Year of Release: 1930Country of Origin: USA
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, El Brendel, Tully Marshall, Tyrone Power Sr.
Plot outline: Breck leads a wagon train of pioneers through Indian attack, storms, deserts, swollen rivers, down cliffs and so on while looking for the murder of a trapper and falling in love with Ruth (IMDb).
The Big Trail is notable as John Wayne’s first starring role. While he radiates charisma, Wayne performance unfortunately feels wooden. His character talks too much and acts too little, a far cry from the laconic persona he would refine over the next nine years and bring to bear in the superior Stagecoach (1939). Still, Wayne’s performance in many ways mirrors the entire production, full of potential, but ultimately uneven. The Big Trail is a movie brimming with realism. The clothes, the equipment, everything is well researched. Throw in some jaw-dropping visuals, such as hundreds of settlers lowering their wagons by rope down the side of a cliff, or driving through a huge rushing river during a rain storm, and even Lawrence of Arabia (1962) can’t match its level of epic filmmaking. Unfortunately, the characters themselves seem to get lost amidst the spectacle. The cookie-cutter roles are almost universally forgettable, and the dialog comes across as awkward and stilted. While Wayne appears quite confident despite the size of the production and his relative inexperience, he’s not yet able to single-handedly carry a picture the way he could later in his career. (FML)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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