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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 39423
Released: May 20, 2003 |
| Our Price: $4.29 |
| Used Price: $1.69 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In this sweeping pioneer adventure, a courageous young scout (WAYNE) leads hundreds of settlers across treacherous cliffs, though brutal snowstorms, Indian attacks and buffalo stampedes to their destiny out West. Along the way, he loses his heart to a beautiful pioneer woman (MARGUERITE CHURCHILL) and never stops trying to win her love. TYRONE POWER co-stars in this visually spectacular epic.
Description of The Big Trail (Full Screen Edition):
One of very few widescreen productions filmed at the dawn of the talkies, The Big Trail was dismissed by reviewers of the day, little seen, and soon shelved and forgotten--for more than half a century, as it turned out. For movie buffs, it became a sort of Holy Grail. After all, the esteemed Raoul Walsh had directed, the early 70mm angle was tantalizing, and wasn't this the movie that was intended to make a star of Duke Morrison, a 22-year-old former prop man whom Walsh had rechristened John Wayne for the occasion? For curiosity value alone, surely it rated a look.
Restored in the late 1980s and warmly embraced by film festival audiences, The Big Trail proved to be more than just a historical footnote. What were those 1930 reviewers thinking?! Wayne is fresh, exuberant, matinee-idol handsome, and irresistibly charming (only a little purple prose trips him up, and no one should have been asked to speak such early-talkie flapdoodle anyway). The scenario winds through epic settings from the banks of the Mississippi by way of the Grand Canyon to the snows of Oregon and the mountain vistas of Washington, marking both a wagon train's journey and the settling of a personal score between trail guide Wayne and Tyrone Power Sr. as a veritable ogre of a villain. (A villain off-camera, too: Legend holds that Walsh had the actor beaten nearly to death for attempting to force himself on leading lady Marguerite Churchill.) The Big Trail is now an authentic classic, and a swell movie. Probably always was. --Richard T. Jameson
The Big Trail (Full Screen Edition) Reviews:
PLEASE - BUY THE WIDESCREEN VERSION! 
2009-10-17 - Amazon to their complete discredit is posting reviews of two totally different films as one! There are two versions of The Big Trail - one shot in 35mm and lasting 110 minutes and released in 2003, and a newer widescreen version released in 2008 lasting over 122 minutes and shot in Grandeur 70mm and completely different in scale and impact. The important version, to add greater confusion, comes with the former as a box set. Potential purchasers have to be made aware of this!
The "Full Screen Edition" will confuse many purchasers - in fact it is nothing of the sort and therefore I mark it down to the lowest rating.
The movie in its historic format deserves a full FIVE STARS! and can be purchased in the set titled, "The Big Trail Two Disc Special Edition", which not only includes this inferior version DVD, but also the all important and hugely historic "WIDESCREEN EDITION" version of the movie as it was first shown.
Again, I would easily rate this widescreen edition DVD a full five stars!
The widescreen version is 122 minutes long, and taken directly from the original 70mm. The "Full Screen Edition" masquerading here as what its not is not a cropped version of the widescreen image, but instead is actually a shorter (110 minute) 35mm version shot at the same time by Fox for the majority of theaters of the day that could not run the huge film. Yes, it's a real film and certainly a good one - until you see the 70mm. My low rating is to draw attention to all these important details that are not mentioned in most of the positive reviews. Most of what makes this film epic in scale is so much better appreciated in a widescreen format, and not the totally confusingly titled full screen edition as offered here.
I'm normally tolerant of these concessions to the television medium - watching a widescreen "Lawrence of Arabia" on anything smaller than a 60inch screen is like peering at a colored ribbon streched across the middle of the televison. Facing such a tiny picture it's understandable why many people opt for cropped or 'full' screen versions instead of widescreen versions.
But the whole point of "The Big Trail" is the magnificent GRANDEUR format, a monstrous 70mm image delivering in stunning detail the vast panoramas making up the film's backdrops. These are jaw-dropping images, worthy of consideration with the great black and white landscape photography of America's finest photographers of the West. If you have a large television screen you just have to try "The Big Trail" in Widescreen on the Fox "Two Disc Special Edition". Once you've seen the film in its complete untrimmed glory on a good sized screen you'll wonder why Fox first released "The Big Trail" in 2003 DVD in a short-changing and very misleading "Full Screen Edtion".
So order the widescreen version of "The Big Trail" and see a landmark of American film-making, something absolutely spectacular as it was intended to be seen.
The Big Trail (Two-Disc Special Edition)
My only complaint is Fox's insistence on attaching the Full Screen DVD to the Widescreen DVD and charging us for two DVDs when most viewers only wish to see one version.
"The Big Trail" Two Disk Special Edition 
2009-08-02 - This a awesome dvd. I love this film. The Big Trail plays a big and important part in John Wayne's carrier. When Marion Morison, John Wayne's real name, signed onto the project, director Roul Walsh and producers on the film didn't want to go by "Marion Morison" so they Roul Walsh liked the name "Wayne" and one of the producers liked the name John, they put them together and created the legendary star "John Wayne" A lot of people forget that it was Roul Walsh, not John Ford, who created "John Wayne," although it was John Ford who made "John Wayne" a star in stagecoach.
This dvd is a must have for all John Wayne Fans. I for one am a huge Duke Wayne Fan and was really excited when I came across this two disk special edition I was very excited, I have yet to see the restored version.
The Special Features are a must see!
Most differently recommend!
Luke Hays
Greatest Movie No One Saw
2009-07-04 - The Big Trail finally gets the treatment that fans should have had for the last twenty years. What makes this movie stand out before you get into any other aspect of what is a remarkable film, is the technical aspects to it. It was among the first wide screen films ever made. That is kinda true, but does not give a full description of what the film is, and what it meant at the time it was released. The 70mm Grandeur version of the film, of which there were five that were filmed simutaneously, used a screen aspect ratio of 2.1:1, but unlike cinescope and other "widecreen" devices in the erly day of film, which would not come around until the 1960's, would only use a kind of lense to widen the shot. The process of film used on this picture would not fully be immitated again until the late 60's. Remember this film came out in 1930. There were several reviews posted here that this is not the Grandeur version of the film, and that is not the case. This is the most complete version of the film on the market. It has been remastered from original negatives and lookes brilliant in High Def. All of the modern film techniques in wide screen were exhibited here. Not only did it invent the technology, but it fully culitvated the techniques associated with it. The amount of resources that went into the film surpasses even a lord of the rings size endevour with seperate casts for different distribution markets, and enough people, wagons, and livestock to completely fill the enormous screen without matting, or cgi like modern films. The visual flair of the film surpasses even the John Ford era Wayne films in capturing the rugged terain. Past the visual thrills of the movie, I know a lot of people do not like older movies and find them slow and boring. I will complain from a modern standpoint about some of the sound work, as the actors either can not be heard, or are speaking too loudly to be natural performances, however if interpreted in the period it was made, or as a play, the writing is amusing, and entertaining, if not simple throughout. It is not as conservative as the post depression wayne films, and feels modern in most aspects. Very interesting to see a culture and lanscape so well captured so long ago. There are some politically incorrect moments that are unapologetically thrown in, but hopefully if you are wanting to watch this you are not too easily offended and are open minded and well educated. The Native Americans were authentic and not looked down upon at all. The overall word for this film is majestic, as a land that this country seems to have forgotten about, and it seems both sad and determined to succeed. The movie would eventually flop due to the great depression, but John Wayne was definately the right choice. This is easily one of his best films. The extras include plenty of making of, and history of the project, and the 35mm version of the film, which is very interesting to compare the difference the technology of the film process made. Even by today's standards, just a beautiful film. If you are bored during this film, you are just brain dead from watching too much MTV CGI crap.
THE GREAT JOHN WAYNE EMERGES IN THIS FORGOTTON WESTERN GREAT
2009-01-11 - The Big Trail (1930) is a lavish early widescreen movie shot on location across the American West starring John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh.
In 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
Filming began in April 1930. During production, John Wayne, a completely unknown actor recently promoted from prop man (and renamed) by director Raoul Walsh, fell sick from dysentery and was nearly replaced as the lead.
Legend has it that the director Raoul Walsh had co-star Tyrone Power, Sr. almost beaten to death for forcing himself on the leading lady, Marguerite Churchill. Power would die just a year later from a heart attack.
Although the 23-year-old Wayne delivered an intriguing and charismatic performance as wagon train scout Breck Coleman, the expensive shot-on-location movie was financially unsuccessful as a result of being the first widescreen release during a time when theatres would not change over due to the encroachments of the Great Depression. After making The Big Trail, Wayne found stardom only in low-budget serials and features (mostly B-westerns). It would take another nine years--and the film Stagecoach--to return Wayne to mainstream movies.
The Big Trail was shot in an early widescreen process using 70mm film called Fox Grandeur which was first used in The William Fox Movietone Follies of 1929. Widescreen, along with Technicolor, were picked up by movie studios as the next big technological advancement for films in 1929. In 1930, a large number of films were produced which featured either widescreen or color. Color fared a lot better than widescreen because no special equipment was needed to view color films whereas theatres needed to buy special projectors and screens in order to project widescreen films.
Late in 1930, however, when the effects of the Depression were finally beginning to be felt by the public, studios abandoned the use of widescreen and color in an attempt to decrease costs. Because only a small number of theatres could play widescreen films, two versions of the widescreen films were always simultaneously filmed, one in 35 mm and one in the 70 mm Grandeur process. By doing this, the film would be able to be played throughout the country in 35mm at the same time it was being played in deluxe theatres capable of screening widescreen films.
The wagon train drive across the country was pioneering in its use of camera work and the stunning scenery from the epic landscape. An extraordinary effort was made to lend authenticity to the movie, with the wagons drawn by oxen and lowered by ropes down canyons when necessary. Tyrone Power's character's clothing looks grimy in a more realistic way than has been seen in movies since, and even the food supplies the immigrants carried with them were researched. Locations in five states were used in the film caravan's 2,000 mile trek.
In the early 1980s, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which housed the 65mm nitrate camera negative for "The Big Trail", wanted to preserve the film, but found that the negative was way too shrunken and fragile to be copied and that no film lab would touch it. They went to Karl Malkames, an accomplished cinematographer, and at that time a leading specialist and pioneer in actual film reproduction, restoration and preservation. Malkames was known to be a "problem solver" when it came to early odd gauge format films in desperate need of attention and tender loving care. He immediately set about designing and building a special printer to handle the careful frame by frame reproduction of the negative to a 35mm anamorphic (CinemaScope) fine grain master (the printer itself copied at a speed of one frame a second!) This was a painstaking undertaking which Malkames oversaw himself from start to finish. The entire project took him a year to complete. It is solely because of him that this film survives in this version.
Amazingly enough, the 70mm version was seen on cable television at a time when only the 35mm version had been released to VHS and DVD. A 2-disc DVD was released in the US on May 13, 2008, containing both versions.
Another widescreen western was also produced the same year, Billy the Kid, starring Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett and Johnny Mack Brown as Billy the Kid. No widescreen prints of Billy the Kid survive, however, only a standard-width version shot simultaneously remains.
Western movie review
2009-01-11 - Everything was just as described. The product was received in excellent condition in time for Christmas. Thanks.
