The aspect ration of how the West was Won in this DVD release is
2.89:1. Some of the River Raft scenes were shot in Ultra Panavison and
converted into the 3 frames. Compare that to 2001 in Super Panavison
70mm at 2.21:1.. The size of the screen varied. The Cinerama Dome
screen in Hollywood is quite a bit smaller then the earlier Cinerama
screens. The depth of the screen made a 70mm film appear similar to
full Cinerama, and on the deep screens was presented as Cinerama, but
the original Cinerama was a far larger image on a far larger screen.
How the West was Won was a true spectacle in it's original
presentation. Despite it's abbreviated storylines jumping through
decades of time and not allowing for enough story development, with so
many great actors, the Cinerama itself was the biggest star in the
film. At 164 minutes, the various storylines are pass through too
quickly, to have done the stories and stars justice, it should have
been twice as long. It has a number of climaxes including the
spectacular train scene at the end. Anyone who saw the original
presentation was blown away by the raft scene early in the film. But
seeing it on smaller,70mm screen or at hom on a heavily letterboxed
screen cannot really convey how incredible it was in true Cinerama.
I watched it on my 50" screen TV and it is pretty amazing. To get
the true Cinerama effect, use the Blu ray, curved screen view and sit
close to the screen to approximate the feeling of seeing it in the
theater, Watching it on a smaller screen, the letterboxing makes the
image to small to really create the original movie theater feeling.
The Lines between the panels has been been pretty effectively removed
digitally, although you can still see where the lines were blended in
scenes up against blue sky, but they did a terrific job in general,
with this restoration and for the most part the lines are hardly seen
at all. They also did a few very minor edit fixes that only people
who saw the original in Cinerama many times would notice--a couple of
split second flaws that aren't there anymore. it was strange to
notice they were gone.
People can knock the film, But I don't think many can knock it, who
saw it in it's original Cinerama presentation. I saw it at least 20
times as a kid and I revered everything about it. Every moment of
every scene and every note of music is deeply engrained. Watching it
now on this new version is an emotional experience,
The disc commentary is excellent and very informative.
There is a reg DVD edition without the Booklet that I saw at Fry's
electronics for $14.95--same 3-disc film as in the collector box and
Blu ray, but no Curved Screen option.
dc
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