How the West Was Won coming August 26

[Seretur]

Wohoo! From DVD Times:

Warner Home Video have announced the US Blu-ray Disc release of the restored and remastered edition of How The West Won on 26th August 2008 priced at $34.99 SRP. One of only two narrative feature films produced in the original Cinerama® three-panel widescreen process, How the West Was Won follows four generations of a courageous New England farm family as they travel to the fertile Ohio Valley during America’s early westward expansion.

M-G-M and Cinerama®, Inc. spared no expense to give this sprawling Western saga the huge vistas made possible with the original Cinerama® process. After its initial theatrical engagements in theaters equipped with three synchronized projectors for Cinerama® presentation, the film was subsequently presented on traditional theater screens with the three separate Cinerama® panels being optically joined to form a standard 35mm 2.35:1 widescreen image, leaving most subsequent viewers puzzled by the annoying ‘join lines.’

Following several years of careful development, the technicians at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging perfected a technology that could finally eliminate the ‘join lines,’ and unify the images into a superb viewing experience that captures the essence of the production’s initial road show exhibitions, with an aspect ratio of 2.89:1.

Arriving day-and-date with the new DVD release, the Blu-ray release offers an exclusive in the form of the “SmileBox” version of the film which presents the image with a unique curvature that virtually recreates the true Cinerama® experience in a home theater. This Blu-ray Edition comes with a special Digi-book packaging featuring 32-pages of rare press materials and behind-the-scenes photos.

Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Richard Widmark, Gregory Peck, Lee J. Cobb, Debbie Reynolds and Carroll Baker star in How the West Was Won. Set between 1839 and 1889 against the backgrounds of the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, buffalo hunters, the Pony Express and the first transcontinental railroad, the film consists of five segments, with direction by Henry Hathaway, John Ford and George Marshall, and written by James R. Webb and John Gay, suggested by a Life Magazine series of the same name. The film was the winner of 3 Academy Awards® (Best Screenplay, Best Sound and Best Editing) as well as being nominated for an additional five Oscars®, including Best Picture. In 1997, How the West Was Won was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the US National Film Registry.

How the West Was Won Special Features:

* Film Historian Commentary
* Dave Strohmaier’s critically-acclaimed, feature-length documentary Cinerama® Adventure
* The Making of How the West Was Won (Archival featurette)
* Original Theatrical trailer

[Scripture]

This is great news. I love seeing announcements for older titles. I have a feeling that this will be an impressive transfer, so I'll be picking this one up.

[blitz6speed]

It better have a lossless track. Looking very forward to this tho, i love the classics.

[Blu Titan]

Great to see more of the older catalog titles released.

[iDarren]

I can't wait to see how they've aligned the 3 panels. It looked kind of wacky on VHS.

[AaronSCH]

Well, unfortunately, the "Digi-books" are here to stay. I guess I will just pick up the imports or relent. Both "How the West Was Won" as well as "Bonnie and Clyde" are gonna be in my collection one way or the other.

[Heart&Soul]

I forgot about this movie. I haven't seen it since it originally came out.

[DetroitSportsFan]

This might make my dad go Blu!

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by AaronSCH

Well, unfortunately, the "Digi-books" are here to stay. I guess I will just pick up the imports or relent.

Yeah, it's a shame.

[BluDomain]

Originally Posted by AaronSCH

Well, unfortunately, the "Digi-books" are here to stay. I guess I will just pick up the imports or relent. Both "How the West Was Won" as well as "Bonnie and Clyde" are gonna be in my collection one way or the other.

Hopefully the imports will be in a keepcase. If not
I'll do without. So sorry I bought "Bonnie and Clyde."

[RobertB]

Ah man.... every time I see this title pop up I hope this is the mini-series made in the 70's. This one hasn't even been released on DVD as far as I can tell.

Oh well, the movie is decent also so I guess I'll have to buy it.

But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE with a ton of sugar on top...give us the mini-series also.

[AaronSCH]

Originally Posted by BluDomain

Hopefully the imports will be in a keepcase. If not I'll do without. So sorry I bought "Bonnie and Clyde."

I just don't know how I can hold out buying films like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "How the West Was Won." Fingers crossed that these will be region free imports in keep cases.

[jon s]

I hope they can get the three video frames aligned and color corrected to match each other. The original DVD was pretty pathetic...

[bhampton]

Dern,

Thought this was about Led Zepp for some reason.

-Brian

[wnicholas76]

Warner Bros. has announced the August 26th release of the all-star "How the West Was Won" on Blu-ray. With an enormous cast including John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Widmark, George Peppard, Karl Malden, and Lee J. Cobb, and three directors for the different storylines (including John Ford and Henry Hathaway) makes this a must-own for any Blu-ray collection! According to Warner, the movie is supposed to be packaged in a Digibook edition, so more than likely, it's the same Blu-ray/coffee book combo that is packaged with Bonnie and Clyde and the upcoming Dirty Harry. But Digibook or not, I'm still going to own this movie on Blu-ray. A movie on Blu-ray featuring the Duke and Jimmy Stewart is just too good to pass up! To view the info, here's the URL:

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releas...t-was-won.html

[WickyWoo]

Damnit, I'll be in LA a month before. I'm sure the Cinerama dome will be running it as a tie-in

[iDarren]

Originally Posted by jon s

I hope they can get the three video frames aligned and color corrected to match each other. The original DVD was pretty pathetic...

err.. yeah... I was thinking I watched it on VHS, but it must have been DVD. It was wide screen, but as I said above, the 3 panels looked pretty wacky.

But they are claiming the new Blu version is improved with some new technique right?

[NoQuestion]

Hopefully WB releases all the "digibooks" in jewel cases by Christmas or these will remain unpurchased

[crazybat_07]

I agree. DigiBooks dont go really well with the keep cases.........and they might not even protect as good............

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by NoQuestion

Hopefully WB releases all the "digibooks" in jewel cases by Christmas or these will remain unpurchased

So packaging is more important than content? Weird.

I'm extremely pleased with this release. Releases of classic movies like these is why I bought into HD and I can't wait to see the smilebox version. Thank you Warner!