Very well executed

good back-story, and good acting

Admirable film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Just watched this movie for the first time since the 70's. What a light hearted and wonderful blast from the past. I have always been a massive Clint Eastwood fan, and a big Lee Marvin fan, so this was a double treat. Clint was good in this, but Lee Marvin was brilliant! All round great movie for me and my wife, and her parents love this movie also!The songs were original and entertaining, but Lee Marvin's " Wandering Star" is a classic, and probably the main reason why i decided to purchase the DVD for a second viewing. So glad I did. The laughs were frequent and often subtle. The theme was slightly irreligious,but isn't that a treat? Another Clint Eastwood classic to add to my collection!

"Paint Your Wagon" is based on the 1951 Broadway musical of the same name, but for the usual reasons the plot has been altered somewhat. Also, it would not have been possible to portray a ménage à trois on stage in 1951.Having said that, there isn't a great deal to the plot: prospectors during the California Gold Rush erect a new town called No Name City. Before that though, with four hundred men and no women at all...then two women arrive with their husband - singular. What happens next is far from edifying, and it is a little surprising that third wave feminists haven't organised a worldwide boycott of the video.Nevertheless, this is primarily a musical, and although most of the songs are not particularly strong, they are certainly passable, the two exceptional ones being "They Call The Wind Maria" and "Wand'rin' Star", the latter of which was performed by the gravelly voiced Lee Marvin and was a surprise number one hit in the UK.

"Paint Your Wagon" (1968) was the last major movie to depict pioneer Westerners as heroes....and despised by the Left for that reason.It was one of two big budget movies of the 1960's made when glorification of the pioneers and the Old West became "socially and politically" "incorrect" according to the lights of the political and social left which dominated the 60's, and decreed social and cultural standards for at least the next 50 years (to the present time...this is written in 2013).The other famous, well done, big budget movie where the main characters were clean cut heroes was "How The West Was Won" (1962)."Paint Your Wagon" (1968) is an excellent movie, well done by any standards usually applied to movies artistically.The movie experimented, successfully, with non-singers singing main songs the way normal people with adequate, but not trained or "performance" voices usually sing.Alan Jay Lerner, lyricist, screenplay writer, and producer of the movie had good luck with "non-singers" in lead roles performing songs in MY FAIR LADY (1956) when Rex Harrison was hired for the stage version of that show, and won a Best Actor Academy Award for the movie version in 1964."Throaty" singing which isn't "even" is NOT necessarily bad singing, and MY FAIR LADY (1956) proved that. "Paint Your Wagon" (1968) singing is OK, enjoyable, and advances the story, perhaps better than show stopping vocalizing of the operatic "Howard Keel" variety.Alan Jay Lerner was the guiding force behind this much maligned movie.He was a great artist, and the "Paint Your Wagon" (1968) movie shows that.Attacks on the movie, and defamation of it made retrospectively are not justified.The visual part of it was shot in Oregon, and it is breathtaking.The story about unequipped, uneducated pioneers trying (and failing) to set up a Utopian place for themselves mirrored the 60's and efforts and ultimate failures of the counterculture's efforts to "do something different." The 60's were not a complete failure in all ways, and at all times. Some of it worked, for a while.Same is true in the setting and with the people shown in the well acted, well scripted "Paint Your Wagon" (1968) movie.It was a big budget "road show" movie first shown in limited "road show" movie house venues in big cities in late 1968, then later released in the normal way to normal theaters.Many other "road show" movies also didn't do well (or as well as hoped....not the same thing as "didn't do well") during this period.The times, they were a changing....at high speed, and the world was never the same again when the dust lifted.The America which entered the 1960's was not the same as the America which entered the 1970's...... and the profound changes over the 10 years between 1960 and 1970 probably exceeded those which took place over any other decade of USA history. For better or for worse, the decade really was a time of profound revolution which disowned important values of the past. All this affected the movies, and the way movies like "Paint Your Wagon" (1968) were treated and assessed by movie historians.Revisionist history written by Left sympathetic social historians defamed it, accused it of being a famous failure.But it wasn't and isn't.It was put together by one of the performing arts giants of the 20th century...Alan Jay Lerner.The main actors were among the most important movie stars of the century....the two male leads were both Academy Award winners (Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood).Lead actress Jean Seberg was a gifted actress....and was good in this movie.The technical part of the movie, the photography, the editing, the sound presentation, the direction........all were and are good.Like Citizen Kane (1941), "Paint Your Wagon" (1968) was a good movie not honored by movie historians for decades........The reasons have little to do with it's actual merit as a film and work of cinematic art.See it often! You won't regret it.----------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor.

I love musicals, but I honestly didn't know what to make of this film. Out of the Joshua Logan-directed musical movies, this film is my least favourite. It does have some nice photography, costumes and sets, and the score and songs are very pleasant and hummable. Out of the cast, Ray Walston and Harve Presnell(who actually has the best songs) come off best, and the chorale work directed by Roger Wagner is some of the finest ever heard in a musical. However, Joshua Logan's direction didn't work, I personally found it too stage-bound and smug. Also the dialogue doesn't convince, the film is too long and the story is forgettable and has one too many silly moments. The acting is nothing special, and while the singing isn't amazing it was passable. Lee Marvin's rendition of Wandrin' Star is listenable, and some of his comedy is a nice touch. Wasn't sure about Clint Eastwood though, I was perplexed at his casting initially and after hearing his singing my opinion hasn't changed. In conclusion, if I had to make an honest summary of this film, I would say worth watching for the music, chorale work and production values if little else. 5/10 Bethany Cox