How the West Was Won

Rating:
Summary: Great film but Ted Turner should be out of the movie biz
Review: No need to dwell on the film. It's a classic, and rightly so. But the DVD missed a lot of opportunities. Maybe the screen seams could have been fixed. Maybe not. But what's with the cropping?!? No excuse for that. And Ted Turner's logo at the opening is a disgrace. It's a matter defacing a national treasure. It is nothing short of vandalism. Still, the chances of getting a better DVD transfer of this film are pretty slim. I suggest you get it and try to ignore Mr. Turner and his ego.

Rating:
Summary: DVD format could have been improved
Review: I saw this film in Cinerama in Hollywood at least 3 times and will never forget the spectacluar panarama effects, something I know DVD cannnot entirely capture, yet, even still, the ratio on DVD is all wrong. Characters are left out of some shots. Complete action not included. Why! We purchase wide screen additions specifically for the FULL SCREEN effect yet many of the scenes are cropped. Parts of the sound track are fuzzy in tone, too, which distracts from an otherwide great epic. Why do manufacturer's do this to us? the technonogy today can correct these mishaps. Two still photgraphs, one during the Overture and the other during the intermission music... Da! Boring shots any amature could capture. Why not include the fine art work, the splendid posters that indentified this great film at the time. We film buffs want to see How The West Was Won paraphernalia. The film is a history lesson in itself which I shared with my 11 y.o. son. But the concept of such a remarkable film, the story telling, and the actors that are no longer with us today, deserve a better version than what this DVD produces. Yet, again, the film is awesome, and Alfred Newman's score is dramatic and powerful and beautiful. One of his best. I give it 4 stars because of my recollections of a great Cinerma motion picture. A motion picture event! It could have been more, especially on DVD format.

Rating:
Summary: Still a Disappointment
Review: I just watched the newest release of How the West Was Won. I was hoping for an improvement over the previous release. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The criticisms of the earlier release remain. The imperfection of the three-camera Cinerama process is still very evident. Like other reviewers, I saw to original 2 -3 times in theaters in the 1960's. At that time, it was a spectacular widescreen experience and we ignored the three-frame presentation. However, now this seems archaic when compared to today's single-camera widescreen presentations. It is really distracting, particularly in outdoor shots. Even the audio track has not been updated to take advantage of current home theater systems. Since Turner is so proud of the film that it adds its logo at the beginning, you would think they would be proud enough to remaster the original to make it more appealing. They have certainly spent enough to colorize B & W movies! However, on a positive note--the Alfred Newman score remains vibrant, memorable, and superb. Also, we can be critical of the DVD transfer, but that is what we saw on the screen almost 40 years ago! It remains true to the original theatrical presentation. Despite its many imperfections by today's standards, it's still a great movie with lots of action.

Rating:
Summary: My Piano Dream (The Music)
Review: I just love this movie. The music is my favorite thing to play on my instrument, the piano. The characters stand out as very striking. The setting is beautiful and I have learned a lot about history from this movie.

Rating:
Summary: The best we can reasonably expect
Review: I have seen this movie when it first came out in Cinerama (twice), on VHS, and now on DVD. The DVD is not perfect. The Cinerama process used three cameras, and when something moves from one camera to another, there is distortion. But short of doing a frame by frame digital restoration, which would cost millions, this DVD does a very fine job of bringing an excellent western to the home viewer. It is much better than the VHS version in every respect.

Rating:
Summary: how the west was won
Review: I would like to review the movie cause i have a major project to do and i have to re watch the movie

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie- Pathetic Transfer
Review: This is the first (and only) CINERAMA film I ever saw, without doubt the most thrilling aspect of the movie is the grand scale of the Cinerama process and the multi- channel soundtrack. The transfer to DVD is an insult. In this era of digital technology it is easily possible to correct the color balance errors evident in the "seams" of this otherwise remarkable motion picture. I agree with other reviewers, lose the Turner promo. The color balance, saturation, and picture

resolution are very average, and fall well below of what the DVD process is capable. One redeeming feature is the soundtrack. Finally, after viewing the VHS tape, and Laserdisc of this movie, the DVD release incorporates the correct rear channel information of the original release. Finally, and most regrettably, this DVD release has been cropped. Don't we buy widescreen movies to see how they were originally shot? HELLO HOLLYWOOD!

Rating:
Summary: unintentionally hilarious
Review: How The West was Won is a big turkey of a movie shot in cinerama on a three camera process that was terrible years ago, and its various manifestations on Tv are bad too because you can see the seams of the three cameras from the Cinerama attempt at wide screen largeness, and you could see them in Cinerama in 1963. I was there. Ah d=for the days of Cinemascope on curved screens at 50 feet in length!

This is a really embartassing movie for its size and its cast; Jimmy Stewart who is always good can do little but visibly hold back the laughter as he talks western twang to Carroll Baker, his love interest, and he wears leather pants and a coon skin cap.

Debbie Reynolds tries hard to fight the awful script and the make up that makes her look grey rather than old.

Gregory Peck needed To Kill A Mockingbird after this. Thelma Ritter sounds like a New York Cab Driver, and Agnes Moorehead etal on the death dealing raft is a sight to see, with hands waving and screams emitting from her. You wanted the Indians to deal their deadliest blows to these folks.

An always highly overrated film, while films like They Came to Cordura with Cooper and Rita Hayworth go unnoticed, or The Hanging Tree with Cooper and Malden are on VHS for a year or so..

For a great western spectacle with intelligent things in it and a great cast and lovely letterboxing, get The Big Country. If you hate westerns, buy Whatever happened To Baby Jane?

But How the West Was Won? Bad , but funny..rent, do not buy for the laughs.

Rating:
Summary: You'll love this film if you like westerns
Review: This film was a great box office draw at the time of its theatrical release in the early sixties. Those of you familiar with the history of nineteenth century America will really appreciate how the all-star cast presents the settling of the frontier from the Erie Canal in New York State to the southwestern states. Most of the cast appears in rather short segments in different time-eras; the principal player who appears throughout the picture is Debbie Reynolds. However, the DVD doesn't really present the full effect that the cinerama in the theater did.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Film, Horrible DVD
Review: You know the thing I hate worst about this disc? Not the non-anamorphic transfer, I can live without that. And not the "Turner" logo during the overture, that's forgivable. But what I hate most about this (and in fact, every) edition is the incorrect aspect ratio. This was one of the very first full widescreen presentations (as we know it today) accomplished by cramming three standard-issue screens together and creating the extremely wide aspect ratio. In fact, the 70mm prints reached upwards of 2.75:1. Now, it doesn't take a math major can conclude that a good portion of the screen has been arbitrarily chopped off, and that is something I just cannot stand for. I demand a boycott on this great and classic film in hopes the studio will release the edition of this film it so heartily deserves.