Classic Movie History Lesson: How the West Was Won

I've been isolating in the house due to a bout with COVID and everyone else took all the streaming devices so I'm stuck watching broadcast television. Luckily, my cheap little antenna picks up the Movies! network where they're constantly showing good, but not too good old movies. Today I watched a film I hadn't seen before: How the West Was Won.

This isn't the kind of movie I would typically watch. I like musicals and comedies and dreamy leading men. But I was drawn in by the cast featuring Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Gregory Peck and many others. It's another one in that special genre where they packed in as many stars as humanly possible, leading to a very long movie in an effort to give everyone an appropriate amount of screen time.

It follows a family, and maybe some random other unrelated people, through the ups and downs of life in the west throughout the generations--finding husbands, the civil war, building railroads, finding husbands, fighting Indians, digging for gold, finding more husbands--all of the drama I'm sure actually came with life in the wild west.

Thelma Ritter appears for a hot second and, as one would expect, steals the show. Her and Debbie Reynold's usual spunky self make for a lot of fun as they travel west and look for husbands and money. I'm still a little upset that Debbie Reynolds did not choose to marry Robert Preston. He was clearly the more stable choice over gambling Gregory Peck!

As you can see, the quasi-romance provided the most entertainment for me. To be honest, I kind of stopped paying attention to the parts with wars and fighting Indians and trains and fighting on trains which made up the last half of the movie.

All in all if you like westerns, lots of random movie stars, and movies that attempt to teach you some history, this is a great option!