Backdrop fallback

How the West Was Won

How the West Was Won

Share

How the West Was Won

"It's here! The mightiest adventure ever filmed!"

1962

2h 44m

7.0(512 votes)

Western

Overview

The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.

Links & Resources

Website IMDbView

Social & External

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Carroll Baker

Carroll Baker

Eve Prescott Rawlings

Lee J. Cobb

Lee J. Cobb

Marshal Lou Ramsey

Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda

Jethro Stuart

Carolyn Jones

Carolyn Jones

Julie Rawlings

Karl Malden

Karl Malden

Zebulon Prescott

Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck

Cleve Van Valen

George Peppard

George Peppard

Zeb Rawlings

Robert Preston

Robert Preston

Roger Morgan

Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds

Lilith Prescott

James Stewart

James Stewart

Linus Rawlings

Creative team

Directed by: John Ford
George Marshall
Written by: John Gay
James R. Webb
Produced by: Bernard Smith

Similar Movies

Jessi's Girls

Jessi's Girls

A young Mormon couple is attacked by a bunch of outlaws. They kill the man and the woman is raped several times and left for dead in the desert. With the last ounce of her strength she gets to the hut of an old hermit who nurses her back to health and teaches her how to shoot. The woman then frees three female criminals and seeks vengeance on the outlaws.

River of No Return

River of No Return

An itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband.

Hidalgo

Hidalgo

Set in 1890, this is the story of a Pony Express courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous race for a massive contest prize, in an adventure that sends the pair around the world...

The Lone Prairie

The Lone Prairie

Hayden enters the lawless prairie in which criminals have had free reign to manipulate the innocent settlers.

The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch

An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.

A Tornado in the Saddle

A Tornado in the Saddle

A Tornado in the Saddle starred Russell Hayden as the new sheriff of Crestview. Hot on the trail of a gang of claim jumpers led by Dalton and Slim, the novice lawman also has to deal with hotheaded wrangler turned deputy Bob Wilson, whom he is constantly forced to fight, but only after prudently removing his sheriff's star.

The Alamo

The Alamo

The legendary true story of a small band of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.

Support Your Local Sheriff!

Support Your Local Sheriff!

In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough.

The Great Race

The Great Race

Professional daredevil and white-suited hero, The Great Leslie, convinces turn-of-the-century auto makers that a race from New York to Paris (westward across America, the Bering Straight and Russia) will help to promote automobile sales. Leslie's arch-rival, the mustached and black-attired Professor Fate vows to beat Leslie to the finish line in a car of Fate's own invention.

Rio Grande

Rio Grande

Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.

Two Mules for Sister Sara

Two Mules for Sister Sara

When a wandering mercenary named Hogan rescues a nun called Sister Sara from the unwanted attentions of a band of rogues on the Mexican plains, he has no idea what he has let himself in for. Their chance encounter results in the blowing up of a train and a French garrison, as well as igniting a spark between them that survives a shocking discovery.

Gun Law

Gun Law

Finding a man alone in the desert, Marshal Tom is relieved - of his horse, clothes and water. When he catches up to Raven, he finds him dying from drinking bad water. When he gets to Gunsight, everyone thinks that he is the outlaw Raven and he plays it out so that he can end lawlessness.

The Big Country

The Big Country

Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between his future father-in-law, Major Terrill, and the rough and lawless Hannasseys over a valuable patch of land.

Battles of Chief Pontiac

Battles of Chief Pontiac

In pre-Revolutionary America, the efforts of a Colonial officer trying to broker a peace deal between Indian chief Pontiac and British and American settlers are threatened by the commander of a Hessian mercenary unit who embarks on a campaign of extermination against the Indians.

The Feud of the Trail

The Feud of the Trail

A man who's a dead ringer for the leader of an outlaw gang kills the gang leader, then takes his place to try to bring the gang to justice.

Fort Vengeance

Fort Vengeance

Two brothers flee America and join the Canadian North West Mounted Police. One brother is good, the other bad, both men on a collision course just as trouble starts to brew with the Indians.

The Burrowers

The Burrowers

It is 1879 in the Dakota Territories, a band of men who set out to find and recover a family of settlers that has mysteriously vanished from their home. Expecting the offenders to be a band of fierce natives, but they soon discover that the real enemy stalks them from below.

Massacre at Sand Creek

Massacre at Sand Creek

A fictionalized account of the infamous massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek by a militia unit led by an extremist Colonel.

American Outlaws

American Outlaws

When a Midwest town learns that a corrupt railroad baron has captured the deeds to their homesteads without their knowledge, a group of young ranchers join forces to take back what is rightfully theirs. They will become the object of the biggest manhunt in the history of the Old West and, as their fame grows, so will the legend of their leader, a young outlaw by the name of Jesse James.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastman, a young, white-educated Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation, and Sitting Bull the proud Lakota chief whose tribe won the American Indians’ last major victory at Little Big Horn.

Recommended Movies

The Way West

The Way West

In the mid-19th century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western US. Tadlock is a highly principled and demanding taskmaster who is as hard on himself as he is on those who have joined his wagon train. He clashes with one of the new settlers, Lije Evans, who doesn't quite appreciate Tadlock's ways. Along the way, the families must face death and heartbreak and a sampling of frontier justice when one of them accidentally kills a young Indian boy.

Meek's Cutoff

Meek's Cutoff

A group of settlers traveling through the Oregon High Desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.

The Big Sky

The Big Sky

Two tough Kentucky mountaineers join a trading expedition from St. Louis up the Missouri River to trade whisky for furs with the Blackfoot Indians. They soon discover that there is much more than the elements to contend with.

The Big Trail

The Big Trail

Young scout Breck Coleman leads a wagon train along the dangerous trail to Oregon as he tries to get the affection of the beautiful pioneer Ruth Cameron and plans his revenge on the harsh scoundrels who murdered a friend of his in the past.

Badland

Badland

Detective Matthias Breecher, hired to track down the worst of the Confederate war criminals, roams the Old West seeking justice. His resolve is tested when he meets a determined pioneer woman who is far more than she seems.

Flaming Star

Pacer Burton, a young man of mixed Kiowa and white heritage, is caught between two worlds as conflict erupts between Native Americans and white settlers in Texas.

Bend of the River

Bend of the River

Two men with questionable pasts, Glyn McLyntock and his friend Cole, lead a wagon-train load of homesteaders from Missouri to the Oregon territory...

River of No Return

River of No Return

An itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband.

Hombre

Hombre

John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Indians, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Legends (and myths) from the life of famed American frontiersman Davy Crockett are depicted in this feature film edited from television episodes. Crockett and his friend George Russel fight in the Creek Indian War. Then Crockett is elected to Congress and brings his rough-hewn ways to the House of Representatives. Finally, Crockett and Russell journey to Texas and the last stand at the Alamo.

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

Davy Crockett and his sidekick Georgie compete against boastful Mike Fink ("King of the River") in a boat race to New Orleans. Later, Davy and Georgie, allied with Fink, battle a group of river pirates trying to pass themselves off as Native Americans.

Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventure

Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventure

A young boy draws on the inspiration of legendary western characters to find the strength to fight an evil land baron in the old west who wants to steal his family's farm and destroy their idyllic community. When Daniel Hackett sees his father Jonas gravely wounded by the villainous Stiles, his first urge is for his family to flee the danger, and give up their life on a farm which Daniel has come to despise anyway. Going alone to a lake to try to decide what to do, he falls asleep on a boat and wakes to find himself in the wild west, in the company of such "tall tale" legends as Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Calamity Jane. Together, they battle the same villains Daniel is facing in his "real" world, ending with a heroic confrontation in which the boy stands up to Stiles and his henchmen, and rallies his neighbors to fight back against land grabbers who want to destroy their town.

Geronimo: An American Legend

Geronimo: An American Legend

The Apache Indians have reluctantly agreed to settle on a US Government approved reservation. Not all the Apaches are able to adapt to the life of corn farmers. One in particular, Geronimo, is restless. Pushed over the edge by broken promises and necessary actions by the government, Geronimo and thirty or so other warriors form an attack team which humiliates the government by evading capture, while reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.

Rust

Rust

Infamous outlaw Harland Rust breaks his estranged grandson Lucas out of prison, after Lucas is convicted to hang for an accidental murder. The two must outrun legendary U.S Marshal Wood Helm and bounty hunter Fenton "Preacher" Lang who are hot on their tails. Deeply buried secrets rise from the ashes and an unexpected familial bond begins to form as the mismatched duo tries to survive the merciless American Frontier.

In Old Oklahoma

In Old Oklahoma

Cowboy Dan Somers and oilman Jim "Hunk" Gardner compete for oil lease rights on Indian land in Oklahoma, as well as for the favors of schoolteacher Cathy Allen.

The Indian Fighter

The Indian Fighter

A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country gets involved with a Sioux chief's daughter.

3:10 to Yuma

3:10 to Yuma

Dan Evans, a small time farmer, is hired to escort Ben Wade, a dangerous outlaw, to Yuma. As Evans and Wade wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, Wade's gang is racing to free him.

Broken Arrow

Indian scout Tom Jeffords is sent out to stem the war between the American settlers and Apaches in the late 1870s Arizona. He learns that the Indians kill only to protect themselves, or out of retaliation for white atrocities.

The Dead Don't Hurt

The Dead Don't Hurt

In the 1860s, fiercely independent French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy embarks on a journey with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, attempting to forge a life together in the dusty town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger decides to go fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War, Vivienne must fend for herself, which isn't easy in a town controlled by a corrupt mayor.

The Last Wagon

The Last Wagon

When a handful of settlers survive an Apache attack on their wagon train they must put their lives into the hands of Comanche Todd, a white man who has lived with the Comanches most of his life and is wanted for the murder of three men.