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

06 Oct

Posted by admin as DVD

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

Binding : Blu-ray
ProductGroup : DVD
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Brand : Warner Brothers
Label : Warner Home Video
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Studio : Warner Home Video
ReleaseDate : 2008-09-09

List Price: USD $34.99
Lowest Used Price: USD $11.91
Lowest New Price: USD $14.98

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Features:

Description
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!
Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

5/5
It doesn't get much better than this! (2009-07-02)
This brief review applies to the BluRay release. Excellent. Many others have already given detailed reviews of the movie itself, it's historical significance, plot synopsis, and critical remarks regarding the performances. But if you remember and have a fondness for the picture, this BluRay presentation hits the mark. The transfer and blending of the three film strips is almost flawless and you rarely notice the vertical separations. To fully realize the quality of this edition, you need to project the image onto an eight-foot wide screen or better and sit about six feet away. Add full multi-channel sound and you have an experience to enjoy. However, at the price it has dropped to recently, it's well worth it for the approximately 90 minute documentary on the development of CINERAMA. Warner Home Video and Amazon delivered on this one! Highly recommended.

5/5
Favorite Blu-Ray of 08, Favorite Western of 63 (2009-06-25)
Full Widescreen CINERAMA version and Smilebox (Simulated Cinerama version made by a Pro) version gives you three 35mm prints to make a 105mm image for your BluRay image and a multiTrack recording for your 5.1. Outside of Blade Runner, Batman Returns this is thE BD Disc!

4/5
Brings back great memories (2009-06-24)
I am old enough to remember seeing this movie in cinerama in downtown Chicago. It was wonderful, but you could see the seams. The sound was great.
I have seen it on vhs and dvd. Very disappointing.
But now, in blue ray and on a 2.35 54 x 129 inch screen, wow wow. Colors and sharpness are spectacular. Also, they have managed to almost eliminate the seams where the screens met.
I cannot decide which version they provide you with to watch. The standard version even on a 2.35 screeen gives you black bars. Using the curved version you just get a strange scalloped part at the top and bottom.
The story works, not overly complicated. They have thrown most of MGM's stars into the movie. Great to hear Spencer Tracy do the narration.
I rented it first and then bought it.

2/5
Unsmiling box (2009-06-23)
Great movie, I bought the Blu-Ray version. The only flaw was the
"smilebox" nonsense, a lame attempt to simulate the original Cinerama
effect. This was truly obnoxious. Please, next time think about creating
a version WITH and another WITHOUT this excessively cute and stunningly
useless stupid pet trick. I will happily dump my copy in the trash when
I find the correct undamaged Blu-ray version.

4/5
BluRay Release -- an epic in proportion (2009-06-10)
HTWWW Blu-Ray release is definitely a MUST-HAVE for all collectors who enjoy motion picture epics. I remember watching this movie in its original 3 projection panels and mesmerized by the larger-than-life moving images and surround-sound. Watching it again in Blu-Ray format, especially the SHOWBOX version, really does more than justice to the original intent of the movie producers. I also followed its various stages of releases from a dismal VHS tape to laserdisc and DVD formats. And being a HTWWW avid fan, nothing gives me the plesasure of reliving the magnificence and grandeur of this original celluloid masterpiece right in my living room...thru the magic of Blu-Ray.

Product Information and Prices stored: July 4 , 2009, 01:52

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