By 1930, Fox had already conquered making sound movies outdoors due to being an early adopter of sound on film versus sound on disc. Next they tried their hand at widescreen films. Known as 70mm Grandeur, Fox shot three films in this process, this film and two musicals - The Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Happy Days (1929). The process was successful, the business end of their widescreen process was not. Due to the Great Depression, theaters could not afford to install the equipment necessary to show films in the Grandeur process. It's interesting to note that if sound itself had come into feature films in 1929 rather than 1927, that silent films would probably have been the majority of films made until 1940 for this same reason.

The Big Trail itself is a wonderfully modern-seeming western compared to other entries of the early sound era. It has an air of authenticity about it, as there is almost a documentary feel of the film in its depiction of harsh life on the Oregon Trail. Finally, there is the reason most people view this film - the birth of John Wayne's cowboy persona, not a cartoon character with either a black or white hat as many actors in the early westerns were, but a character of flesh and blood whose motivations you could understand and empathize with. Also note the presence of Ward Bond in a supporting role who, along with John Wayne, was a staple of the later John Ford westerns.

Despite its technical beauty and the presence of John Wayne, this film flopped at the box office. John Wayne went back into obscurity and did not emerge again until nine years later in "Stagecoach", where he played a part very similar to the one he plays here.

I find this to be an interesting movie in John Wayne's filmography. Prior to this, his nearly two dozen appearances in pictures were virtually all uncredited, and here he gets the lead in a Raoul Walsh Western. It's basically a B Western, but elevated to A status by virtue of it's length and technically, it's quite good. The story is decent, and considering the fact that Wayne did nearly sixty more films before his big breakout in "Stagecoach", you might get to wondering why it took so long. It's a lot better than a good portion of his output from Mascot, Lone Star and New Republic, and positions Wayne as a worthy leading man right from the get go.

The story of "The Big Trail" has Wayne's character, Breck Coleman, serving in the capacity of a scout for a wagon train led by an ornery, grizzled white renegade named Red Flack. Flack is portrayed by Tyrone Power Sr., looking nothing like his dashing son, in fact, one would never make the connection that the two were even related. As wagon master, Flack is assisted by a pair of villains going by Lopez (Charles Stevens) and Bill Thorpe (Ian Keith). Thorpe has his eye on pretty gal pioneer Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill), but so does Breck, which means that ultimately, Thorpe doesn't stand a chance, and if you see the picture, you'll know that it's in more ways than one.

The sight of an Indian character in the story named Eagle Face (Chief John Big Tree) had me doing a double take, as it looked like his visage could have been the model for the Indian head nickel. With a little research you'll find that the Chief did claim to be the model for the coin designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser, but upon his death, the U.S. Mint stated that he most likely was not one of the models for the nickel. The profile on the nickel was a composite of several Native Americans, according to Fraser. But his likeness sure comes close if you see him in this film.

More than anything, the story here reveals the innumerable hardships suffered by pioneers crossing the Great Plains in order to find a new life. There are scenes of getting stuck in a muddy river during a rain storm, a terrible snow fall that obliterates the landscape, and in a scene I've only seen once before (and I can't remember the picture), the settlers have to lower their prairie schooners and the animals driving them down the face of a sheer cliff using only ropes for harness. During an impressive Indian attack, scared, crying kids huddle together for dear life, something you just don't see in your average Western, making this a somewhat unique experience. You watch those scenes and you can only marvel at the endurance and spirit the early pioneers had to have to achieve an objective they held dear.

With the film's release in 1930, you can still note vestiges of the silent film format as scenes transition via the use of title cards, but quite honestly, they probably weren't necessary except for the director to make specific points about the spirit of these early travelers. As for John Wayne, he gets to make an impressive speech in the latter part of the story when it looks like the pioneers are about to give up during a particularly bad passage. It would presage a lot of his more famous roles in which he leads men to victory in subsequent Westerns and war films. One thing does stand out that would become a hallmark for his early and mid Thirties movies to follow. In them just as he does here, Wayne's character wins the picture's leading lady, and closes out the story with a kiss and a clinch.

My giving this film a score of 8 is relative to other feature-length films from 1930. By the standards of films made just a few years later, this film might receive a score of only 6 or 7--mostly because the sound quality was so poor. Now it is possible that the film sounded better and the Fox Movie Channel did show a degraded print (it DID have a lot of lines and scratches), but I assume the sound problem was always an issue. That's because sound in movies was still a novelty in 1930 and many of the Hollywood talking pictures of 1930 sounded terrible--with background characters often drowning out the leads, characters huddled together to make sure they are picked up by the microphones or inconsistent quality (such as what was seen in THE BISHOP MURDER CASE, HELL'S ANGELS and other films of the day). This was all made much worse in THE BIG TRAIL because most of the film was shot outside--something unheard of at the time. Quite an innovation but also something that really stretched the talents of the sound technicians! So, while the film was very hard to listen to, I realize that they had to start somewhere, so I can forgive this--especially since the outdoor scenes are breathtaking--a major innovation for 1930.

The plot is rather similar to CIMARRON--a Western that came out the following year and which captured the Oscar for Best Picture. Unfortunately, CIMARRON isn't all that great a film and I actually like THE BIG TRAIL more due to the scope of the film. While some might balk at THE BIG TRAIL's slow-moving pace, I saw it as a great history lesson about the hardships endured by those traveling West on wagon trains. Plus, the whole thing just looked so beautiful, as director Raoul Walsh went to significant trouble to film on location and THE BIG TRAIL looks almost like a film version of some Ansel Adams prints.

As for the acting, it was pretty good. This was a major break for young John Wayne--as his previous screen appearances were, at best, minor and unremarkable. Here, he was given the lead and did a dandy job--though he was obviously young and a little less "John Wayne-ish" than he was in later films, as his screen persona was not yet firmly established. Another interesting part was played by Tyrone Power II (Tyrone Power's father). He looked nothing like his extremely handsome son and looked and sounded almost exactly like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons! He made very few sound films--dying just a year after making this film--so it's a rare opportunity to see and hear this once famous actor.

Overall, the film is well worth seeing despite some sound problems and a few overly long scenes here and there. For 1930, it was a remarkable achievement--more so than the much more famous and award-winning CIMARRON made the following year. Much of the reason THE BIG TRAIL didn't win an Oscar most likely was because ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT came out the same year and it is truly one of the great films.