"HOW THE WEST WAS WON"
At the Cinerama Dome
(Arclight
Cinemas,
Hollywood , California
People keep asking me, “Where can I see HOW THE WEST WAS WON in a theater?” Well, aside from the
The Seattle Cinerama and a theater in
The Cinerama Dome in Hollywood has been restored with a curved screen and
three original
Cinerama
projectors, and shows one Cinerama movie a year (for a one week run),
alternating between HTWWW in 2003 and 2005, and “This Is Cinerama”
in 2004 and in 2006. The next showing of HTWWW at the Dome was in 2007, in conjunction with the debut of the release of the deluxe
DVD edition of HTWWW that came out that year. If you want to be kept
apprised of the Dome’s schedule, subscribe to their email bulletin at www.arclightcinemas.com.
I made the pilgrimage to the Dome in both the 2003 and 2005, and after
seeing HTWWW there all I can say is "WOW!" More than any movie
that I've ever seen, HTWWW is so much better in its original format in a
theater than it could ever be in your home. When I say that the
difference is like night and day, I'm not kidding. And no matter how good
your stereo is, it could never deliver that great HTWWW soundtrack as
magnificently as the Dome can. If you ever get the chance to see this movie in
its original Cinerama format, do not pass up the opportunity!
In 2005 I created a handout (brochure) for the Dome to give their patrons
during their HTWWW presentations, but it wasn't ready in time for the printers.
But you can download it and print it for future reference if you want.
Click here to download the file.
(This is a zipped file in Microsoft
Word format. Download it, unzip it, and print pages 1 and 3. Turn the pages
over, and put them back in the printer. Now print pages 2 and 4. Fold the pages
in half, and put the sheet with page numbers 4-5 in the center. Now you've got
a nice handbook to read the next time you’re sitting down to see the
movie.
When I went to the October 2005 showing at the Dome, I had a chance to talk to the President of Cinerama, John Sittig. He told me about the upcoming DVD re-release, which he said will be released in “Smile-Vision”, which is an experimental new format where the middle of the screen is curved downward and the two corners are curved upward (so that the rectangular screen is like a smile). This will simulate the curvature of the Cinerama screen and will allow all of the height and width of the original movie to be displayed (those parts of the screen are both cropped to make it fit today’s widescreen DVD format).
The DVD is also scheduled to include a new documentary discussing the “rebirth” of Cinerama, complete with interviews of the Dome’s patrons asking them why they love HTWWW so much. They happened to be filming those interviews at the Dome the day I was there, and I even got my chance in front of the camera. It’s probably too much to hope for that I might actually appear on the DVD for a few seconds, but you never know. It will be interesting to see what other material they can find to fill the deluxe DVD edition. If they could include the movie’s deleted scenes (discussed elsewhere on this site), that would be awesome, but something tells me that that footage is long gone. That’s all I know about the DVD. If I hear anything more, I’ll post it here. (And if you hear anything, please let me know.)
2019 NEWS: The Dome will be showing HTWWW again on October 1st, 2019 at 7:30pm. Unlike in 2018, when was shown in "Digital Cinerama", this year they will once again be showing it in the original three panel format using three projectors. This only happens rarely, so please come and show your support for 3-panel HTWWW. Buy your tickets before they sell out; there's only one showing, and it's filling up fast. I'll be there - will you?
Click here to see a video filmed at the Dome for the 2019 showing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBjQbXhTc1U
UPDATE - April 19, 2021: The Arclight Cinemas is now out of business, never to return. This means that the iconic Cinerama Dome theater in Hollywood is now closed and is in danger of never reopening if a buyer can't be found. If the Dome doesn't reopen we will lose one of two theaters left in the United States that are still capable of showing HTWWW in its original three-panel format. This means no more 3 panel HTWWW showings in a theater ever again (I don't think the other theater in Seattle has shown it in years). Please go here to sign the petition to save the Cinerama Dome: https://www.change.org/p/arclight-save-the-dome
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