The Big Trail

There is a scene very near the start of this film where John Wayne ("Breck") walks through a doorway, bedecked in his finely crafted suede leathers and you almost want to applaud - like it was the entrance of great actor onto a stage. There can been no doubt that Raoul Walsh and his bosses at Fox were determined to make a big star of their man - and have thrown pretty much everything at it. The story concerns pioneers on a long and dangerous wagon trail leaving the Mississippi heading west into the unknown, It's the epitome of an American adventure film - the travellers face perils both human and natural as they head for their promised land, and the scale of the production is of a high quality with beautiful and grand cinematography contributing really well to our sense of just how tough their task was. Wayne oozes charm, his smile explains a great deal about why Hollywood and the public at large fell in love with this decent, honourable young man. A competent Marguerite Campbell ("Ruth") provides his suitably feisty love interest and the rest of this slightly over-long tale is held together by a relatively small cast who keep the story interesting and focused. Sure, it isn't without it's idealism - the all American boy blazes a trail against the odds, gets the gal, makes friends wherever he goes (largely), but there are some more sincere touches - "Breck" isn't quite so good with his alcohol! At times this borders a little too much on the documentary, but that doesn't really impact detrimentally on the overall narrative - it further reinforces the scale of this unyoked land and to a considerable extent helps us to understand what drove these folks to suffer all the hardships this hostile environment could throw at them. As cinema goes, this is proper stuff - and seeing it on a big screen even now (90 years later) is still quite an experience.