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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: How The West Was Won...Reissue
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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-20-2003 12:32 PM
I attended the 12 noon show on Saturday, but I had ordered tickets when they first went online in July. I sat in the floor section, last full row, which I found to be perfect.
I first saw HTWWW as a little kid in the general release CinemaScope version, and rememer liking it (a house my dad lived in as a kid is in the final segment of the film, shot in Oatman, Az). I saw it again while in junior high school at the bottom half of a double feature (Gone with the Wind, WHEW!) Plus numerous times on TV. So I was glad to finally see it in its original presentation.
This is a spectacle, and like many of the era, concentrates on spectacle over drama. But that is precisely what Cinerama was for. And this film gives it to you in spades. Beautiful cinematography (and rather sophisticated lighting for the process) add immeasurably to the experience. Throw in the beautiful Alfred Newman score and some very heartfelt performances and you have a film filled with major entertainment value. It was refreshing to see a style of filmmaking that has seemingly vanished from Hollywood. A true lack of cynicism in the storytelling. (Even the post-ending, that celebrated the construction of L.A. freeways as the ultimate cumulation of western expansion, lacked irony).
As far as story goes, this film had far more than you find in most studio drek shoveled out today.
Technical notes: I'm not fully sure why it takes five operators for this presentation at this theatre. I would think the master technician could probably run both the center projector and mag dubber (without additional operators for both).
The camera operators/DP did a creative job of finding ways of hiding dividing lines for the most part. HOWEVER, with projection jitter at different rates and directions, it gave the effect of three panels containing different settings, like a multi-media presentation. Still, it was a fascinating look at a decades old technology that still rendered an ultra-sharp image superior to what we see in theatres today.
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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-20-2003 07:09 PM
quote:
"HOW THE WEST WAS WON" was NEVER shown in CinemaScope because it was never shot in a 35mm anamorphic process.
Now let's not get all nitpicky, Claude. It WAS shown in many theatres with CinemaScope lenses on a CinemaScope screen, regardless of whether the CinemaScope name was liscensed or not. To this day, anamorphic Panavision films are called "scope", and that word does derive from the original CinemaScope. And I certainly didn't make the claim that it was SHOT in scope.
quote:
The 35mm image looked like it was shot off the screen during a special three strip Cinerama presentation using a Panavision anarmorphic lens instead of printing from the original negatives or a interpositive because of the visibility of the image separation lines on the screen.
Looks can be deceiving. An optical printer was used to individually photograph each strip to a single strip of 70mm film. Then the reduction 35mm prints were made.
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When Cinerama was in full speed in the 1950's you had carbon arc, less precise interlock controls, large reels, audio levels, visual levels to keep five guys busy.
Oh, I can fully appreciate why it took 5 operators originally to run the show. But doesn't Bradford, England's museum theatre run everything with just two operators today?
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Mark J. Marshall
Film God
Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 09-25-2003 11:17 AM
After watching HTWWW, I can understand why Cinerama died. The movie was pretty good, but those damn seam lines were unforgiving. Of course it didn't help that the center print had a black scratch along the right edge - right on the edge seam. Any jitter that exists in one projector magnifies the jitter in the projector next to it, which also doesn't help. The film makers did the best they could to hide the seams by placing trees and lamp posts and what not over the seams every chance they had, but it was still annoying.
The color balancing didn't match on any two of the prints, so a nice wide shot had dirt that was three different colors. I understand that this was a brand new print though, which leads me to believe that the colors probably never matched exactly.
The soundtrack was nice, but it didn't have the punch that a magnetic track should have had. In fact, It Came From Outer Space (a computer file made from a magnetic track and played in sync with the two projectors) at the 3D show sounded better, so the age of the material shouldn't have been at issue, but maybe in this case it was.
Now, all of this is directed against the Cinerama process, and the film itself technically. The PRESENTATION (with the exception of the scratches) at the Dome was awesome. The dramatic curtain opening, the overture, the intermission music, and the lights fading down half way, then fading down again... all of that is to be applauded. The projectionists I'm sure did the best they could with what they had. But Cinerama itself just looked very awkward. I think I'd rather see films in Panavision Super 70 or some other wide screen anamorphic 70mm process.
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 09-25-2003 09:06 PM
quote:
The soundtrack was nice, but it didn't have the punch that a magnetic track should have had. In fact, It Came From Outer Space (a computer file made from a magnetic track and played in sync with the two projectors) at the 3D show sounded better, so the age of the material shouldn't have been at issue, but maybe in this case it was.
It must have been, because when I saw this film as a kid at the Loews Cinerama (Capitol) in NYC, the sound was absolutely spectacular. I've posted before about a scene in which (as I recollect it), characters are talking in front of a glass window. Behind the window was either a music hall or a saloon with music playing. The diffused music must have been sent to a different channel than the dialog and the effect, as I remember it, sounded uncannily real. The only other film of that era which had sound as good was the roadshow presentation of West Side Story (at the Rivoli).
I wouldn't be surprised if, in an effort to reduce hiss (not that I remember any), they rolled off the high end when making the new print.
As for the lines between the strips of film, I remember them certainly being obvious, but they still never really bothered me. The single-strip Cinerama presentations were actually far less effective. Given the trade-off, I'd take the lines.
But I don't think that's why Cinerama failed. I think it failed because most of the films weren't very compelling and the fact that the cameras, especially the 3-strip, were so bulky, limited the kinds of films directors could make. You certainly could never make an "intimate" film in Cinerama. And that's aside from the cost issues of presenting Cinerama. Especially after they moved away from the 3-strip process, Cinerama wasn't any better than Todd-AO and other 70mm presentation formats and many more theaters could play a standard 70mm film.
I think in many respects, IMAX is like Cinerama. In fact, is the IMAX DMR process really all that different than Super Panavision or corrected Ultra-Panavision films played on a Cinerama screen?
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Mark J. Marshall
Film God
Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 09-25-2003 11:18 PM
quote:
Did you see this at the Dome?
Yep. And the center print is definitely scratched along the right edge, which is a real shame. It wasn't a bad scratch as far as scratches go, but it was just bad enough to emphasize the join line. It was also on BOTH part 1 and part 2, which was pretty wierd.
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I wouldn't be surprised if, in an effort to reduce hiss (not that I remember any), they rolled off the high end when making the new print.
I thought about that, and I didn't notice much hiss. I was actually starting to think it was a generational thing. I believe Jeff mentioned that the track used for ICFOS was made from a master. Maybe HTWWW was a few generations from the master, and a little old. It could be that that's all they had. I don't know enough about it though, so I'm just speculating. It's not that it sounded bad, I guess I just expected more from a seven channel magnetic track.
And I agree that the three strip Cinerama format was very difficult to work with and had lots of technical and storytelling limitations, and that those things certainly helped lead to its demise.
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