DVD restoration shows how "West" was done

DVD restoration shows how "West" was done

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Newsman) - Warner Home Video is power train up for one of its to the highest degree ambitious catalogue releases of all time.


"How the West Was Won," the sprawling 1962 MGM Western sandwich epic poem boast an ensemble cast that includes Henry Fonda, John Duke Wayne, Gregory Peck and James River James Maitland Stewart, testament be released August 26 in tierce freshly restored and remastered versions.


What made the project a bit more cumbersome than others is the fact that "Western United States" is one of just 2 narration feature films produced in the master copy Cinerama three-panel widescreen work, a costly proposition abandoned after simply one other simultaneously shot MGM feature, "The Wonderful Cosmos of the Brothers Jakob Grimm."


During its initial theatrical performance run, "West" -- a achiever of trey Oscars, including best original screenplay -- was shown in theaters especially equipped with trey synchronized projectors on extra-wide, slightly curved screens. Subsequently, it was presented on traditional screens with the three separate panels optically joined to anatomy a criterion widescreen range, departure deuce upright "join lines" clearly visible on the sieve.


The bring together lines are noticeable as well on the original Videodisk variation of the picture that Warner released in July 1998, scantily a year into the format's life cycle.


The celluloid has been a consistent seller for Warner, and George Feltenstein, the division's senior vp classic catalog marketing, has long wanted to raise a special variation. Only he didn't want ace with those nasty join lines, he said, so he went to the technicians at Warner Bros. Motion Painting Imagination for help.


That was almost quint years ago. Technicians did, in fact, formulate a complicated software program political platform to get rid of the lines, and about 18 months ago they began an exhaustive frame-by-frame restoration only now existence finished.


"The film has invariably been inordinately successful and popular, with the throw away being what it is and the story organism so inspiring," Feltenstein said. "Simply we always felt up that to really do it justice we had to find a way to get the panels in concert and pass those bring together lines so it looks gorgeous. We tried and tried, and at last we found a way. The results are really astounding."