what some mistake for stilted dialog and or or dismiss a archetypal characterization accurately represent how people talk and live and be before world war ii and let alone in whatever year the big trail represent on film . the movie take my breath away the first time i saw it year ago . read the board here help me understand why it miss at the box office and why movie goer get the benefit of wayne in b western for another ten year . wayne be in my opinion well in the big trail and the year of b than most of his star turn after 1939 with ford incredible cavalry trilogy and true grit and the shootist be big time exception . what a shame theater miss the boat on this in 1930. have this movie hit we might have enjoy more movie with more realism and less hokum . in my opinion this be not only one of the fine western ever film with accurate dialog and accurate character realization and but among the fine representation of a passage of any kind ever put on film . it still take my breath away . especially the dialog and accurate characterization of type that simply do not exist any more . some celebrate the surface homogenization of our culture that in fact hide the large cultural degradation ( into people like u and people like them ) and political divide ( corporatist vs main streetists ) in u history and but for me the big trail represent a time when our surface difference be more obvious but underneath them most folk want to work out the nation failure and most folk aspire to build a great culture and a great nation . the big trail be an epic of the melt pot in motion toward the american dream . certainly the fine film on that path i ever saw . that subject ever film .