eShop USA > VHS > Big Trail
Big Trail
List Price: $6.98Price: $4.86 You Save: $2.12 (30%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301798662
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Special Edition, NTSC
ISBN: 630179866X
Label: 20th Century Fox
Languages: English (Original Language),
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: May 20, 2003
Running Time: 110 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: November 01, 1930
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:
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
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Grand!
Much better than the full frame format edition. The wide screen really brings the scenery into play. The quality of the transfer is superb also.
Rating: - John Waynes first star movie
Having seen "The Big Trail" on tape previously, it was great to see it remastered in it's original format of 70mm (one of the first wide screen movies) and for saying it was one of the very early sound movies - 1930 it was ahead of it's time. I thought for this movie you could see the potential was there for John Wayne in times to come.
The quality of the picture and the sound were greatly improved, the storyline was good with a great supporting cast and what's more with the 2 disc set you ... Read More
Rating: - Years Ahead Of Its Time: An Iconic Epic That Expounds "Manifest Destiny" And Other Template Themes Of Post Silent Westerns
This review is for "The Big Trail" (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
PLEASE NOTE THAT ONCE AGAIN AMAZON HAS LUMPED REVIEWS FOR ALL VERSIONS OF "THE BIG TRAIL," THUS DENIGRATING THIS DVD VERSION!!!
I am baffled as to why reviewers have given the restored 70mm (wide screen) version of "The Big Trail" anything but five stars. As other reviews have indicated, the film was made on the cusp of "talkie" movies and the innovation of William Fox's 70mm The Grandeur Process that would ... Read More
Rating: - "The Big Trail" is HUGE!
"The Big Trail" (Fox, 1930) is one fine Western. With John Wayne in his first starring role, this film is eminently enjoyable. Filmed in both 70mm (Fox Grandeur) and standard 35mm, the widescreen version is the better of the two. It really captures the scope of the scenery and the interactions of the actors. It was the first sound film made entirely on location, in six states covering some 4,000 miles.
The acting is very good, with Tyrone Power, Sr. a standout as the villain. (This was ... Read More
Rating: - Thanks to Fox for this Widescreen release
Fox deserves much credit for releasing "The Big Trail" on DVD in its original 70mm widescreen format. The film is clearly best viewed in this format, as director Raoul Walsh composed every shot with seemingly hundreds of extras and animals milling about in the background to give a real sense of what it was like to be involved in the move westward.
The film itself is a truly big epic, and is of historical interest for a number reasons, not least of which is the first starring appearance ... Read More
Related Categories:
|
![Terminal Rush [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NSPXDZD9L._SL75_.jpg
)
![Markus Imhoof Collection 4-DVD Boxset (Das Boot ist voll) (The Boat Is Full) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31wcQkV1z8L._SL75_.jpg
)
