Just perfect...

Best movie ever!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I gave this movie ten stars because:1. It tells an excellent story of brave women from all walks of life (widows, pregnant unmarried woman, women brave enough to go after what they believed was going to be a better life, and women of 'ill-repute' also looking for a chance to have a better life.) The women are the focus of the movie. Robert Taylor is good as the lead - and his 'side-kick' - a small size Japanese man are both very good. However - the focus is always on the women. The women could actually 'act'. The entire cast was excellent - and wonderful casting/2. There is amazing character development and variety of personalities among the cast. The characteristics of the women are not the dominating story of the movie, but all their characteristics together make a good part of the story and show the variety of personalities found in brave and adventurous women. EVERY woman was a strong woman. Each had different abilities and strong points, but they were all very capable. 3. The women seemed very capable in a primitive setting actually driving wagons themselves - no shrinking violets there. 4. It shows the strength of determined women. Circumstances continually knock them down - but they refuse to give up. 5. It actually tells a good story. I don't think such a movie could be made today because the story of the women would be lost in smut, violence, and foul language. 6. There is romance in the movie, but the bravery and adventuresome spirits of the women is not overwhelmed or lost altogether by some romance. 7. It is always nice to watch a movie that is not trying to sway me politically, preach about one cause or another, use offensive language, or have unnecessary explicit sexual content. This is an enjoyable movie anytime.

I know this film has some problems with continuity, but some of it is in the effort to keep the film a reasonable length. However, it does paint a picture of what people, especially women, endured on the long treks to the West. While the subject is rather serious, there are many incidents of humor, and pathos. I have wanted a copy of this film for a long time; I recently purchased a used VHS tape at twice the price of most new DVDs. If it were produced on DVD, I would buy one. Westward the Women was one of the first colorized movies, so, a DVD containing both the original black & white version and the colorized version would be a great idea!

One of my favorite movies that I've watched many, many times. The women fervently desire to better their lives by leaving (sometimes) sordid lives in Chicago. On the wagon train trip they find inner strengths to conquer Indian raids, the Rocky Mountains, and the Death Valley desert on their way to the "land of plenty" in California to marry men whose photos they chose from a bulletin board back in Chicago.My only negative is one comment about how the story line was developed: Why in the world would the writer have the women risk their lives dragging all their "stuff" in the wagons across the plains and up and down through the Rocky Mountains only to have to leave it beside the trail when they entered the desert??? But I also absolutely LOVE the ending.

John McIntire approaches wagonmaster Robert Taylor with an interesting job and challenge. He wants to bring brides west to the settlement he's founded in the southwest United States. Taylor hires on a bunch of hands to escort the women and issues a no fraternization policy. When one of them tries to rape one of them, he shoots him out of hand. It's the unsettled frontier and as wagonmaster he's the law on that train as much as a captain on a ship at sea. Of course the hands mutiny and strand Taylor, McIntire, cook Henry Nakamura and the women.This was a perfect western film for the post Rosie the Riveter generation. No reason at all why women couldn't deal with the rigors of a wagon train. Of course it helped to have the formidable Hope Emerson along.Of course men and women will be men and women and Taylor breaks his own no fraternization policy with Denise Darcel. Of course this is away from the train when Darcel runs off.William Wellman delivers us a no frills unsentimental western with gritty performances by Robert Taylor and the rest of the cast. In a bow to his colleague John Ford, Wellman does have a courtship dance at the settlement. I liked the use of the fiddle music playing Believe Me With All Those Endearing Young Charms and Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes. Ford couldn't have staged it better.Henry Nakamura had made a big hit in MGM's Go For Broke about the Nisei division in Italy. He was a funny little guy, I'm not sure he was even five feet tall. I loved the scene when he and Taylor find a stash of buried liquor and proceed on a toot. This was his last film though, roles for oriental players were hard to come by. I wonder whatever happened to him.If you like traditional cowboy films, this one ain't for you, but given the constraints of 19th century society for the role of woman Westward the Women is quite a revelation.