How the West Was Won (Ultimate Collector's Edition)

I'm afraid that I must agree with some of the less popular and more critical assessments of this newly remastered edition of "How the West Was Won" in that it's just not all that great. While the action sequences are spellbinding, most of this movie is tedious and difficult to watch. Somebody dumped a pile of cash on this picture to demonstrate what can be done with Cinerama but, unfortunately, not much can really be done, outside of the 'roller-coaster' shots.

This is a 'restored' version and it is miles better than previously released renditions of HtWWW; eliminating all dirt and scratches found on the old prints (what some here have described as 'dirt' spots in the opening ariel scene are just water droplets on the window); eliminating the 'join' lines between panels (except for a couple of pan shots where they are hard to ignore); also, color has been corrected and carefully matched between panels. Sound is very good, for the most part, but at times a bit distorted and the dialog volume is uneven and could benefit from some better equalization.

I would have given this 2 stars, except for the inclusion, on the third disc, of Dave Strohmaier's excellent documentary, "Cinerama Adventure".

There are a few big problems with this new DVD collection that bother me: First, there is some kind of digital "smoothing" that has been applied to the finished product, which may help to make visual discrepancies less noticeable during the transfer to disc, but makes the image a little less sharp than it could be, and really needs to be, for this movie. I've seen sharper digital transfers from WB and MGM on many other standard definition videos, and unfortunately, the documentary also suffers this fate. I know because I saw it in a theatre. Secondly; Don't get hung up over the "Smilebox" idea. You can see how it works in the documentary and, although it's suppose to give you an idea of what Cinerama would look like in a theater, it gets to be a bit too much after a while. This brings me to my third complaint: That (as others have already said here) the whole movie looks 'fisheyed' and is very distracting to watch, especially actor's faces where the nose is exaggerated and eyes and mouth are small. Rather unflattering that these gorgeous movie stars look like they're in a bad high school yearbook photo! Everything looks VERY far away, as though you are viewing through a distant keyhole, and I think the Smilebox effect accentuates this, making it look even farther away, as though you are in the back of the audience (which works well for the documentary, but not the feature). I kept reaching for my binoculars, even though I'm 6 feet away from a 120-inch screen! Maybe the Blu-Ray edition is sharper and bigger, but Cinerama was designed to be viewed on a very large, deeply curved screen, and there's just no way to make it look natural on a flat surface. Even close-up shots, which there are not many, feel distant and contribute to the 'big nose' problem. Making this issue even worse, the top and bottom edges of the frame has been cropped a bit (not the sides, as in previous versions) so the aspect ratio is up to 2.9, not 2.55 as it says here, or even 2.7, which Cinerama would be if projected flat. Talk about looking through a keyhole!

Problem #4: It's really a lousy movie. It's way too long; there's very little continuity and can often be rather confusing, even with a narrator to tie it together (somewhat). The script is terrible; the actors are doing the best they can with lousy dialog but are completely wasted in this picture; little is done with the camera compared to any other dramatic film - it just sits there most of the time, as if you are supposed to be a distant bystander ("distant" being the operative word here). Except for the very few extreme closeup shots (big noses) and one or two single-lens-camera shots inserted into the action sequences, it is impossible to see facial expressions. The major action scenes are great, but also suffer in continuity and can be confusing. How did the water tower sequence get into the trailer and not the movie???

The only reason to buy this title is for the documentary, a handful of action sequences, and the picture-postcard panoramas. The commentary tracks offer a lot of nice-to-know information but once you know it, better to turn it off and listen to the music. The booklets offer nothing except forgotten Hollywood hype and can't be read without a powerful magnifying glass! As a dramatic western, most others (like, "The Searchers") outclass this one by light-years. As entertainment, don't waste your money. See it only at a genuine 3-projector Cinerama theatre.

This is a great restoration of an epic early 1960s film. The postcards and productions are very nice. And a smaller size but otherwise accurate reproduction of the original program. I know because I have an original.

An epic movie presented as never before,in perfect high definition 1080p!Finally,you can see all the rich colors,details,as they have never been seen before,including digital 5.1 perfect surround sound!And the left and right "join"lines so often seen in earlier video/T.V. versions,have been technically made to vanish for the first time ever!The bonus trailer is good,but the documentary on "CINERAMA"is fantastic!And you get two[2]versions of the movie:the regular 'widescreen',and a curved screen 'smilebox'simulation version,packaged in a nice hard cover full-color book!Well worth it!

Once again, Amazon can't keep their database straight and they have mixed together reviews for previous editions of this movie. Anything written before September 9, 2008 cannot be referring to the newly restored version of How The West Was Won.

Warners did a lot of work to spruce up this film. Unfortunately, it was designed and shot to be shown on a curved screen, one that occupied a full third of a circle. It was never meant to be shown on a flat screen, and it just looks ridiculous when it is. Without the screen curvature, people seem to change direction as they move from center to side. Worse, when people are on either side of the screen, they appear to be staring into space when they are supposed to be looking at the main action in the center of the screen. What are supposed to be vast vistas end up looking like they were filmed through a fisheye lens. It's all very distracting and more than a bit hard on the eyes.

All the effort to preserve the entire picture is not really worth it, either, because most of the time the action is carefully constrained to the middle third of the picture. You end up with the paradox of a vast widescreen image that feels very claustrophobic in its composition.

Maybe if the script was more interesting these visual problems wouldn't matter so much. But it's not that great a movie. It was designed to show off the 3-projector Cinerama technology and it remains a prisoner of that technology. When you lose the "wow" factor of a Cinerama theater, and have the visuals mangled onto a flat screen, HTWWW becomes just a minor curiosity.

The Blu-Ray edition is said to have a "Smilebox" version of the movie--Smilebox is supposed to correct for the problems of smashing a curved screen presentation down to a flat screen. I don't know how well that works--Blu-Ray is still too expensive and still has very little depth of catalog, so it's not on my horizon. There is no good reason why the standard DVD version could not have been in Smilebox if it really does solve the severe visual distortions.

I found the reviews confusing concerning the 3 Disc Special Edition but decided to take a chance on Amazon.com selling me a good product. I was not disappointed. The old edition had annoying lines where the 3 movies were joined in the Cinerama Process. The lines were amost totally gone but ocassionally if one viewed this magnificent movie with a critical eye, there were slight remnants of the lines left. For those who criticize the incomplete removal of the lines, Have they ever tried to resore a historic photo? Have they ever tried to restore a movie that is 164 minutes long? Not only were the lines gone but photography seemed clearer than the old edition DVD. As several others said, it appears to be restored to the way I remember the movie when I first saw it in 1962. The movie was in "letterbox" configuration on my plasma TV.