The Way West is a 1967 American Western film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark.

Joining them on the expedition are cantankerous farmer Lije Evans (Richard Widmark), his wife Rebecca (Lola Albright), and 16-year-old son Brownie (Michael McGreevey).

When the chief arrives later with the body of his boy dressed up and sitting stiff on a horse and demands satisfaction, Senator Tadlock knows that no other form of justice will do for the Indians if the wagon train is being pursued by them out of vengeance, so he hangs Johnnie, for the safety of the traveling party, but to the settlers outrage.

The Indian chieftain speaks to the body of his child that justice has been done, then calls up to the surrounding hilltops, where hundreds of warriors now suddenly appear over the edge of the horizon.

Further along the trail, it turns out young Mercy is now pregnant as well with the now dead Johnnie Mack's child, and admirer / suitor Brownie Evans proposes marriage to her.

The others form a lynch mob and attempt to hang increasingly dictatorial wagon master Tadlock, but then even Lije Evans talks them out of it and now takes charge of the caravan and trek.

Emotionally destroyed by the loss of her man Johnnie, Amanda Mack cuts the rope that Tadlock is descending on, causing the senator to plunge to his death along the cliffs.

[1] The film is notable for being the first big-budget western since 1930's widescreen John Wayne spectacle The Big Trail to show pioneers lowering a wagon train over a cliff with ropes.