Raoul Walsh · 1930 · overland

Raoul Walsh's 1930 epic, shot in 70mm on ten locations across seven states, and John Wayne's first leading role. A wagon train of eastern settlers forms up on the river and starts for the Oregon country, led by a young scout who has taken the job partly to find the man who murdered his trapper friend.

1. 1
   Westport

   The wagons form up at the jumping-off place and the scout Breck Coleman signs on to guide them - two thousand miles of trail ahead, and among the company the two men he believes killed his friend.

2. 2
   The Platte

   Out onto the plains and the buffalo, in sequences Walsh shot with real herds and hundreds of wagons - the film's method being simply to put a camera in front of an enormous thing actually happening.

3. 3
   The Green River

   The fording, where wagons, oxen and families are taken across fast water and some do not come out - and then the sandstorms, the blizzard and an attack that puts the train into a circle.

4. 4
   Laurel Hill

   The descent that gives the film its most famous footage: wagons, cattle, women and children lowered on ropes down a cliff face, because there is no other way onto the trail beyond.

5. 5
   The Willamette

   They come down into the Oregon country and the big trees, and Breck leaves the settlement he has just delivered to go back into a snowstorm and finish the business he came for.