Editing How the West Was Won (film) (section)

==Production==
===Development===
MGM had enjoyed a great success with the big screen remake of ''[[Ben-Hur (1959 film)|Ben-Hur]]'' (1959) and initiated a number of spectacles, including remakes of ''[[Cimarron (1960 film)|Cimarron]]'', ''[[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film)|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)|Mutiny on the Bounty]]''.<ref>{{cite news|author=Scheuer, P.K. |date=July 7, 1960|title=Five pictures put on Bresler's S1ate|work= Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|167665329}}}}</ref>

In 1960, MGM struck a deal to produce four films in the [[Cinerama]] process, and [[Bing Crosby]] approached the studio with a proposition. He was developing a television spectacular called ''How the West Was Won'' based on photographs of the Old West in ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'', with profits earmarked for St. John's Hospital, along with [[How the West Was Won (Bing Crosby album)|an album inspired by the same article]] recorded with [[Rosemary Clooney]]. MGM purchased the film rights from Crosby.<ref name="new" />

MGM announced the project in June 1960, originally titled ''The Great Western Story''. The plan was to film a story of six segments featuring 12 stars, with a cohesive overall storyline. Among the historical figures to be featured were [[Buffalo Bill]], the [[James brothers]] and [[Billy the Kid]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=PUTTING THE OLD WEST ON NEW DISKS|author=R.S.|date=July 24, 1960|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|115179286}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Screen news and notes. |date=June 21, 1960|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|114942098}}}}</ref> St. John's Hospital president [[Irene Dunne]] and others persuaded the film's stars to accept less than their usual fees. However, the hospital later sued for a share of the film's profits.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Hopper, Hedda|title=Illness Will Force Decision on 'Hush': Picture May Be Called Off; Loretta Young Refuses Lead|date=August 7, 1964|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

Bernard Smith was assigned as producer, and he hired James Webb to write the script.<ref name="new" /> [[George Peppard]] was announced as the lead in October 1960, and [[Irene Dunne]] and [[Bing Crosby]] were originally announced as stars.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Hopper, H.|title=Metro sets three cinerama movies.|date=October 1, 1960|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|167807467}}}}</ref> [[Laurence Harvey]] and [[John Wayne]] were also slated to appear in one sequence together.<ref>{{Cite news|title=VIEW FROM A LOCAL VANTAGE POINT|author=A.H. WEILER.|date=March 5, 1961|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|115302712}}}}</ref> ''Filmink'' commented Peppard "carries the last three-fifths" of the film, adding "if anyone is the leading man of that movie, it's him."<ref name="pep">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|date=29 December 2024|access-date=29 December 2024|title=Movie Star Cold Streaks: George Peppard|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/movie-star-cold-streaks-george-peppard/}}</ref>

By April 1961, Wayne and Spencer Tracy had confirmed their plans to play Generals [[William Tecumseh Sherman|Sherman]] and [[Ulysses S. Grant|Grant]] for a segment directed by John Ford, and James Stewart had been signed as well.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Hopper, H.|title=Looking at Hollywood.|date=April 21, 1961|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|id={{ProQuest|182872487}}}}</ref> Other roles would go to [[Gregory Peck]], [[Debbie Reynolds]], [[Russ Tamblyn]] and [[Carroll Baker]], while [[Henry Hathaway]] and [[George Marshall (director)|George Marshall]] would also direct from a script by James Webb. Crosby was scheduled to provide narration.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Scheuer, P.K. |date=April 28, 1961|title=Big-names roster in 'west' growing|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|167862019}}}}</ref> [[Jim Hutton]] was intended to appear in the Civil War segment.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Hopper, H.|title=Entertainment.|date=May 6, 1961|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|167896026}}}}</ref> Eventually, Harry Morgan appeared as Grant when Tracy was unavailable.

Ultimately, the film contained five sections: the 1830s westward migration, the 1849 California gold rush, the Civil War, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and the "taming" of the Wild West, with one family's story over three generations providing the bridge between each time period. The budget was set to at least $8 million. John Ford directed the Civil War segment, George Marshall the railroad segment and Henry Hathaway the rest.<ref name="new">{{Cite news|title=HOLLYWOOD EPIC|author=MURRAY, S. H.|date=May 21, 1961|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|115262156}}}}</ref> "We wanted three old pros, no young geniuses," said Smith.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Scheuer, P. K.|title=Hollywood unlimbers big guns to win west.|date=September 3, 1961|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|167896925}}}}</ref>

===Cinerama===
''How the West Was Won'' was one of only two dramatic feature films (along with ''[[The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm]]'') produced with the three-strip [[Cinerama]] process. Although the picture quality when projected onto curved screens in theaters is stunning, attempts to convert the film to a smaller screen suffer. When the film is projected in [[letterbox (filming)|letterbox]] format, the actors' faces are nearly indistinguishable in long shots.

[[File:Westwon trailer Fonda.png|thumb|left|300px|[[Henry Fonda]] as a [[bison hunting|buffalo hunter]]]]

===Shooting===
Filming started in May 1961 by John Ford in [[Paducah, Kentucky]]. Producer Bernard Smith said, "It is essential for our purposes that virtually the whole movie be shot outdoors. Throughout the movie, one of the basic themes is to show little people against a vast country – huge deserts, endless plains, towering mountains, broad rivers. We want to capture the spirit of adventure, the restless spirit that led these men and women across the country in [the] face of many difficulties and dangers."<ref name="new2" />

After Ford finished his segment, Hathaway took over on location.<ref name="new2">{{Cite news|title=OUT 'WEST' IN CINERAMA|author=HOWARD, T. P.|date=June 18, 1961|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|115280725}}}}</ref> Hathaway called Ford's segment "a little stagey".<ref name="hen">{{cite magazine|magazine=Take One|first=Scott|last=Eyman|title='I made movies' an interview with Henry Hathaway|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_take-one_september-october-1974_5_1/page/8/mode/1up|date=September–October 1974|page=12}}</ref>

Parts of the film were shot in [[Oljato–Monument Valley, Utah|Monument Valley, Utah]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=D'Arc|first1=James V.|title=When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah|date=2010|publisher=Gibbs Smith|location=Layton, Utah|isbn=978-1-4236-0587-4|edition=1st}}</ref> and in [[Wildwood Regional Park]] in [[Thousand Oaks, California]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vcstar.com/news/local/conejo-valley/locally-filmed-westerns-butch-cassidy-gunsmoke-part-of-conejo-film-fest-ep-1367023848-351101171.html|title=Locally filmed Westerns 'Butch Cassidy,' 'Gunsmoke' part of Conejo film fest|website=www.vcstar.com|access-date=March 3, 2019|archive-date=February 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206035407/http://www.vcstar.com/news/local/conejo-valley/locally-filmed-westerns-butch-cassidy-gunsmoke-part-of-conejo-film-fest-ep-1367023848-351101171.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.toacorn.com/articles/conejo-film-fest-highlights-westerns/|title=Conejo film fest highlights Westerns|date=November 12, 2015|website=Thousand Oaks Acorn}}</ref>

Ford complained about having to dress such huge sets, as Cinerama photographed a much wider view than did the standard single-camera process to which Hollywood directors were accustomed. Director Henry Hathaway was quoted as saying, "That Goddamned Cinerama; do you know a waist shot is as close as you can get with that thing?"<ref name="Take One 1976 p. 11">{{cite book | title=Take One | publisher=Unicorn Pub. | issue=v. 5 | year=1976 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpYHAQAAIAAJ | access-date=September 14, 2018 | page=11|quote=That Goddamned Cinerama; do you know that a waist shot is as close as you can get with that thing?}}</ref>

A more difficult problem was that filming required that the actors be artificially positioned out of dramatic and emotional frame and out of synchronization with one another. Only when the three-print Cinerama process was projected upon a Cinerama screen did the positions and emotions of the actors synchronize, such as normal eye contact or emotional harmony between actors in a dramatic sequence. Because of the nature of Cinerama, if the film were shown in flat-screen projection, it would appear as if the actors made no eye contact. One brief scene of Mexican soldiers was sourced by John Wayne from his [[The Alamo (1960 film)|1960 version]] of ''The Alamo''.

Stuntman Bob Morgan, husband of [[Yvonne De Carlo]], was seriously injured and lost a leg during a break in filming a gunfight on a moving train while filming the Outlaws portion. Chains holding logs on a flatbed car broke, crushing Morgan as he crouched beside them.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/westwon.htm |title=How the West Was Won |date=August 19, 2007 |publisher=Snopes.com |access-date=May 14, 2014}}</ref>

In a scene in which George Peppard's character reminisces about his late father, Peppard improvises with an imitation of James Stewart's voice. Ford initially objected, but Peppard felt that it was important in such a long, sprawling film to remind the audience which character his father was supposed to be.

Hathaway later said that making the film was "goddam trouble. They had an idiot for a producer and [[Sol Siegel]] was drunk most of the time. We spent so much money on the picture they almost decided not to do the last part. We had a meeting, and I said, 'You can't quit. You've got to show how the West was won. The West was won when the law took over'."<ref>{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Ronald L.|page=[https://archive.org/details/justmakingmovies00davi/page/150 150]|title=Just Making Movies|url=https://archive.org/details/justmakingmovies00davi|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=9781578066902 }}</ref>

===Post-production===
Filming was completed in January 1962. After the film was shot, MGM ordered a new ending that resolved the family story, which caused shooting to continue for another month and included George Peppard and Debbie Reynolds.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Hopper, H.|title=Looking at hollywood.|date=February 14, 1962|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|id={{ProQuest|183099736}}}}</ref> The budget eventually reached $12 million.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Staff Reporter |date=April 9, 1962|title=MGM and cinerama to release first joint movie this summer.|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|id={{ProQuest|132751362}}}}</ref>

For "The Civil War" segment, footage from MGM's 1957 film ''[[Raintree County (film)|Raintree County]]'' of the Civil War [[Battle of Chickamauga]] were used for combat scenes during the day, as the scenes with Peppard, Tamblyn, Wayne, and Morgan were all at night. A brief shot of a steamboat going down a river (seen during the end of the Plains Segment) is also used from ''Raintree County''.

For "The Railroad" segment, a subplot was cut featuring [[Hope Lange]] as Stuart's daughter, Julie, who becomes involved in a love triangle with Zeb and King; she ultimately marries and abandons Zeb.<ref name="Pylant, James 2012 p. 116"/><ref name="daveswarbirds.com"/>

The film later inspired a [[How the West Was Won (TV series)|television series of the same name]].