• Audio Commentary by filmmaker David Strohmaier, Cinerama, Inc. Director John Sittig, Film Historian Rudy Behlmer, Music Historian Jon Burlingame, and Stuntman Loren James

• 44-page full color book

• David Strohmaier's 2002 Documentary: Cinerama Adventure (93.00)

The Film:

The history of the extraordinary and short-lived (10 years) innovation known as Cinerama is a fascinating chapter in motion pictures. It is laid out lovingly and critically in David Strohmaier's 2002 Documentary: Cinerama Adventure, included as a bonus feature on disc one of this equally extraordinary 2-disc set from Warner. In my opinion, the set in worth the price for the documentary alone, but Warner is offering both this and the feature film in two complete visual presentations for less than many other current Blu-ray titles. For all its flaws – narrative and technical – this new set is highly recommended.

For those unfamiliar with Cinerama, you should know that it was the brainchild of Fred Waller, known for his innovations since the silent film days, and commercially developed by producer Merian C. Cooper (yes, that Merian C. Cooper of King Kong) and explorer and journalist, Lowell Thomas. The idea was to offer the audience an immersive visual and aural experience, emotionally and neurologically involving such as they had never had before – or, as many still assert, since, including IMAX.

The technology involved the use of three cameras mounted on a single chassis, each with a fixed focal length lens of 28 mm on a horizontal axis with the outer cameras shooting across each other's field of view. The resulting angle of view was enormous, about 147 degrees. In turn, the three reels of film would be shown in specially constructed theatres by three projectors spread across the rear wall, again with the outer projectors crossing their images onto a radically curved screen. – From the point of view of most people in the audience the resulting image would completely account for one's peripheral vision. The aspect ratio was over 2.5:1. though the curved screen made the outer panels appear to be less wide than the center.

The audio track was run on a separate tape altogether, and adjusted on the spot by a technician for the effects of that day's audience, humidity, and theatre acoustics. It was fed into seven discrete channels: 5 behind the louvered and perforated screen, and 2 rears. The dynamic range and fidelity of this system would dwarf anything we hear in theatres today - DTS notwithstanding.

At first, there was only one theatre – the Broadway Theatre in New York City (where I saw This is Cinerama in 1954) – but that year, 1952, the year that brought us Singin' in the Rain, this lone movie house was responsible for the highest grossing film of the year! We're talking going to the movies like going to an opera matinee, only with several shows a day. Big ticket, reserved seats, no popcorn - the whole shebang. The first features were travelogues, but after a few years, the powers that were thought the time had come to try their hand at a real feature with real actors. This was a risky proposition because there still remained serious technical problems with the process - and, perhaps, more important, Cinerama presented logistic and dramatic challenges for the actors not seen before, nor since – even with blue screen.

The Movie : 6
It would be nice if we could say that the movie lives up to the technology. And, I do so say. The screenplay is decent – it even won an Oscar for Best Writing. But to be honest, I thought the 1978 TV miniseries Centennial to be more satisfying. It was certainly more faithful to the adventure that is America. On the other hand, How The West Was Won is great family entertainment. It is a musical, an adventure, a love story – several in fact. It's got a non-stop cast and visuals that can't be beat with a stick.

The difficulty really lies elsewhere: within the limits of the medium. The director and photographer must take great pains to place their actors so that they cross from one panel to another, or look across to another actor in a different panel, in ways that don't bring attention to the technical limitations. You will see actors in the foreground who ought to be looking here, but are looking there. Another huge problem is its fixed focal length. It wouldn't be so bad if it were say about 50 mm. But wide angle lenses do real perspective damage in close up (just look at what Kubrick does with them intentionally). We can't help notice that the movement of just a few inches closer from ideal makes a person, or some part of a person, seem momentarily gargantuan.

Image: NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were ripped directly from the Blu-ray disc.
Cinerama's various technical and dramatic difficulties are addressed by the commentators in the full length commentary and in the documentary. But suffice to say that the audience by and large was aware of only one of them – and it was a doozy: The vertical moment where the left and right panels met the center panel never quite lined up. The audience was always aware of a visual disconnect – a distressing violation of picture integrity. Adding insult to injury, the three panels would wiggle, slightly but noticeably, in relation to each other.

In previous video presentations, the image was displayed - warts and all - making the picture less than satisfying. For this new Blu-ray, Warners developed software to align and blend the moment of congruence – or lack thereof - to eliminate the alignment problems that have nagged Cinerama from the outset. The image is now stabilized and continuity across the horizontal is superb – not perfect, but far better than anyone ever saw it fifty years ago. Flaws remain, and we see them plainly in the screen captures, especially in scenes with large patches of sky or other light areas: There is an occasional rippling of color – a kind of vertical banding that belies an otherwise awesome and invisible fix. Much of this could have been addressed with more money, time and care – but make no mistake, what we do see on this Blu-ray, for over 95% of the movie, is stunning: clear, with excellent color, contrast, sharpness and dimensionality - and – in respect to the vertical banding – not a real issue.

The alignment problem, however, was not the only challenge facing Warner engineers. The other difficulty was what to do about the absence of a curved screen. Most importantly, what do we do about the effect a curved screen has on objects moving toward and past the camera. On a curved screen, they appear to be moving in a straight line, as they should. On a flat screen, they appear to turn away from the camera as they get closer to it.

Note the first scene in town where the wagons and horses that pass to the camera's left and right appear to turn sharply away from the camera at the last moment. We see this problem on the video over and over, but most of the time, it is too subtle to notice if you're not looking for it. The worst case example is during the Indian/wagon train chase. There's one brief shot (which repeats itself after about a half minute) where the horses should be traveling from right to left across the screen, but instead appear to be going in circles. It's quite amusing, actually. Warner's Smilebox curved screen processing does not really cure the problem, though it appears to be less pronounced simply because the extreme left and right is cropped enough to notice. I found Smilebox neurologically distressing to watch because of motion problems in the outer panels – so much so I couldn't endure it long enough to know what was causing them.

In any case, if you want a clue of what Cinerama is supposed to look like, given your flat screen display, simply turn to the final couple of minutes in the documentary. While we can see the disastrous effects of the vignetting, directionality is correct. Resolution sucks, but the results are plain enough.

Otherwise, and better still, check the newspapers for Hollywood's Cinerama Dome, the New Neon Cinema in Dayton, Ohio, the Seattle Cinerama, or the Pictureville Cinema at the National Media Museum in Bradford, England. They play the occasional reprise of one or another of surviving and new Cinerama prints from time to time.

Operations: 7
Nothing complicated or remarkable here. The Smilebox (this is a logo, I ask you!) disc is minus the commentary.

Extras: 8
As noted earlier, the documentary, Cinerama Adventure, is a must see. It is a personal journey for so many involved – and their drama will become your drama. The footage is from mixed sources, but given that, the video quality, even in 480i is very good. As for the commentary, I wish it could have addressed the technical issues more precisely instead of merely referring to them. It was not clear to me that anyone not already familiar with the limitations of Cinerama would be able to extrapolate from their description. That said, except for Rudy Behlmer's tendency to add the phrase, and so on and so forth, about every other sentence, the commentary is worthwhile. Mr. Behlmer is a man whom I am sure has forgotten more than I know about cinema, and I would have liked to have heard about some of it instead of his well-meaning, but rather sweeping generalizations.

Bottom line: 9
How The West Was Won was the highest grossing film of 1962. It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 3. The documentary is excellent and the Blu-ray image and sound has never been better. For all its faults - past and still remaining, this Blu-ray exceeds the comparison to a previous video edition by a wider margin than anything I have yet seen. Highly and warmly recommended.

 

Reissued January 4th, 2011: