We recently were able to finally afford a new television–our last one, bought around 18 years ago at a Montgomery Wards (which tells you how long that’s been.) We’d put off getting a high definition monitor, but with the digital conversion coming, we thought now was the time. I was able to spend much less than I’d estimated by reading up on the technology (it’s much more complicated buying televisions than it was 18 years ago!) and consulting with my two tech-buddies Roberto Rivera and Thom Parham. Both recommended I go with an LCD screen rather than plasma and I found a 47 in. Visio set for hundreds less than others offered at Sam’s Club. Roberto helped me find a combination Blu-Ray player, complete sound system for about half the suggested retail. And I found a HD-monitor/components platform demo model for only $50, about a quarter of what I saw other models priced for.
I could now enjoy Blu-Ray high definition DVD’s, the only kind that are made for the 1080p monitor that is far more detailed and brilliant than standard television. Even regular DVDs look fuzzy when displayed on a larger screen. Fortunately, my new player included a line-doubler that compensated and made standard DVDs look much better, but not as good with brightness and fine detail as Blu-Rays. And of course, the size of the screen really does make a difference when you are watching movies intended to be shown on the big theatrical screen.
One of the film’s I’d been waiting to see on Blu-Ray was the recently restored version of How the West Was Won. The mega-western was shot in the huge Cinerama format that use three aligned cameras, each a larger than 35mm film gauge that offered a literally spectacular panoramic image that, when projected on the special curved Cinerama screen, simulated better than any other method human vision with the peripheral effect that immerses the audience into the image. This online slide show presents how Cinerama was so influential in Hollywood’s transition to widescreen filmmaking that we have known since the mid-1950s.
For most of Cinerama’s history, numerous documentaries took audiences to places around the world. It wasn’t until the early 1960s that narrative films were produced, the first being The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm in 1962. As the link indicates, the possibility of a fully restored version of the fantasy film is uncertain due to a lack of good prints or negatives. But 1962 also saw the release of the other Cinerama narrative film, How the West Was Won, based on a recent series in Life magazine. Despite the film’s success, three camera Cinerama production proved too unwieldy and expensive both for production and exhibition and audiences in the 1960s had to see prints down-sized to standard widescreen 35mm that could be shown in their local theaters Thus, HTWWW is the one connection most of us will ever have to the glorious format.
And watching the film, you realize that the American west was one of the few subjects big enough for a Cinerama narrative film–it aimed to tell the story of the country’s westward expansion over three generations by focusing on several members of a family. Star studded in the best sense of the word, the huge cast is a pleasure for classic movie fans and essential for quickly moving the story along by employing recognizable personas to evoke the characters. The film was divided into chapters that feel like mini-movies and directed by three veteran Hollywood directors including George Marshall and John Ford who did one chapter each and Henry Hathaway who directed three. At 2 and half hours, the epic packs more story and history than many longer films but rolls along at a brisk pace. But I want to focus on the wonderful quality of the Blu-Ray restoration. Previous home video had shown the seam lines joining the three panels and it’s amusing to observe how the camera was often positioned so that a lamp post or tree was able to mask the lines. In the digital restoration, those darker lines are gone but you can see that the sky in a lighter shade of blue in a vertical space where the panels joined. Below you can see James Stewart as a fur trapper in an early scene.
The highly detailed image to me is, even on my non-theatrical-size monitor, a more pleasurable experience than watching an IMAX screen. The images culled off the internet really can’t capture it but suggest the richness of the panoramic screen.
One of the bonuses of the DVD package is the long and detailed documentary “Cinerama Adventure” that chronicles the fascinating and surprising history of the format-it’s almost worth the price of the whole set itself. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find.
The Blu-Ray version (that includes a “Smilebox” copy of the film curved to simulate the wraparound theatrical effect that indeeds lessens the distortions created by a flat rectangular presentation of the image) when shown on a large hi-def monitor, is as close as most of us will have to ever enjoying this unique example of Hollywood mythmaking at its best. If you have a Blu-Ray high definition player and large screen, give it a try during the 4th of July weekend.
