How the West Was Won

Sprawling epic which follows the Prescotts, an emigrant family through four generations, from the Erie Canal in the 1830's to their settled home in the West a half a century later. On the way they encounter river pirates, and escape with the help of fur trapper Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who subsequently marries one of their daughters, Eve (Carroll Baker).

The parents are drowned on a foundering raft, and the other daughter Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) becomes a riverboat singer and catches the eye of a genteel adventurer Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck). They cross the plains together in a wagon train and make and lose a fortune in California; meanwhile Linus has turned farmer and, comes the Civil War, joins the Union Army and is killed at the Battle of Shiloh. One of his sons Zeb (George Peppard) also joins the army and stays after the war as a cavalry officer and is sent to Colorado to help guard the pioneering railroad against the Indians, whose land they are crossing.

By this time Lilith is the elderly lady of the family, having survived long enough to see the dream of settlement realized, but not, mercifully, the aerial shots of the Los Angeles freeway traffic with which the film ends.

The fifty years of American westward expansion between the 1830s and 1880s are viewed through the experiences of the Prescott and Rawlings families, as they migrate by the Erie Canal, continue over the prairies from St. Louis during the California gold rush, suffer through the Civil War, and finally help build the railroads on the plains and bring law and justice to the frontier. Along the way they meet mountain men, journey by wagon train, deal with Native Americans, and face outlaws in the southwest.

Great Film. I was watching it in MGM channel. i see how american cowboys kicked the red indians asses. they fought bravely and john wayne is one of the finest actors also one of my favorites.

i am also a movie fan.

I love the classic movies. makes sense and reality. those are the golden eras of the hollywood.

Charles bronson, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, David Nieven. popular names in the hollywood. Sal Mineo.

those are the golden eras of the Hollywood.

if i can id like to travel back in time to meet Mr Superman (Christopher Reed) rest in piece.

Those are really my favorite icons in film industry.