john wayne first star role just blow me away . televised letterbox style on amc and i have to check and make sure i have the right date . sure enough and this 1930 film be make use a 55 mm wide screen process . aside from that and it feature some of the gritty and most realistic footage of the trek west i have see . wagon and men and animal be really lower down a cliff face by rope . tree be chop by burly men and burly woman so the train can move another 10 foot . the indian be not the pretty boy city slicker who portray them later while theyre the real deal . a river crossing in a driving rain storm be so realistic and it have to be real ( in fact and i understand that director raoul walsh nearly lose the entire cast during this sequence ) . i could smell the wet canvas . each day be an agony . the various sub plot be forgettable but the film a a whole be not . i can not think of another title that can beat the big trail in evoke a sense of live history on the trail to oregon . bravo .