Deseret News, Salt Lake City UT: DVD releases and reviews
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 1:54 pm
[The article has an announcement for the release of Wagonmaster (1950) on DVD. ]
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053 ... .html?pg=1
Wagons ho: Celebrate Pioneer Day by watching a Western
Celebrate Pioneer Day by watching a Western
By Chris Hicks
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, July 23, 2009 6:58 p.m. MDT
When the late, great Oscar-winning character actor Ben Johnson was doing a round of interviews for a film some years ago, I approached him, introduced myself and said I was from Salt Lake City.
Johnson immediately lit up with a smile, and said, with a chuckle in his voice, "You know, I brought the Mormons to Utah."
He wasn't kidding. Johnson really did lead a wagon train of Mormon pioneers through the wilderness to what would become Utah territory. Well, OK, it was in a movie.
Johnson was making reference to his title role in the John Ford classic "Wagon Master" (1950). And today being the 24th of July, it seems an appropriate anecdote.
But there's good news and bad news.
The bad news: "Wagon Master" is not on DVD!
The good news: It's coming to DVD on Sept. 15 — with the film's original poster on the cover, including the ad line: "John Ford's lusty successor to 'Fort Apache' and 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.' "
Well, I don't know how "lusty" it is, but "Wagon Master" is a terrific film. And it is on VHS … if you can find a place that's still renting VHS.
But there are other movies on DVD on the subject of going West, young man (and young woman), and, hopefully, those that follow will help you get into the Pioneer Day spirit, whether that's today or over the weekend or next month. Hey, anytime is a great time to watch a Western.
Actually, considering how many Westerns have been made since the earliest days of cinema — and the fact that "Circle the Wagons!" is among the many stereotypes that linger in the zeitgeist — relatively few are about pioneer treks and wagon trains.
The Western subgenres are many, ranging from cleaning up rough-and-tumble towns to sagas of revenge to range wars to Indian relations to cattle drives to building the railroad to post-Civil War trauma to … well, you name it.
But the prairie schooners that carried these families from the East to the West and their subsequent pioneer settlements are more often peripheral story elements in service of the above named plots.
There are exceptions, though, so here are some that are available on DVD, and which, hopefully, you can find at the home-video rental outlet of your choice.
We'll begin with the Big Daddy of Mormon pioneer pictures, "Brigham Young," or, as the posters billed it, "Brigham Young — Frontiersman ..."
In 1940, "Brigham Young" was a big-budget 20th Century Fox movie that was made with the LDS Church's blessing. (The DVD is loaded with interesting bonus materials on the subject, including BYU archivist James V. D'Arc's fact-filled audio commentary.)
The film begins by depicting persecution in Carthage, Ill., where Joseph Smith (Vincent Price) is railroaded in a kangaroo court, then murdered in his jail cell. But the bulk of the picture focuses on the Mormons' westward trek, led by Smith's successor, Brigham Young (Dean Jagger).
The central characters are actually a Mormon farmer (Tyrone Power) and the non-Mormon woman he loves (Linda Darnell), pitted against a rabble-rousing villain (Brian Donlevy) — fictional characters through whose eyes the narrative unfolds.
In spite of these big stars of the period, Jagger — who would win an Oscar a decade later for "Twelve O'Clock High" — manages to dominate the film with a thoughtful performance, albeit one that has been criticized by some church members as not tough enough.
But I've always found Jagger's natural authoritative demeanor appropriate, along with the way he conveys Brother Brigham's character as faithful and humble, frequently seeking spiritual guidance and always looking for the best in others. (For that matter, I also think Price makes a fine Joseph Smith.)
The film's biggest drawback for the LDS audience is that so much of it simply isn't history. But in the picture's defense let me say — it's a movie! The historically accurate true-story movie is a rare bird.
There are other early-Mormon films, but most are either not on DVD or just too dreadful to list here ("September Dawn," anyone?). So while the rest of these pioneer-movie suggestions have nothing to do with the 40,000 Mormons who migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, they are nonetheless enjoyable depictions of the general westward migration.
"The Covered Wagon" (1923, b&w) opens with a title card: "The blood of America is the blood of pioneers. …" This is a classic silent film, a big-budget production about a variety of colorful characters trekking from Kansas City to Oregon, with about half breaking away to participate in the California Gold Rush. Wonderfully etched, with strong characterizations — and a surprising subplot depicting Indians' concerns about the white man's inroads. (Shades of "Dances With Wolves.")
"Fighting Caravans"/"Wagon Wheels" (1931/1934, b&w). The first film has Gary Cooper as a wanted man who cons his way aboard a wagon train headed for California. The second is a remake with Randolph Scott that reuses footage from the first film. Both are enjoyable character/action pieces with excellent early performances by their respective stars.
"Cimarron" (1931, b&w/1960, color). There are two versions of Edna Ferber's sprawling novel, and both are flawed multigenerational overviews of the growth of the West. But both films are also notable for memorable set-pieces, in particular the Oklahoma land rush sequence. Irene Dunne (in her first lead role) and Richard Dix, who apparently still thinks he's in a silent movie, star in the first version (which won the best-picture Oscar). The second stars Glenn Ford and boasts colorful widescreen panoramas.
"The Oregon Trail" (1939, b&w, 15-chapter serial).This multiple-episode cliffhanger is a great example of what moviegoers saw week after week in theaters, the equivalent of today's serial TV shows. Here, Western star Johnny Mack Brown is hired to find out who's hijacking the wagons headed for Oregon that never make it there. Dated but action-packed.
"Arizona"/"Pioneer Woman" (1940, b&w/1973, color, TV). These two films are unique entries in the pioneer-settler genre in that each is told from a woman's point of view. In the first, Jean Arthur has aspirations of becoming a mogul in freight delivery (when she's not being wooed by William Holden). The second is about Wyoming farmers, with Joanna Pettet in the lead, supported by William Shatner, David Janssen and 10-year-old Helen Hunt (in her film debut).
"Bend of the River" (1952, color) is one of several fine Westerns on which James Stewart and director Anthony Mann collaborated in the '50s, this one with Stewart as a criminal-turned-trail scout whose wagon train is plundered by his former partner. Tough characterizations from an excellent cast (including young Rock Hudson).
"The Last Wagon" (1956, color) has Richard Widmark as a prisoner who survives a wagon-train massacre and leads the rest of the trek to safety. That nutshell description of the plot, however, doesn't begin to describe how well crafted this colorful CinemaScope effort really is, with its particular attention to period detail and scenic vistas.
"Wagon Train" (1957-65, b&w and color, TV). Episodes from this beloved, long-running series are on several DVD collections. Ward Bond and later John McIntire star as a wagon master to a train headed West, with weekly guest stars as pioneers. (The experimental seventh season is in color and expanded episodes from an hour to 90 minutes, which are collected in "Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season.")
"The Twilight Zone: A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" (1961, b&w, TV Season 2). Not strictly a trek story, this half-hour drama written by Rod Serling has a wagon train foundering in the New Mexico desert when its leader (Cliff Robertson) crosses over a ridge and finds himself 100 years in the future. He's befuddled, as are the modern-day folk he encounters, but in the end a purpose is fulfilled and he returns to his fellow pioneers.
"How the West Was Won" (1962, color). This episodic Cinerama epic opens with a compelling story of immigrants and the difficulties faced in travel through uncharted territories, and there are many more stories to come in the highly entertaining 21/2-hour running time, with an all-star cast ranging from James Stewart to Debbie Reynolds to Gregory Peck and many more.
"The Way West" (1967, color) is a sweeping, visually impressive adaptation of the A.B. Guthrie Jr. novel, and the film pays attention to the details, from oxen and mules pulling wagons to the way items of great value are discarded to lighten the load. There's also an all-star cast, led by Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark (and including Sally Field in her first movie). But a weak script and stolid direction undermine its best intentions.
"The Twilight Zone: A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" (1961, b&w, TV Season 2). Not strictly a trek story, this half-hour drama written by Rod Serling has a wagon train foundering in the New Mexico desert when its leader (Cliff Robertson) crosses over a ridge and finds himself 100 years in the future. He's befuddled, as are the modern-day folk he encounters, but in the end a purpose is fulfilled and he returns to his fellow pioneers.
"How the West Was Won" (1962, color). This episodic Cinerama epic opens with a compelling story of immigrants and the difficulties faced in travel through uncharted territories, and there are many more stories to come in the highly entertaining 21/2-hour running time, with an all-star cast ranging from James Stewart to Debbie Reynolds to Gregory Peck and many more.
"The Way West" (1967, color) is a sweeping, visually impressive adaptation of the A.B. Guthrie Jr. novel, and the film pays attention to the details, from oxen and mules pulling wagons to the way items of great value are discarded to lighten the load. There's also an all-star cast, led by Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark (and including Sally Field in her first movie). But a weak script and stolid direction undermine its best intentions.
"Seven Alone" (1975, color). It's easy to carp about this low-budget effort's amateurish aspects, but the film remains a fairly enjoyable true story about a family traveling with a wagon train from Missouri to Oregon when the parents die en route, leaving their brood on their own. The other adult travelers try to send them back, but, led by the oldest (he's 13!), the youngsters are determined to fulfill their parents' dream of a new life in a new land.
"Centennial" (1978, color, TV). The first few episodes of this sprawling miniseries (which covers some 200 years) focus on the early encroachment of white men on Indian lands as the movement West began in earnest, and it's every bit as compelling as the best big-screen movies. Fur trappers and Indians are not exactly pioneer settlers as we think of them, but this is an excellent look at the changing territories and it unfolds in a most compelling way, with wonderful location footage and a first-rate all-star cast (initially led by Richard Chamberlain and Robert Conrad).
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053 ... .html?pg=1
Wagons ho: Celebrate Pioneer Day by watching a Western
Celebrate Pioneer Day by watching a Western
By Chris Hicks
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, July 23, 2009 6:58 p.m. MDT
When the late, great Oscar-winning character actor Ben Johnson was doing a round of interviews for a film some years ago, I approached him, introduced myself and said I was from Salt Lake City.
Johnson immediately lit up with a smile, and said, with a chuckle in his voice, "You know, I brought the Mormons to Utah."
He wasn't kidding. Johnson really did lead a wagon train of Mormon pioneers through the wilderness to what would become Utah territory. Well, OK, it was in a movie.
Johnson was making reference to his title role in the John Ford classic "Wagon Master" (1950). And today being the 24th of July, it seems an appropriate anecdote.
But there's good news and bad news.
The bad news: "Wagon Master" is not on DVD!
The good news: It's coming to DVD on Sept. 15 — with the film's original poster on the cover, including the ad line: "John Ford's lusty successor to 'Fort Apache' and 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.' "
Well, I don't know how "lusty" it is, but "Wagon Master" is a terrific film. And it is on VHS … if you can find a place that's still renting VHS.
But there are other movies on DVD on the subject of going West, young man (and young woman), and, hopefully, those that follow will help you get into the Pioneer Day spirit, whether that's today or over the weekend or next month. Hey, anytime is a great time to watch a Western.
Actually, considering how many Westerns have been made since the earliest days of cinema — and the fact that "Circle the Wagons!" is among the many stereotypes that linger in the zeitgeist — relatively few are about pioneer treks and wagon trains.
The Western subgenres are many, ranging from cleaning up rough-and-tumble towns to sagas of revenge to range wars to Indian relations to cattle drives to building the railroad to post-Civil War trauma to … well, you name it.
But the prairie schooners that carried these families from the East to the West and their subsequent pioneer settlements are more often peripheral story elements in service of the above named plots.
There are exceptions, though, so here are some that are available on DVD, and which, hopefully, you can find at the home-video rental outlet of your choice.
We'll begin with the Big Daddy of Mormon pioneer pictures, "Brigham Young," or, as the posters billed it, "Brigham Young — Frontiersman ..."
In 1940, "Brigham Young" was a big-budget 20th Century Fox movie that was made with the LDS Church's blessing. (The DVD is loaded with interesting bonus materials on the subject, including BYU archivist James V. D'Arc's fact-filled audio commentary.)
The film begins by depicting persecution in Carthage, Ill., where Joseph Smith (Vincent Price) is railroaded in a kangaroo court, then murdered in his jail cell. But the bulk of the picture focuses on the Mormons' westward trek, led by Smith's successor, Brigham Young (Dean Jagger).
The central characters are actually a Mormon farmer (Tyrone Power) and the non-Mormon woman he loves (Linda Darnell), pitted against a rabble-rousing villain (Brian Donlevy) — fictional characters through whose eyes the narrative unfolds.
In spite of these big stars of the period, Jagger — who would win an Oscar a decade later for "Twelve O'Clock High" — manages to dominate the film with a thoughtful performance, albeit one that has been criticized by some church members as not tough enough.
But I've always found Jagger's natural authoritative demeanor appropriate, along with the way he conveys Brother Brigham's character as faithful and humble, frequently seeking spiritual guidance and always looking for the best in others. (For that matter, I also think Price makes a fine Joseph Smith.)
The film's biggest drawback for the LDS audience is that so much of it simply isn't history. But in the picture's defense let me say — it's a movie! The historically accurate true-story movie is a rare bird.
There are other early-Mormon films, but most are either not on DVD or just too dreadful to list here ("September Dawn," anyone?). So while the rest of these pioneer-movie suggestions have nothing to do with the 40,000 Mormons who migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, they are nonetheless enjoyable depictions of the general westward migration.
"The Covered Wagon" (1923, b&w) opens with a title card: "The blood of America is the blood of pioneers. …" This is a classic silent film, a big-budget production about a variety of colorful characters trekking from Kansas City to Oregon, with about half breaking away to participate in the California Gold Rush. Wonderfully etched, with strong characterizations — and a surprising subplot depicting Indians' concerns about the white man's inroads. (Shades of "Dances With Wolves.")
"Fighting Caravans"/"Wagon Wheels" (1931/1934, b&w). The first film has Gary Cooper as a wanted man who cons his way aboard a wagon train headed for California. The second is a remake with Randolph Scott that reuses footage from the first film. Both are enjoyable character/action pieces with excellent early performances by their respective stars.
"Cimarron" (1931, b&w/1960, color). There are two versions of Edna Ferber's sprawling novel, and both are flawed multigenerational overviews of the growth of the West. But both films are also notable for memorable set-pieces, in particular the Oklahoma land rush sequence. Irene Dunne (in her first lead role) and Richard Dix, who apparently still thinks he's in a silent movie, star in the first version (which won the best-picture Oscar). The second stars Glenn Ford and boasts colorful widescreen panoramas.
"The Oregon Trail" (1939, b&w, 15-chapter serial).This multiple-episode cliffhanger is a great example of what moviegoers saw week after week in theaters, the equivalent of today's serial TV shows. Here, Western star Johnny Mack Brown is hired to find out who's hijacking the wagons headed for Oregon that never make it there. Dated but action-packed.
"Arizona"/"Pioneer Woman" (1940, b&w/1973, color, TV). These two films are unique entries in the pioneer-settler genre in that each is told from a woman's point of view. In the first, Jean Arthur has aspirations of becoming a mogul in freight delivery (when she's not being wooed by William Holden). The second is about Wyoming farmers, with Joanna Pettet in the lead, supported by William Shatner, David Janssen and 10-year-old Helen Hunt (in her film debut).
"Bend of the River" (1952, color) is one of several fine Westerns on which James Stewart and director Anthony Mann collaborated in the '50s, this one with Stewart as a criminal-turned-trail scout whose wagon train is plundered by his former partner. Tough characterizations from an excellent cast (including young Rock Hudson).
"The Last Wagon" (1956, color) has Richard Widmark as a prisoner who survives a wagon-train massacre and leads the rest of the trek to safety. That nutshell description of the plot, however, doesn't begin to describe how well crafted this colorful CinemaScope effort really is, with its particular attention to period detail and scenic vistas.
"Wagon Train" (1957-65, b&w and color, TV). Episodes from this beloved, long-running series are on several DVD collections. Ward Bond and later John McIntire star as a wagon master to a train headed West, with weekly guest stars as pioneers. (The experimental seventh season is in color and expanded episodes from an hour to 90 minutes, which are collected in "Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season.")
"The Twilight Zone: A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" (1961, b&w, TV Season 2). Not strictly a trek story, this half-hour drama written by Rod Serling has a wagon train foundering in the New Mexico desert when its leader (Cliff Robertson) crosses over a ridge and finds himself 100 years in the future. He's befuddled, as are the modern-day folk he encounters, but in the end a purpose is fulfilled and he returns to his fellow pioneers.
"How the West Was Won" (1962, color). This episodic Cinerama epic opens with a compelling story of immigrants and the difficulties faced in travel through uncharted territories, and there are many more stories to come in the highly entertaining 21/2-hour running time, with an all-star cast ranging from James Stewart to Debbie Reynolds to Gregory Peck and many more.
"The Way West" (1967, color) is a sweeping, visually impressive adaptation of the A.B. Guthrie Jr. novel, and the film pays attention to the details, from oxen and mules pulling wagons to the way items of great value are discarded to lighten the load. There's also an all-star cast, led by Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark (and including Sally Field in her first movie). But a weak script and stolid direction undermine its best intentions.
"The Twilight Zone: A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" (1961, b&w, TV Season 2). Not strictly a trek story, this half-hour drama written by Rod Serling has a wagon train foundering in the New Mexico desert when its leader (Cliff Robertson) crosses over a ridge and finds himself 100 years in the future. He's befuddled, as are the modern-day folk he encounters, but in the end a purpose is fulfilled and he returns to his fellow pioneers.
"How the West Was Won" (1962, color). This episodic Cinerama epic opens with a compelling story of immigrants and the difficulties faced in travel through uncharted territories, and there are many more stories to come in the highly entertaining 21/2-hour running time, with an all-star cast ranging from James Stewart to Debbie Reynolds to Gregory Peck and many more.
"The Way West" (1967, color) is a sweeping, visually impressive adaptation of the A.B. Guthrie Jr. novel, and the film pays attention to the details, from oxen and mules pulling wagons to the way items of great value are discarded to lighten the load. There's also an all-star cast, led by Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark (and including Sally Field in her first movie). But a weak script and stolid direction undermine its best intentions.
"Seven Alone" (1975, color). It's easy to carp about this low-budget effort's amateurish aspects, but the film remains a fairly enjoyable true story about a family traveling with a wagon train from Missouri to Oregon when the parents die en route, leaving their brood on their own. The other adult travelers try to send them back, but, led by the oldest (he's 13!), the youngsters are determined to fulfill their parents' dream of a new life in a new land.
"Centennial" (1978, color, TV). The first few episodes of this sprawling miniseries (which covers some 200 years) focus on the early encroachment of white men on Indian lands as the movement West began in earnest, and it's every bit as compelling as the best big-screen movies. Fur trappers and Indians are not exactly pioneer settlers as we think of them, but this is an excellent look at the changing territories and it unfolds in a most compelling way, with wonderful location footage and a first-rate all-star cast (initially led by Richard Chamberlain and Robert Conrad).
e-mail: [email protected]