How the West Was Won (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]

How the West Was Won (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]

How the West Was Won (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]
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DVD details

Actor: Carroll Baker, Debbie Reynolds, George Peppard, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Milton Krasner
Cinematographer: Joseph La Shelle
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Restored, Surround Sound
Running Time: 164 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-09
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Warner Home Video

DVD Reviews of How the West Was Won (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]

DVD Review: "WON" by Blu-Ray
Summary: 5 Stars

Look at this on a big screen TV! The improvement in image quality, sharpness, and color on this blu-ray edition is enormous. Watching this film in the SmilE format on the second disc is a treat and makes us remember what a spectacular stunt Cinerama was when we originally saw this on a huge curved panoramic screen for it's original release. It's certainly the kind of startling innovative technology that sold tickets and put us in theater seats; but if you find it distracting, return to the conventional widescreen version on disc one. Both are stunning--and somehow seem superior to the actual original projected theatrical film in their sharpness and color!

The very-widescreen image finally looks complete. The two "un-seam-ly" overlap lines that marred ALL previous showings, releases, and formats are almost totally and miraculously unnoticeable on both blu-ray discs! Now, without experiencing those persistent distractions and odd distortions, we rediscovered a spectacular film with a surprising amount of good acting and witty and often moving dialogue.

Of course, it includes some of the most stunning classic action sequences this side of Ben Hur and CB DeMille! And what a great cast and superb score. The blu-ray is a marvel and a must-have. And some might buy it for the fascinating "Cinerama Adventure" documentary alone, included here on disc one!

DVD Review: The West in Hi-Def.
Summary: 4 Stars

The proverbial Old-Fashioned Western. One of Hollywood's last true epics, 'How the West Was Won' is a classic tale of heroics and heartbreak, filmed in the now-defunct Cinerama process.

Although light on cohesive story, the film is chock-full of Hollywood melodrama and amazing (for the time) camera work. Definitely a sanitized look at the "winning" of the Old West, it holds up today for its successful portrayal of pioneers as real people who braved a new frontier to realize their dreams of a new life.

The Blu-ray "Smilebox" transfer, which tries to mimic the Cinerama experience, is interesting for about five minutes. Then either your headache or your sense of proportion will probably force you to switch to the standard letterbox version on disc 1. Perhaps if viewed on a HUGE screen (I have a 52" LCD and still it looked weird), you might get the feeling of sitting in the very back row of a Cinerama theatre. I suppose Warner deserves some kudos for trying to preserve this historic film in its original format, but in practical terms the results are a curiosity at best.

The image quality on disc 1 is terrific, though, and for the most part the "lines" in the 3-camera image are not visible, except during some shots of blue sky. A very fine presentation of a classic film.


DVD Review: terrific restoration of a fine 1960's western
Summary: 4 Stars

Originally shown in the theaters using three separate movie projectors, the two-tape video VHS I owned magnified the "join" lines from the left and right panels where they joined the center panel and in pan and scan to boot!

This 2008 DVD release eliminates the join lines, Ive looked hard and cannot see any video blemishes, the 2.89 aspect ratio can withstand a zoom of 2x and still appear wider than the popular 1.85 ratio.
So I watch this film with a zoom of 2x and its still wider than a 1.85 widescreen film.

Great actors and music, this is one of the best 25 westerns of all time. The sound is quite good, this 3-DVD set only offers audio in 5.1 apparently, there appears to be no mono mix offered.
Though twice as expensive as the single disc release which has the join lines visible, I believe this new restoration is worth the extra money, plus this 3 hour film is now spread out over two discs which improves the video quality.

The music is a mix of folk songs, spirituals and hymns and was heavily researched for the film. The classic Greensleeves is set to new lyrics and retitled "A Home in the Meadow" and is sung by Debbie Reynolds. In fact much of the film is a vehicle for Ms. Reynolds as she dances and sings her way through various scenes, two years before she became the Unsinkable Molly Brown in the film which includes a scene on the Titanic.
After collecting a couple hundred DVD's and eventually giving half of them away to friends, I can say this is one of just 60 or so films in my current DVD collection, which also includes another 40 music concert DVD's. My modest collection of around 100 discs includes 2 Steve McQueen films-- Bullitt and Nevada Smith, as well as Al Pacino in Panic in Needle Park and Scarface. Less clutter and more quality.

DVD Review: Blu-Ray puts a Smilebox on your face
Summary: 5 Stars

An open letter to all techies out there, and I know you're out there:

You haven't seen anything until you have seen the potent combination of Blu-Ray technology and the new wide screen process called "Smilebox"

What is Smilebox, you say?

Smilebox is the best thing to happen to home video since letterbox. And for a super wide screen movie like the superb How the West Was Won, it's a marriage made in heaven.

Smilebox takes regular letterbox and literally turns it on its head! Instead of a sharp right angle letterbox image, Smilebox curves the picture up at the top, and down at the bottom. Like a smile! It really conveys the feeling of watching a Cinerama movie in the theater!

This unique process is perfect for the ingenious Cinerama process, developed in 1952 to get people back to the movie theaters and away from the growing number of television sets. And boy did it! This is Cinerama was actually the number one grossing movie of 1952, even though it played in only a handful of Cinerama equipped theaters! People often lined up around the block.

The 1962 Cinerama movie How the West was Won, featuring an all-star cast, 3 directors, and a socko surround sound system, was also one of the top grossing movies of its year, even though it also only played roadshow engagements in theaters properly equipped with the super-wide screeen process. It virtually gave a "3-D" effect without glasses.

Try watching this one in the dark! That will really blow your socks off!

With Smilebox, Blu-Ray realizes its full potential.

DVD Review: jsf
Summary: 5 Stars

I saw this movie as a kid. It was shown on 3 screens in the Cinermama Dome in Hollywood and was very dramatic even by today's standard (ie... vs I Max). Also, I love the sound track!

I bought this movie to give my youngest boy and my grandchildren a taste of both old movies and "How the West was Won". Though the movie is not politically correct it creates a forum for discussion about America's migration west. As we venture into outer space, we may encounter the similar situations.

As of this moment we have not finished the movie. The beginning is slow but very engaging. I cannot recommend this movie enough!

By it, enjoy it, and discuss it with all!

Description of How the West Was Won (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]

With courage, sinew and conflict: that's how the West was won. With three directors, five interlocked stories, some of movie history's most legendary action scenes and a constellation of acting talent: that's how How the West Was Won was filmed. Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart and John Wayne are among the big names in this big saga following a family's move West through generations - marked by the spectacles of a heart-pounding raging river ride, a thunderous buffalo stampede and a bracing runaway train shootout. Via technological advances, this panoramic winner of three Academy Awards can now be seen with a resplendent, restored clarity eliminating its original "three- panel join lines" and in roof-raising Dolby 5.1 audio. Westward ho!
The first feature film to be photographed and projected in the panoramic three-camera Cinerama process, this epic Western is almost as expansive as the West itself, chronicling a pioneering family's triumphs and tragedies in numerous episodes spanning three generations and a half century of westward movement. Divided into five segments directed by veteran Hollywood filmmakers Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, and the legendary John Ford (and including uncredited sequences directed by Richard Thorpe), the film was one of the most ambitious ever made by the venerable MGM studio. Its stellar cast reads like a virtual who's who of Hollywood's biggest stars. Debbie Reynolds plays a sturdy survivor of many pioneering dangers, and the eventual widow of a gambler (Gregory Peck), who is later reunited with her nephew (George Peppard), a Civil War veteran and cavalryman who heads for San Francisco as the transcontinental railroad is being built. Many more characters and stories are woven throughout this epic film, which is dramatically uneven but totally engrossing with its stunning vistas and countless outdoor locations in Illinois, Kentucky, South Dakota, Monument Valley in Arizona, California, Colorado, and elsewhere. --Jeff Shannon

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