Grade: C-
Synopsis: A scout (Robert Mitchum) and a farmer (Richard Widmark) join a Senator’s (Kirk Douglas) wagon train west along the Oregon Trail.
The Way West is a big budget, well-produced western adventure that hits all the right notes, but ultimately feels underwhelming.
Kirk Douglas chews up the scenery as the hard-nosed taskmaster, leading a rag-tag group of settlers west to found the town of his dreams. It’s the only interesting role in the script, but there’s no payoff for his character’s arc. While it would be interesting to see Douglas once he comes to grips with the realization that he’s not the leader he believed himself to be, the movie’s over before we get the chance.
Supporting Douglas, Robert Mitchum looks soft and tired in a role that doesn’t give him a lot to do, while Richard Widmark does his best in a paper-thin part that’s little more than an antagonist for Douglas’ character. Jack Elam and a young Sally Field also appear, but are little more than plot-devices.
Sure, there’s some nice scenery, but really, we’ve seen this before, and better. There’s nothing original here aside from Douglas’ strong performance, and even that feels incomplete. In the end, Raul Walsh’s The Big Trail (1930) tells the same story on an even grander scale, and should be the preferred choice over this pseudo-remake.
