It’s nice to see an “Ultimate” edition DVD with a focus on the movie rather than the features. With How the West Was Won Warner Home Video has kept it simple, offering up the film in its original Cinerama, 3-Panel, 2.89:1 aspect ratio along with a feature length documentary on the history of Cinerama. The presentation and quality of the film and its restoration were priority one here and only the best extras were chosen to accompany it.
I had never seen How the West Was Won, which is a winner of three Oscars, nominated for four more including Best Picture and was the first feature film to be made and shown in the three-camera Cinerama process, which involves three separate film panels that must be merged and shown simultaneously and can only be shown in a proper perspective on a massive Cinerama screen… At least, until now.
Made up of five distinct segments (The Rivers, The Plains, The Civil War, The Railroad and The Outlaws), How the West Was Won is not a classic for its overall story elements as it plays more like a television mini-series shot with three great directors and made with the biggest names in Hollywood at that time. However, the spectacle of it all is not lost on the enjoyment of living the story. By no means is this the greatest film I have ever seen, but it is enjoyable for all its simplicity and a lot of fun based on its place in film history.
When shown in theaters, a Cinerama style screen would be curved to make up for the three-camera process and while Warner could have done something to recreate the experience (as you will see in the documentary on disc three) it was probably for the best they left it in the more traditional rectangle presentation as only a couple of times while watching do you lose a bit of perspective. Warner has also done a spectacular job of digital removing and softening the join lines between the three separate frames playing side-by-side. Only in scenes with solid color such as the wide landscape shots with heavy amounts of clear blue sky will you notice anything as well as one early scene on the second disc in which the left frame doesn’t match at all with the rest of the scene, but considering it is only about 3 seconds it is hardly worth complaining about. The only other noticeable issue with the process of matching the panels would be times in which one panel may be noticeably darker or lighter in contrast to the other two. Again, this happens so infrequently it isn’t a major complaint, and just as with the unmatched join lines I am pretty sure there wasn’t much more that could be done.
As I mentioned, considering this is an Ultimate edition DVD you would typically assume that would mean it would come equipped with several meaningless featurettes and a bunch of garbage you don’t need. While the paper products that come with it, including a group of photos, a reproduction of the original press book and a Cinerama souvenir book are something you will look at maybe once or twice are sort of a waste, the 90 minute documentary on the third disc and the audio commentary that accompanies the film are all this release needed to be considered Ultimate.
The film itself is spread across two discs. The first disc comes with the first half of the film as well as the theatrical trailer. The second disc obviously comes with the second half of the film and both discs one and two come equipped with an audio commentary made up of filmmaker David Strohmaier, Cinerama Director John Sittig, film historian Rudy Behlmer, music historian Jon Burlingame and stuntman Loren James. Considering this is a two hour and 42 minute film you would think a commentary with a bunch of historians speaking about the good ol’ days may get a bit boring by the time the second disc rolls around. Not a chance. This is actually one of the best commentaries I have heard in a long time as each person brings so much to the table and they often encourage each other to elaborate or expand on some of their statements. You can’t help but be interested. There is even a point in which Behlmer, who knows just about everything, even learns something from the conversation. That’s saying something.
A second bonus has to do with the breaking up of the film onto two discs. Considering it could have easily been placed on one disc taking into account its sub-three-hour running time, you will be happy it wasn’t once you notice the quality of the picture and the brand new soundtrack remastered, restored and I am assuming remixed for today’s technology to look and sound better than ever. Of course, considering I had never seen it before I can’t say for sure, but it is showing at the Arclight in Los Angeles in its remastered form beginning on October 28 in a limited engagement so if you want to test drive the real thing that will be your chance. I know I would if I wasn’t up here in Seattle where our Cinerama only shows the latest blockbuster.
The documentary on the third disc is your final piece of history as it opens up the world of Cinerama from its early stages of inception. It’s impressive in its early stages as well as a bit much at times. The feature runs about 90 minutes and could have done with a 30 minute cut. However, it would have been nice if other Cinerama efforts mentioned in the documentary had been included on the disc as well and not only shown in snippets. This primarily includes This is Cinerama and Seven Wonders of the World. Granted that would mean at least one more disc, if not two, and would have bumped up the price tag for this release, but this Ultimate edition is just as much about How the West Was Won as it is about the Cinerama filming process and it would have made it a must buy.
As it stands I would definitely recommend this release for anyone that loves this film. However, I would say a 16:9 television screen is a necessity. I am running a 42″ screen at my place and it fit perfectly, but I would hate to see how it fits on a 4:3 27-incher. How the West Was Won was made at a time when television was taking over. It was an attempt to get people back in the theaters and to make going to the movies an event once again. It is a film that is meant to be seen on the largest screen possible and you should probably take that into consideration if you are eyeing this title.
