Brenda
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Volker Scheunert
I've seen this film two or three times. I loved to see these courageous and valiant women fighting their way through the West (crossing mountains and deserts and fighting off hostile Indians). One of my favorite moments is the fight between two girls, after one has broken the other's glasses. No rolling on the floor screaming, scratching and pulling each others hair - no, THESE girls use their fists and give each other many a punch in the mouth. Hope Emerson does a great job, too. Oh yes, and Robert Taylor was also in it! O.K., that was a joke, Taylor is quite good as the Scout, who has to guide the women to California, but these women are the real stars of this film!
rachell_benson
One of my favorite movies that I've watched many, many times. The women fervently desire to better their lives by leaving (sometimes) sordid lives in Chicago. On the wagon train trip they find inner strengths to conquer Indian raids, the Rocky Mountains, and the Death Valley desert on their way to the "land of plenty" in California to marry men whose photos they chose from a bulletin board back in Chicago.My only negative is one comment about how the story line was developed: Why in the world would the writer have the women risk their lives dragging all their "stuff" in the wagons across the plains and up and down through the Rocky Mountains only to have to leave it beside the trail when they entered the desert??? But I also absolutely LOVE the ending.
silverscreen888
This is one of the few feature narratives in U.S. cinema about females primarily, that takes place in a wilderness setting. Yet its ethical central character is a veteran scout, one who takes on the job of leading a wagon train predominantly manned by females emigrants across the length of the wagon road West. it is relatively well-acted, shot very much in suitable outdoor locations. It is a gritty B/W drama with some of the densest B/W contrast in daylight ever achieved on film. Adventurer, flier and veteran director William A. Wellman has achieved virtues like this in other films; some, myself included, regard this as one of his best directorial achievements. The story begins with John Mcintire asking Robert Taylor as the scout to lead the women who have signed up as wives, to those men working on his holdings, across the country. Taylor does not believe the feat can be performed; he knows the route better than anyone. But he accepts the job and being the sort of man he is--honest and fearless--he does not promise results, only to do what he can... The man who hires him knows him well enough to figure that will be the best effort he can mount. When he arrives among his new charges in the East, he finds them naive, a bit apprehensive in some cases but determined. Some can shoot; and all are resolute. What later US victims of public-corporate bureaucratic imperialism forget is that those who went West in the 19th century were seeking something and running away from something at the same time. What united those who trekked West was "greed'--"an inordinate desire for something"; something they wanted that the ordinary run of folks either did not want or would not risk enough to set at the forefront of their life's interests. They wanted to make a new life in a new zone, yes; but they also wanted to escape the pseudo-Christian and statist restrictions, bad government and controls of a denigrating society first under the Whigs and then under the racist so-called Progressives and republicans. Taylor does lead the train forward. The female pioneers encounter bad terrain, drought, dust, physical hardships, disease, Indians, accidents, weather and doubt. One Italian woman's son dies; a baby is born. The women disobey, have to be disciplined, one is raped, by one of the few men accompanying the train; others battle, grow weary or get frustrated or have their very sanity threatened. One of the high moments of artistry in the film occurs after the women have fought off an Indian attack, as the women call out the names of their dead to their wagon-boss, as we see one by one the victims of this cruel fortune, who had come so far only to die in the middle of nowhere. But the crisis is worth the journey and its hardships, we are shown. At the last, the women refuse to go forward until they can wash, dress, and prepare to meet the husbands they have never seen before. By this time, Taylor himself has fallen in love with rebellious Denise Darcel, and they join the line of those going up to the preacher to be married. In the large cast besides the three stars, Hope Emerson is an award-worthy standout. Fine actress Julie Bishop, Henry Nakamure as Taylor's aide, Renata Vanni, Lenore Lonergan, Marilyn Erskine and Beverly Dennis have the largest roles. The others are mostly unknown, except for Claire Carleton, George Chandler and Mikel Conrad. There is hardly any music except at the end and the beginning. William C. Mellor provided the excellent stark cinematography. the art direction was by Daniel B. Cathcart and the great Cedric Gibbons, set decorations by Edwin B. Willis and Ralph S. Hurst, the costumes, which were most suitable, by Walter Plunkett. This is an unusual and moving production in my view; a classic and an often--imitated film, ever since it was first presented on-screen. The script developed from a Frank Capra story idea by Charles Schneer is all-the-more-amazing since it was produced in a country bigoted against female equality, heroic qualities and rights from its supposedly-individualist beginnings due to pseudo-Christian misgivings about the wisdom of admitting half of humanity to human status.
