Two wagon caravans converge at what is now Kansas City, and combine for the westward push to Oregon. On their quest the pilgrims will experience desert heat, mountain snow, hunger, and Indian attack. To complicate matters further, a love triangle develops, as pretty Molly must chose between Sam, a brute, and Will, the dashing captain of the other caravan. Can Will overcome the skeleton in his closet and win Molly's heart?
Os Bandeirantes, I pionieri, Die Karawane, La Caravane vers l'Ouest, A Caravana Gloriosa, 篷车队
USANR
USA
THE archetypal Western, afaict, that set the genre's narrative focus and thematics for decades to come
for better or worse
which makes it one of the key documents of USA's "American Century."
The Western’s Paramount Manifest Destiny
Fellow Letterboxd reviewer Andrew Chrzanowski does an annual “March to the West” where he watches a bunch of Westerns during the month, and I nudged him over the absence of silent films on his list this year. Well, not desiring to be hypocritical, then, I decided to saddle up and watch at least one myself this month, and here it is, “The Covered Wagon,” the KinoLorber Blu-ray of which has been sitting on my shelf for too long by now.
It may be one of the most influential films ever made, credited as it is with reviving the Western genre and, perhaps, epics in general in Hollywood due to its wild success, bridging the gap…
63/100
Not too familiar with westerns in general but this one is pretty solid and it seemed like a work that helped shaping up the genre for years to come. The story is pretty decent, the scope is quite epic, the performances are good and it's shot very well. It maintains a good rhythm throughout and managed to produce some moments of excitement. Solid film.
The western had been a genre staple before genre cinema was even a thing, so it's surprising how long it actually took for Hollywood to realise the potential it held for feature length epics.
James Cruze employs the framings and shot structure of Griffith, a style that is both stately and grand but also entirely ancient to modern eyes—there's a rigid simplicity that flits between wide vistas and very artificial closeups, anticipating both the formalism of John Ford and the unpretentious directness of Howard Hawks. A lot hasn't aged well, like the overuse of titles cards, heavily made-up actors, the offensive portrayal of Native Americans and so on, but these have to be taken into account with films this old…
I know this has a reputation as something of a museum piece, one of the early stabs at epic western tale, but it is very exciting moving well between the large scale action and the human elements. It compares well with Ford's better known The Iron Horse from the following year, less sweep, but better character work.
THE COVERED WAGON (1923) — James CRUZE
Por João César Monteiro
(O Tempo e o Modo, 1ª série, N⁰27 | Maio de 1965. "Retrospectiva do cinema americano".)
Do cinema, o melhor wagon é o band (Minelli) e o melhor band o à part (Jean-Luc). À parte disso, a cena, toda ela de um espírito hawksiano antes de o ser, da bebedeira dos velhos pioneiros, culminando com o delírio do tiro aos púcaros, é para somar ao resto que se segue:
A importância de The Covered Wagon é a de ter anunciado alguns dos temas fundamentais do western, como o do itinerário de uma civilização de colonos que através de uma natureza rebelde procura estabelecer as fundações de um novo mundo…
Genuinely shocked how much I liked this???? It's a WESTERN from 1923 but for some reason I found it really engaging. There's a well developed ensemble, an interesting story, some really touching emotional beats. It's no wonder this was the highest grossing film of its year lol.
Like THE BIG TRAIL, this production is huge in scale. Covered wagons as far as the eye can see. It’s about a wagon train from Westport to Oregon, and there will be plenty of hardships on the way there. Some will even turn back before the journey really starts.
“Gouge his eyes out!”
Aside from the treacherous landscape, you also have bloody brawls, murder, love triangles, and (understandably) hostile Indians. It’s a lot like THE BIG TRAIL in many aspects.
I grew attached to the characters, setting, and story. I particularly liked the drunken William Tell bit.
It’s a true silent spectacle.
The film manages an epic scale and uses the right amount of production values to follow its ambitions. The story is serviceable enough and while there are some attempts at portraying Native Americans realistically (mostly using actual indigenous people), they still are used simply as an obstacle to overcome. The disregard for the lives of animals is also hard to watch nowadays.
"The men of the plow held their purpose."
This film was the second highest grossing film of 1923, and watching today it's easy to see why, it truly is quite the epic. But it's also quite disjointed and episodic, and despite historically these trips being being a massive ordeal the conflict of the film is really brief and very spread out.
