How The West Was Won [RePoPo] (H 264 AC3 5 1)

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How the West Was Won (1962)
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Technical Information
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Type..................: Movie
Container file........: AVI
Video Format..........: H.264
Total Bitrate.........: 2307 Kbps / 2445 Kbps
Audio format..........: AC3 384 Kbps (UNTOUCHED)
Audio Languages.......: English 5.1
Subtitles Ripped......: Spanish
Subtitles in Subpack..: English, Spanish, Japanese, French, Thai
Resolution............: 704x240
Aspect Ratio..........: 2.89:1 (approx)
Original Aspect Ratio.: 2.79:1
Color.................: Color
FPS...................: 23.976
Source................: NTSC DVD
Duration..............: 01:24:42 // 01:19:56
Genre.................: WESTERN!!
IMDb Rating...........: 6.9
Movie Information.....: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056085/

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PLEASE NOTICE
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This is a rip of the latest DVD release for How The West Was Won. It's easily
recognizable due to the restoration process, which has virtually deleted any
trace of the vertical lines which originally marked the separation of the
Cinerama panels.

This release is BIG. 2x1.4Gb files, one for each part of the movie. I hope you
understand and enjoy the HQ of this rip. I could have reduced it by half, but
after a few tests, the rich colours, the terrific definition, and the glorious
camera work couldn't be mistreated, and I didn't want to add compression
artifacts either.

I'm sorry if it's too big in size for you, but I think the unbelievable quality
of the original release deserves it.

Check you have installed the right codecs, as listed in this .nfo file, before
trying to play it. VLC will play this file without having to install any codec.

If you don't like the codec(s), container, resolution, file size, languages or
any technical aspect on this rip, keep it to yourself and go and do your own.

Serious feedback on quality will always be welcome

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General Information
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SYNOPSIS: (by Andrea LeVasseur)

Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a
true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford,
and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families
and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 and 1889.
Spencer Tracy narrates the film, which cost an estimated 15 million dollars to
complete. In the first segment, "The Rivers," pioneer Zebulon Prescott (Karl
Malden) sets out to settle in the West with his wife (Agnes Moorehead) and their
four children. Along with other settlers and river pirates, they run into
mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who sells animal hides. The
Prescotts try to raft down the Ohio River in a raft, but only daughters Lilith
(Debbie Reynolds) and Eve (Carroll Baker) survive. Eve and Linus get married,
while Lilith continues on. In the second segment, "The Plains," Lilith ends up
singing in a saloon in St. Louis, but she really wants to head west in a wagon
train led by Roger Morgan (Robert Preston). Along the way, she's accompanied by
the roguish gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), who claims he can protect
her. After he saves her life during an Indian attack, they get married and move
to San Francisco. In the third segment, "The Civil War," Eve and Linus' son, Zeb
(George Peppard), fights for the Union. After he's forced to kill his
Confederate friend, he returns home and gives the family farm to his brother. In
the fourth segment, "The Railroads," Zeb fights with his railroad boss (Richard
Widmark), who wants to cut straight through Indian territory. Zeb's co-worker
Jethro (Henry Fonda) refuses to cut through the land, so he quits and moves to
the mountains. After the railway camp is destroyed, Zeb heads for the mountains
to visit him. In the fifth segment, "The Outlaws," Lilith is an old widow
traveling from California to Arizona to stay with her nephew Zeb on his ranch.
However, he has to fight a gang of desperadoes first. How the West Was Won
garnered three Oscars, for screenplay, film editing, and sound production.

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CAST:
James Stewart - Linus Rawlings
Henry Fonda - Jethro Stuart
Gregory Peck - Cleve Van Valen
Debbie Reynolds - Lilith Prescott
Richard Widmark - Mike King
George Peppard - Zeb Rawlings
Karl Malden - Zebulon Prescott
John Wayne - Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
Carolyn Jones - Julie Rawlings
Robert Preston - Roger Morgan
Eli Wallach - Charlie Gant
Carroll Baker - Eve Prescott
Lee J. Cobb - Marshal Lou Ramsey
Brigid Bazlen - Dora Hawkins
Walter Brennan - Col. Hawkins
David Brian - Attorney
Andy Devine - Corporal Peterson
Raymond Massey - Abraham Lincoln
Agnes Moorehead - Rebecca Prescott
Thelma Ritter - Agathe Clegg
Mickey Shaughnessy - Dep. Stover
Russ Tamblyn - Confederate deserter
Rodopho (Rudy) Acosta - Gant gang member
Mark Allen - Colin
Beulah Archuletta - Indian woman
Willis B. Bouchey - Surgeon
Charlie Briggs - Barker
Paul Bryar - Auctioneer's assistant
Walter Burke - Wagon poker player
Kim Charney - Sam Prescott
Ken Curtis - Union Soldier
John Damler - Lawyer
Christopher Dark - Poker player
Ken Dibbs - Blacksmith
Jay C. Flippen - Huggins
Sol (Saul) Gorss - Henchman
James Griffith - Poker player
William Henry - Staff Officer
Roy Jenson - Henchman
Claude Johnson - Jeremiah Rawlings
Jack Lambert - Gant henchman
John Larch - Grimes
J. Edward McKinley - Auctioneer
Harry Monty
Henry "Harry" Morgan - Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Boyd "Red" Morgan - Stunts
Robert Nash - Lawyer
Tudor Owen - Parson Harvey
Harvey Parry - Henchman
Jack Pennick - Corporal Murphy
Gil Perkins - Henchman
Walter Reed
Chuck Roberson - Union soldier/stunts
Victor Romito - Henchman
Jamie Ross - Bruce
Gene Roth - Riverboat poker player
Bryan Russell - Zeke Prescott
Joe Sawyer - Ship's Officer
Harry Dean Stanton - Gant gang member (billed as Dean Stanton)
Clinton Sundberg - Hylan Seabury
Karl Swenson - Train conductor
Spencer Tracy - Narrator
Lee Van Cleef - Marty
Carleton Young - Union Soldier

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CREW:
John Ford - Director
Henry Hathaway - Director
George Marshall - Director
Bernard Smith - Producer
James R. Webb - Screenwriter
William H. Daniels - Cinematographer
Milton Krasner - Cinematographer
Charles B. Lang - Cinematographer
Joseph La Shelle - Cinematographer
Harold E. Wellman - Cinematographer
Ken Darby - Composer (Music Score)
Dave Guard - Songwriter
Johnny Mercer - Songwriter
Alfred Newman - Composer (Music Score)
Whiskeyhill Singers - Songwriter
Harold Kress - Editor
George W. Davis - Art Director
William Ferrari - Art Director
Addison Hehr - Art Director
Henry W. Grace - Set Designer
Don Greenwood, Jr. - Set Designer
Jack Mills - Set Designer
Walter Plunkett - Costume Designer
William J. Tuttle - Makeup
Arnold A. Gillespie - Special Effects
Robert R. Hoag - Special Effects
William McGarry - First Assistant Director
Robert Saunders - First Assistant Director
William Shanks - First Assistant Director
Wingate Smith - First Assistant Director
Loren Janes - Stunts
Robert Sidney - Choreography
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TRIVIA:
* Some stock footage from other (non-Cinerama) epics were used. The Mexican
army marching past the Alamo came from The Alamo (1960) and a civil war battle
was taken from Raintree County (1957). The final scenes of the modern U.S. were
from This Is Cinerama (1952).

* No ordinary "single-camera" version was filmed simultaneously with the
Cinerama version, resulting in two noticeable dividing lines on the non-Cinerama
theater prints, video, TV and DVD versions (indicating the three synchronized
film strips originally used). The same problem occurred with the other Cinerama
film in release at the time, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962),
which had not been shot in a "single-camera" version either. Both were MGM
films.

* Since the three lenses of the Cinerama camera sat at angles to each other
on the camera itself, it was very problematic for actors to film a scene as they
would in front of a single-lensed camera. When their images were projected onto
the three panels of the Cinerama screen, it would appear as though the actors
were looking either slightly up-screen or slightly down-screen, and not directly
at their fellow actors. This is very evident in a few scenes in the previous
Cinerama film, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962). However, by the
time this film went into production, this problem was solved somewhat. In order
to compensate for the lens angles, actors would have to look one-third of the
way in and toward the camera, and pretend that they were looking at their fellow
actors. Hence, when their images were projected onto the Cinerama screen, it
would appear as though they were looking at each other. It was a very difficult
process for actors, which is one of the reasons that three-panel Cinerama was
abandoned for narrative films after this film was released.

* During the Indian attack that was filmed in Lone Pine, California, a
Conestoga Wagon tumbles down a hill. In order to create the illusion of the
audience being inside of a tumbling wagon, a track was built down the slope of a
small hill and the top portion of a Conestoga Wagon, without the wheels, was
affixed onto a flatbed along with a mechanism that would turn the wagon over and
over as the flatbed was guided down the hill. The Cinerama camera, in turn, was
attached to one end of the flatbed so that it could shoot directly through the
turning wagon as the stuntmen, including Loren Janes, were tumbled around the
insides of the wagon along with boxes, barrels, blankets and other cargo. It
took more than two days to prepare the scene and several takes to complete. In
the final cut, this scene lasts no more than five seconds on the screen.

* The first non-documentary Cinerama film, it was also one of the last to
use the old three-camera technique, resulting in two very visible, somewhat
distracting, dividing lines in the non-Cinerama print and all TV and home video
versions.

* Hope Lange was cast as a love interest for George Peppard's character, but
her scenes were cut from the final print of the film. She portrayed young Julie
Stuart, the daughter of Henry Fonda's character, Jethro Stuart. After Lang's
scenes were deleted from the film, Julie was later portrayed by Carolyn Jones.

* Stuntman Bob Morgan was seriously injured, and almost died, while
performing a stunt in this picture. Toward the end of the film, there is a
gunfight on a moving train between the sheriff and a gang of train robbers.
Morgan was one of the stuntmen playing a robber and was crouched next to a pile
of logs on a flatcar. The chains holding the logs together snapped, and Morgan
was crushed by the falling logs. He was so badly hurt it took him five years to
recover to the point where he was able to move by himself and walk unaided.

* Due to the detail that would have been shown via the Cinerama process, the
costumes had to be sewn by hand, rather than with a sewing machine, as they
would have been during the time periods depicted in the movie.

* Debbie Reynolds and George Peppard are the only cast members who appear in
three of the five sequences in the film. According to Ms. Reynolds, in an
interview for the documentary 'Cinerama Adventure," her character of Lilith was
originally supposed to have drowned in the river. However, it was decided that
Lilith would best tie the generations of Prescotts together; so, she remained in
the story to become an elderly lady in the film's conclusion.

* One of the few American films to have its world premiere in London,
England.

* Because the 2 dividing lines that separate the 3 separate projections
could not be totally edited into a seamless match, the directors skillfully used
camouflage techniques to disguise the lines. Some of the objects used for this
were trees, lamp posts, window edges, porch rails, building corners, doorways
and wooden crates which were positioned at these points.

* This was one of only two films made in true Cinerama which were shown in
regular theatres after their first runs. None of the previous Cinerama films
were ever shown in regular theatres because they were travelogues and
documentaries made only to show off the process, as opposed to telling a story,
and it would have been pointless to show these in a "regular" format.

* The train station in the film at "Gold City" was shot at Perkinsville,
Arizona, and is still standing, although in a state of disrepair. It is now the
mid stopping point of the Verde Canyon Scenic Railroad. The train station, the
town sign and several other smaller buildings still exist.

* A comic book version of this film was published in conjunction with the
film's release, as was the practice back then with all family and children's
films. In the comic book, when Sheriff Ramsay (Lee J. Cobb) tries to prevent Zeb
Rawlings (George Peppard) from going after the outlaw Gant (Eli Wallach),
Rawlings whacks Ramsay over the head with his rifle and knocks him unconscious,
which explains the bandage on Ramsay's forehead in the next scene. No such
explanation is offered in the film; it is as if somebody had edited something
out.

* Features more than 12,000 extras, including several Indian tribes.

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