockbuster just don't make anymore .

cricket crockett . . . this often self-contradictory, poorly acted, and downright boring alleged "epic" constitutes a large portion of the pack of lies Grandma and Grandpa were spoon-fed growing up. Only James Stewart and Debbie Reynolds stay on the screen long enough in HOW THE WEST WAS WON to make any impression at all. Top-billed actors such as John Wayne, Karl Mulden, and Lee J. Cobb appear in laughably short cameos. Since 20 minutes of the 164-minute running time is devoted to entrance, intermission, and exit music or credits, only the opening 40-minute "River" part has any meat on its bones. Director John Ford's 20-minute "Civil War" piece is a total joke, and director George Marshall's 22-minute "Railroad" segment is simply a stunt to set up a buffalo stampede. Ditto main director Henry Hathaway's closing "Outlaws" portion, tacked on so "Cinerama" could show a train breaking apart. Hathaway follows his "River" opening part with a somewhat watchable "Plains" story, with a hard-to-like Gregory Peck dueling an even more unlikable Robert Preston for Debbie Reynolds. "Here came the dreamers, with Bible, fist, and gun" blares the chorus as it sings the HOW THE WEST WAS WON title song. "Virus, fist, and gun" would be far more accurate, and most people watching this movie will pull for the Arapaho to prevail with an even stronger virus of their own! Since that does not happen, narrator Spencer Tracy babbles that "the West's names, and the land all HAD to be won from primitive man" in the movie's opening manifesto. How could such a noted actor be so uneducated? If he had even bothered to watch this flick, he would have seen that the Arapaho were the ONLY noble souls in the whole picture! Tracy later states, "This land was known as the West, known to only a handful of White men." I have news for you, bub. The First Peoples knew every nook and cranny and named everything long before "Columbus sailed the ocean blue."