How The West Was Won... (1 Viewer)

[Steven Simon]

I was with Crawdaddy and Ron Epstein in L.A 2 years ago watching this film... First off, great movie, with a great cast... The image was also fantastic..... The theater we were in took great lenths to make sure the film was projected and shown as it originally was... I was impressed.....

 

[Jeff_HR]

I HATE the lines!!!!!!!! If it is possible, then get rid of the lines. On a related note. I just purchased the 2 CD Soundtrack of HTWWW. A great listen!

 

[John Hodson]

I've said this before and I'll keep on banging on about it; support the removal of the panel lines and you might as well give the thumbs up to colorization, cropping, 5.1 remixes of mono soundtracks and all the various other ways to abuse movies and their makers.

The panel lines simply formed part of the creative process; directors framed their shots with them in mind - the lines were a fact of life with Cinerama and if you are lucky enough to have seen a glorious presentation in a movie theatre you'll have seen, surely, that they were never a problem for the audience. I'm soooo pleased that Warners are apparently giving us both a Smilebox and a 'flat' presentation. Smooth out the lines by all means, but eradicate them? Never!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

John,

I agree.

I saw this film projected in its original
aspect ratio complete with the seam lines.

To remove those lines would be like removing
a piece of history.

The seam lines are negligable. After a few
minutes you don't even notice them.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I borrowed the current DVD from the library just to see how bad it is... I'm not even going to watch it besides the captures needing to be taken. The only good things I can say: it's at least progressive and the 2.0 surround track is pretty good. Besides the obvious, the overture, intermission, and exit music have a still-frame with no text. Ick. The Turner logo pops up right between the overture and the opening credits.

First off, the opening credits are extremely scratched and littered with dirt. It looks like it went through a projector a hundred times. It doesn't help that the image rides around in the frame like a bucking bronco. I might be wrong, but I think every single frame in this transfer has at least three dirt specks and scratches. Not one clean frame!

Enjoy:

Scratches on the opening credits and edge enhancement visible:
[url=http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2757/htwww15xb.jpg] [/url]

Splice lines visible:
[url=http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/8923/htwww20cy.jpg] [/url]

Scratches and dirt again:
[url=http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6250/htwww34jj.jpg] [/url]

Not really transfer related, but look at how poor the color timing is:
[url=http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1679/htwww40kk.jpg] [/url]
The join lines are not to blame, but rather poor color correction.

Mis-aligned panels:
[url=http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/7970/htwww58de.jpg] [/url]

Another visible splice line and some hair:
[url=http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/597/htwww60or.jpg] [/url]

Awful contrast:
[url=http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/8233/htwww76ss.jpg] [/url]

Reddish snow and more dirt, scratches, and hairs:
[url=http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/7250/htwww80hd.jpg] [/url]

Perspective bending due to the image not being curved (this is why Smileboxing is needed):
[url=http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/4443/htwww106la.jpg] [/url]

More scratching and a good indicator of how poor the transfer is:
[url=http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/4672/htwww90ar.jpg] [/url]

More scratching:
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/3839/htwww112mo.jpg

Cue mark:
[url=http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/3906/htwww132ca.jpg] [/url]

 

[Mark B]

Thanks for the captures. I've avoided the current DVD, because VHS widescreen is as good. Really looking forward to seeing what comes of this new conversion...

 

[dana martin]

Was checking out some sites on the net and noticed the Stewart film screens are now releasing a "CineCurve" screen, one of these days i will try to sneak the cost of that past the wife, I just wonder how well this would all play together, i know its not the same but it looks as if it is trying to envelope wonder how the smilebox feature would work with that, or would flat just projected, as for those who said remove the lines, diminish maybe, but removing them, well lets just say "Han Shoots First" don't change it. saw the original release of HTWWW the other day, but noticed this thread and held off, i can wait to see it once it has been updated.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Unless a billion dollars were spent airbrushing every single frame, the lines will always be there. However, WB and HP developed a 4K digital process that allows them to scan each panel at 4K res and digitally re-align the three panels. From there, they can apply the Smileboxing process, which de-warps the image.

I'd imagine that while the lines will always be there, you'll barely see them if the panels are properly color timed and aligned carefully.

Although, I'd imagine WB could make new 70mm and 35mm scope prints from the digital source. The three panels would have a combined resolution of 12K.

 

[Bill Huelbig]

When I saw the movie at the Cinerama Dome in LA last October, the join lines were truly not noticeable unless you were looking for them. One thing, though: the final shot of the Golden Gate Bridge was still distorted, even on the Cinerama screen. Not a complaint, mind you - I could never complain about anything that has to do with Cinerama.

 

[Doug Bull]

Please let this be true!!

This has long been my very favourite Western.
I saw it 5 times during it's original Cinerama run.
It contains one of the most exciting Movie Scores ever written.
It will be worth buying just to hear Alfred Newman's thunderous Score hopefully restored to it's original form.
The Soundtrack for Video, Laserdisc and DVD was wrecked several years ago when it was reduced to just 2 channels.
Many of the Orchestra's various, distinct sounding instrument sounds were thrown out with the removal of the channels.

Years of requests have finally come to fruition and if true then I am estactic.
As for those lines, I would probably prefer them removed, but one way or the other I'll take it as it comes.
Straight horizons!! Whoopee!!

 

[oscar_merkx]

from Barrie Maxwell

 

[Ollie Gatehouse]

Looking forward to this release, haven't had the pleasure of seeing all of this movie yet, mainly in bits courtesy of a TCM doco. It certainly looks very enjoyable and I can't wait to have it in my hands.

 

[Mark Lucas]

That's because the screen in the Cinerama Dome isn't a Cinerama screen. It's a Dimension 150 screen if I'm not mistaken. That's why some shots won't look right - the screen isn't as curved as it should be.

 

[CameronMcC]

great news...can't wait for a smilebox

 

[Doug Bull]

I'm yet to see just how the Smile Box works in terms of Resolution.

Is it FULL Resolution Anamorphic or is it in fact just LOW res Letterbox?

Low Res will look awful on Projection systems.

 

[Dick]

Plus, the size of a Cinerama screen makes the experience so immersive that the lines are bound to be less distracting -
When, on the other hand, you are focusing on a relative small area and aren't darting your eyes way to the left and right to follow the action, join lines seem more obvious. If during the restoration they could somehow even out the tints, color saturation and brightness levels to match across all panels, while also aligning the horizontal elements to meet up perfectly, the lines would really not be distracting.

 

[GerardoHP]

I've been wondering the same thing.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I read some posts on rec.arts.movies.tech that pointed to Smilebox working in any resolution. In fact, a 16x9 Smilebox DVD would use almost the full height of the frame at the edges:

[url=http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1434/16x9letterboxcinerama7yf.jpg] [/url]

[url=http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5725/16x9smilebox0hn.jpg] [/url]

 

[Mark Lucas]

That actually looks pretty good. Now all we need is a curtain on the top and an audience at the bottom and we have the complete Cinerama experience.

 

[Stephen PI]

I would like to see a lot of regular 'scope films in the smilebox format, or a more compromised curve (grinbox?), as it would provide a more cinematic experience. I always thought that the traditional letterbox method too 'electronic', after all regular cinema screens have curves but ofcourse not on the scale of Cinerama.
For example, I would like to see "The Robe" in smilebox.