I can't wait to see the widescreen version of The Big Trail as well, and I'm glad they are including the 35mm version, because I never bothered to buy the old edition. I imagine it will be a new transfer, so it should be worthwhile for people who bought the earlier copy.
Curiously, IMDB.COM says that
the Grandeur version was restored to 35mm anamorphic prints. I wonder if the DVD transfer will be from that restoration, or is this a new restoration going back to the 70mm negative? Will the transfer be from an optically derived 35mm anamorphic element, or will it be mastered from 70mm? Either way, I am just very pleased that a Grandeur film is being released to DVD.
Raoul Walsh made some interesting CinemaScope films, so The Big Trail in Grandeur is ripe for comparison. I don't think much of Battle Cry, but the exteriors in The Tall Men are brilliant - he goes long shot crazy to emphasise the big and wide screen.
Grandeur was shot on a 70mm negative, but unlike Todd-AO/Super & Ultra Panavision, each frame was 4 instead of 5 perforations high. I believe Sovscope 70 - the 70mm format used in the USSR - also used 70mm negatives and prints, but in a 5 perf high aperture.
It was only U.S. 70mm print systems that decided to used 65mm negatives. Which is kind of strange considering that Todd-AO initially just converted the 70mm Mitchell cameras made for Grandeur and Realife in the 1930s.
King Vidor shot
Billy the Kid in MGM's competitor 70mm Realife system, then promptly pleaded with the studios to keep using 70mm. He thought it was far superior to the 35mm Academy format, but it failed to become a standard because (
as people like John Belton argue) it was too expensive so soon after the conversion to sound.
This article is fascinating. It is by the cinematographer on The Big Trail, who says:
Quote:
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I can confidently say that the wider film is not only the coming medium for such great pictures, but that it will undoubtedly become the favored one for all types of picture. It marks a definite advance in motion picture technique, and from it will undoubtedly be evolved the truly stereoscopic picture of the future, toward which so many people have long been striving.
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Well, here we are ~78 years later, but there is still no concerted push for 3D in cinemas as a standard like widescreen. 3D remains a novelty, rather than a common feature of filmmaking. Rather than 70mm, and other widescreen systems, leading to 3D features. In the 1950s widescreen competed against 3D, and seemingly relegated it to its novelty status.
But who knows what the future holds?