MovieChat Forums > The Way West (1967) Discussion > I couldn't stop laughing

I couldn't stop laughing


And it's all bad direction. It's hard to put into words, but things didn't flow well. The action, character placement, business, overacting characatures. It was just unintentionally funny.

There is no "off" position on the genius switch.

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It isn't only bad direction, it's a terrible story as well.

If this was how they built a nation then it's no wonder that they've had such problems ever since

Steve

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A terrible story...which I found quite interesting. I haven't seen too many wagon train movies go into the fine details of the whole trip as this one did. Fantastic cinematography, a terrible theme song, the main weakness was the focus on supporting character sub-plots at the expense of greater character development of the leads.

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That's Andrew McLaglen for ya.

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overacting characatures. It was just unintentionally funny.


The reason Widmark and Elam played their characters -- Lije and the Preacher -- in a caricatural manner was for comedic relief. So the humor was totally intentional in their cases.

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