American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 90
◗
Visions of Grandeur
Walsh (pointing) gives direction, while Edeson (lower left) sets up the camera.
equaled until CinemaScope came in
and then Todd-AO." Eyman agrees:
"Photographically, it's a masterpiece."
Walsh felt so confident about his
material that he improvised one of the
most epic sequences of 1930s cinema:
Using primitive log booms and pulleys,
he lowered his wagons, pioneers and
livestock over the side of a 350' cliff at
Spread Creek, Wyo. This "lowering of
the wagons" would become the signature sequence of the film, Walsh's
Fitzcarraldo-like flourish, and a prime
spectacle for the Grandeur cameras.
"The lowering of the wagons over those
cliffs is just stupefying," enthuses
Maltin.
The production was also,
presumably, recording better motionpicture sound than ever before thanks in
part to Grandeur's oversize optical
track. As Robert Gitt, founder of
UCLA's film-preservation program,
explains, "The 70mm Grandeur
90
April 2015
format's extra-wide variable-density
track had the potential to provide
greater audio fidelity with a significantly
improved signal-to-noise ratio."
Whether Grandeur achieved this
higher fidelity is difficult to judge today,
because surviving prints borrow heavily
from the film's narrower 35mm soundtrack. Still, Burtt feels the filmmakers
achieved extraordinary results. "It's an
amazing film for sound," he says, "in the
sense that I look at it and I say, 'How the
heck did they edit and re-record this in
1930?' The dialogue editing is pretty
good. They had good microphone
coverage. There are a lot of scenes with
foreground dialogue and background
action - with wagons, or people, or
crowds - that are balanced very nicely."
Maltin agrees, noting, "The sound is as
naturalistic as the imagery. It's hard to
believe this was made so early in the
talking era."
The shoot took its toll, however,
American Cinematographer
as the production rumbled on over
4,000 miles in seven states. Dragging
his team across burning deserts in
Arizona, over snowdrifts in Jackson
Hole, or through the tall timber of
Sequoia National Park, Walsh pushed
his cast and crew to the limit. The Big
Trail required its onscreen pioneers to
struggle through rainstorms, hunt
buffalo, ford the Snake River in
Wyoming, and fight off a band of 725
horse-mounted Native Americans
(made up of Cheyennes, Crows,
Shoshones, Blackfeet and Arapahos -
not all of whom got along). Most of this
was being done under conditions similar to those encountered by the original
pioneers.
According to Evarts' log,
"Wagons were overturned, extra women
were spilled from wagon seats or saddles
into waist-deep mud, drenched to the
skin, in danger from lurching wagons
and trampling stock." There were scores
American Cinematographer - April 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2015
Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - Intro
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 2
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 4
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 5
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 6
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 7
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 8
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 9
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 10
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 11
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 12
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 13
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 14
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 15
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 16
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 17
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 18
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 19
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 20
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 21
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 22
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 23
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 24
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 25
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 26
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 27
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 28
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 29
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 31
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 37
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 38
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 39
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 40
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 41
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 42
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 43
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 45
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 47
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 48
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 49
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 50
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 62
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 63
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 64
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I1
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I2
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I3
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I4
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I5
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I6
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I7
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I8
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 65
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 66
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 67
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 68
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 100
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - 102
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American Cinematographer - April 2015 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - April 2015 - Cover4
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