The Reconstruction and Restoration of John Wayne's THE ALAMO

[Indian Hills Theater]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...ris032009.html

"THE ALAMO is the greatest picture I've ever seen. It will last forever, run forever, for all peoples, all families everywhere."

- Legendary filmmaker, John Ford, 1960.

THE ALAMO was produced as a large format 70mm (5 perf) motion picture, with an original running time of approximately 192 minutes plus Overture, Entr'acte and Exit music. It was a "special event" film distributed via Roadshow with advance ticket sales. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, winning for Best Sound.

Soon after its initial release in 1960, a situation arose based primarily on local transportation problems. In smaller cities, where bus service from the outlying areas was the main means of transit, the last busses were leaving before the film ended. As a result at least 30 minutes was cut from the film.

As John Wayne was shooting Hatari! in Africa, the actual cutting was performed by Michael Wayne (John's son) and the film's editor, Stuart Gilmore. Because the 6 track audio could only be either cut or slightly remixed, a detailed fine cut was not an option. Those involved in the cut were led to believe that the extant 70mm prints would be trimmed and resounded, and new printing matrices produced for the 35mm release in the shorter form – but that the original negative would not be harmed or modified.

That is not what occurred. The original negative and all protection elements, inclusive of the 65mm separation masters, were cut to conform to the new 161-minute length; the trims and deletions were destroyed.

For over thirty years, the original Roadshow version of the film was feared lost, until in 1991 a lone surviving 70mm print was found in remarkably good condition in a film exchange in Toronto.


FULL article & tech details at link above.

We never bought the DVD. It didn't have the restored clips that were on our Laser Disk.


IHT