The Big Trail (1930)
(Raoul Walsh, Louis R. Loeffler, US 1930, 125 min., 35mm)
By the mid-1920s William Fox of the Fox Film Studio was looking for ways to enhance the cinema experience. The first change was adoption of the Fox Movietone Sound System. The second was to be a 70mm process called Fox Grandeur. Very few films were shot in the Grandeur system, and the most popular were shot simultaneously in 35mm. The 70mm negative allowed not only a greater height of image, but also a greater width, resulting in an image that was approximately twice as wide as it was tall. The Museum of Modern Art restored the Grandeur version of The Big Trail to accessible 35mm prints so that its original images can be seen. In the film, John Wayne plays Breck Coleman, a scout who pledges to lead a wagon train from Mississippi over the Oregon Trail to the northwest. The journey is dangerous, as the settlers experience a Buffalo hunt, ford a river, and endure both a snowstorm and a precipitous mountain pass. A rare screening experience for all cinephiles!
Restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from The Film Foundation.