The Way West is a 1967 American western film based on the
Pulitzer Prize winning novel by A. B. Guthrie, Jr..
The film stars Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark,
and features Sally Field in her first major film role.
The film was directed by veteran television director
Andrew V. McLaglen and featured on-location cinematography by William H. Clothier.
Production
The film is notable for being the first big-budget western since
1930's widescreen John Wayne spectacle The Big Trail,
to show pioneers lowering a wagon train over a cliff with ropes.
This was the first time that Mitchum and Douglas appeared
in a film together since Out of the Past in 1947.
Douglas had previously filmed another A.B. Guthrie novel, The Big Sky.
The movie stars Duke's, 'Pals, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark
and also features Jack Elam, Harry Carey Jr.,John Mitchum
Directed by 'Pal' Andrew V. McLaglen and cinematography by William H. Clothier
User Review
Wagon train western you can practically follow with a check-list...
6 May 2009 | by moonspinner55 (las vegas, nv)
In 1843 Missouri, hot-headed senator Kirk Douglas leads a large group of chosen people across rugged terrain to start "a new Jerusalem" in Oregon; he picks a half-blind pioneer scout (mourning the death of his Indian wife!) to help lead them, but immediately clashes with a family man over incidental matters; meanwhile, a sex-starved teenage girl has a fling with a married man, resulting in personal tragedy and an Indian attack (don't ask). A small pox outbreak is falsely reported, there's a wedding, a frigid woman goes insane, and the trail comes to an end at the Grand Canyon. A.B. Guthrie, Jr.'s book becomes somewhat besotted western epic with star-names, mixing vulgar jokes and inanities with ripe old clichés. A voice-over narration and a patriotic song come clean out of nowhere, while snarling Douglas blames himself for a death and asks a servant to whip him.
It's cheap and low-brow all the way, but most viewers in the mood for a picture such as this probably won't be disappointed. There are some solid elements worth mentioning: William H. Clothier's outdoor cinematography is fine in the old-fashioned sense; and, although Bronislau Kaper whips up a dusty frenzy with his ridiculous score, the pacing is jaunty throughout and the wagons roll along at a fast clip. Douglas and Richard Widmark manage to retain their movie star allure, though Robert Mitchum was looking haggard by this time (and his performance is intentionally forgettable--he cancels out all his interest in the proceedings with one heavy sigh). Sally Field makes an inauspicious movie debut which I'm fairly certain she'd rather forget, but Lola Albright has a pleasing smile and Michael Witney does well as the handsome married man who can't get his wife to submit...but why does he shoot blindly into a rustling bush at night when it could have been his wife spying on him? Perhaps he was hoping it was! **1/2 from ****