- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
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- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Paramount has released John Sturges' VistaVision production of Last Train from Gun Hill, which is a textbook example of a way in which technology affects art.
Like many large format films, Last Train's Vista double width negative gave the cinematographer, Charles Lang, Jr. the ability to shoot long shots knowing that the negative and resultant print would have the resolving power for those shots to be viewed on screen with the necessary clarity.
Without Vistavision, these long shots would most like not even have been attempted.
While not spectacularly presented, the film is very professionally handled and is fully up to the expectations created by the format, knowing that the original negative is no longer printable. Any Eastman color 1959 production, being the second worst year for color cinematography, must be taken from separation masters,
Luckily, these masters seem to fit together well going from the 8 perf seps to a 4 perf dupe negative, used for the transfer.
The separation masters seem to have been printed dry in the early wet-gate era, as Vista scratches can occasionally be seen when projected onto a large screen, as well as an occasional Newton ring, a photo-optical artifact printed into the separations from contact with the original negative.
The presentation of this film on DVD hits as high a quality standard as possible without the benefit of a full restoration, which would not be financially feasible.
Take a look at Last Train with the concept of long shots in mind and knowing that the cinematographer was responsible for some wonderful work, inclusive of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir for Fox, and a number of early Paramount films, especially Angel, Desire, Peter Ibbetson, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer and She Done Him Wrong. His later work includes The Big Carnival, Copper Canyon, The Big Heat, It Should Happen to You, Sabrina, The Man from Laramie, The Rainmaker, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and a little comedy entitled Some Like it Hot.
RAH
Like many large format films, Last Train's Vista double width negative gave the cinematographer, Charles Lang, Jr. the ability to shoot long shots knowing that the negative and resultant print would have the resolving power for those shots to be viewed on screen with the necessary clarity.
Without Vistavision, these long shots would most like not even have been attempted.
While not spectacularly presented, the film is very professionally handled and is fully up to the expectations created by the format, knowing that the original negative is no longer printable. Any Eastman color 1959 production, being the second worst year for color cinematography, must be taken from separation masters,
Luckily, these masters seem to fit together well going from the 8 perf seps to a 4 perf dupe negative, used for the transfer.
The separation masters seem to have been printed dry in the early wet-gate era, as Vista scratches can occasionally be seen when projected onto a large screen, as well as an occasional Newton ring, a photo-optical artifact printed into the separations from contact with the original negative.
The presentation of this film on DVD hits as high a quality standard as possible without the benefit of a full restoration, which would not be financially feasible.
Take a look at Last Train with the concept of long shots in mind and knowing that the cinematographer was responsible for some wonderful work, inclusive of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir for Fox, and a number of early Paramount films, especially Angel, Desire, Peter Ibbetson, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer and She Done Him Wrong. His later work includes The Big Carnival, Copper Canyon, The Big Heat, It Should Happen to You, Sabrina, The Man from Laramie, The Rainmaker, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and a little comedy entitled Some Like it Hot.
RAH
