HOW THE WEST WAS WON

By rights this star-studded epic should make for painful viewing - 146 minutes of white people congratulating themselves for overcoming adversity in order to create the paradise on earth that is modern day America.

Slavery doesn't get a mention despite the Civil War featuring slam bang in the middle of the period covered, roughly the 1830s to the 1870s.

And although it is acknowledged that the Native Americans might have just the teensy weeniest grounds for complaint, the view of the film, as voiced by one of the more unpleasant characters, seems to be that they were at fault for not learning to adapt.

Three different directors contribute different sections of the film, but none of them manage to stamp any individual style on the material, so you don't notice the joins.

But if you can put these issues, along with the rather bland voice-over commentary, to the back of your mind there are some pleasures to be had, and the commercial success of the film is not completely unwarranted.

It's visually impressive, and there are all those big name actors to look out for, even if two of the biggest (John Wayne and Henry Fonda) have roles that don't allow them much chance to shine.

The screenplay, which won an Oscar, does a decent job of weaving the different episodes together, by following the fortunes of a few interrelated characters. 

We get off to a dodgy start, with Jimmy Stewart playing a character at least 25 years younger than he was in real life. But he's a glamorous "mountain man" and Carroll Baker isn't happy until, after a few escapades, she has married him and tied him down to a farm. This is not before her parents, Karl Malden and Agnes Moorhead, have died whilst trying to negotiate some rapids.

Younger sister Debbie Reynolds is looking for a rich husband, so she doesn't hang around, and we next see her in St Louis, in charge of a singing and dancing troupe. Almost immediately she's on a wagon train west, where she has inherited a gold mine, with gambler Gregory Peck in tow, hoping to marry a fortune.

Sadly the gold has run out, so Mr Peck skedaddles, only to soon bump into Ms Reynolds again on a steamboat (it's a small world). They now decide to marry and seek their fortune in San Francisco.

Meanwhile Jimmy Stewart has decided that fighting in the Civil War is preferable to farming, and soon after so does one of his sons, the uncharismatic George Peppard. George doesn't enjoy the experience and at one point almost deserts. 

When he returns to the farm he discovers that Ma and Pa are both now dead, so he decides to go west (where else?), where he rejoins the army, protecting the new railroad from the pesky Indians.

The main event in this part of the film is a spectacular stampede of buffalo, which I can't remember seeing on film before.

Somewhat disillusioned by how the Indians are treated he becomes a Marshal, and we get quite an exciting sequence where he helps defend a train that is being robbed by bad guy Eli Wallach. Once that is settled George meets up with his Aunt Debbie, now a widow who reckons that she and the late Mr Peck made and lost three fortunes. 

The film ends with George, Debbie and George's family moving out to a ranch that Aunt Debbie has somehow managed to hang onto.

If the film belongs to any one person it is Debbie Reynolds, who is in the first and last scenes, and in between gets to display her full range of acting, singing and dancing talents. 

So it's no classic, but an OK way to while away a wet afternoon if you're in an undemanding mood.

RATING: x Find Something Better To Do