The Big Trail (1930)

 Raoul Walsh's "The Big Trail"

Raoul Walsh's 1930 epic Western, "The Big Trail" takes its cues from a couple of films released in the decade prior. The film shares the same historical tale of 1923's "The Covered Wagon," which recounts Americans in the 19th century traverse the great West in search of land and the western sea border. Despite the shared plot of historical events, "The Big Trail" shares even more in common with John Ford films, specifically his 1924 epic "The Iron Horse." The thematic throughline for "The Iron Horse" centers on the forming of a contemporary America by adventurous and hardworking travelers. These travelers share many differences, and the structure of this film (as well as "The Big Trail") hinges on these varied travelers forming bonds, working out conflicts, and working together for a common widescale goal. These same ideas can be found in much of John Ford's work, even more so in his 1939 masterpiece "Stagecoach." In fact, the original intention by Fox was to have John Ford direct "The Big Trail." However, John Ford handed the reins of the project over to Raoul Walsh, a good friend of his. This is not the only uncanny similarity between "The Big Trail" and the works of John Ford. Firstly, Walsh includes an 'underneath' shot of Native American riding over the camera, a shot made iconic by Ford. Secondly, Walsh's film stars John Wayne, who would go on to be Ford's lead in many of his film.

"The Big Trail" was also an incredibly unique film at the time of its release. It was made during Hollywood's transition to sound pictures. During this time, making films with sound was very difficult, as it required a great deal of proper equipment and curated sets to achieve high-quality sound. Because of this, the decision to make a picture entirely in the great plains of the West, as the entire cast and crew were constantly on the move, was surely a tricky set-up with the new sound production equipment. On top of this, the film was shot in a 70mm format, called "70 mm Grandeur Film." This film format was only used by Fox for a handful of films between 1929 and 1930, with "The Big Trail" being the very last time it was ever used. This widescreen format allowed Walsh to shoot large landscapes, along with 93 actors, 725 Native Americans, 185 wagons, 1,800 cows, 1,400 horses, 500 buffalo, and 700 chickens, pigs, and dogs. This massive cast and crew shot over several different states with this special 70 mm format, over 2,000 miles from California to New Mexico. 

Despite the enormous amount of work the production put into making this film, it ended up being a commercial failure. The primary reason for the film's failure was due to movie theaters across America were not willing to change their screens to accommodate the 70 mm format of the film. The big reason for this unwillingness on the part of the theater owners was the fallouts from the Great Depression. Not only could theater owners not fork over the conversion costs, but audience attendances were in a dramatic decline. Because of this failure, Raoul Walsh found himself unable to shoot many of the big-budget films he was accustomed to, like "The Theif of Bagdad" and "What Price Glory." However, he would find rousing success once again at the end of the 1930s and into the 1940s. John Wayne also felt the repercussions of the film's failure. "The Big Trail" was his first ever leading role in a film and it seems as though his career would be over before it even began. Throughout the 1930s, he would star in B-level Western films. It wasn't until John Ford's 1939 masterpiece "Stagecoach" that revitalized not only John Wayne's career but the Western genre as a whole.