HTWWW ...what's the story?

[coldnaps]

Does Turner get paid some kind of bonus whenever it shows How The West Was Won? It seems as if it's shown every few weeks. Not that it's a terrible film, but enough is enough.

[heuriger]

It's the story of how the west was won, natch.

[coldnaps]

Yeah, it is. But that doesn't answer the question, does it?

[heuriger]

The question in question was not really a question unless you consider a rhetorical question legitimate.

[ValentineXavier]

Ted Turner no longer has any connection to TCM, or any of his other TV stations. He sold them long ago. I think he still owns his huge ranch, with lots of buffalo.

[heuriger]

I think he still owns his huge ranch, with lots of buffalo.

 

 

Even more quixotic, Turner employs five Bills to wrangle the buffaloes.

[DownGoesFrazier]

Are you sure you're not buffaloing me?

[libradoll]

Surely you were not referring to Ted Turner personally??? Right??

In any case one could ask the same question about many, many films that TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES shows over & over again. I doubt very much if it has anything to do with the station being paid to show them.

That's just ridiculous.

[misswonderly3]

I tried to resist the temptation to post my opinion of *How the West was Won* , and failed.

There aren't really all that many movies that I loathe, but this is one. Waay too long, for one thing. I know, it's supposed to be an "epic", and how can one tell such a big story in 90 minutes? I suggest we don't try.

 

It's all over the place, and maybe some will argue, "well, of course, that's the nature of the story". I don't care, baby. It's boring, it's dumb (to me), and it does not engage me for one minute. Also, I suspect it's not particularly accurate.

And the Debbie Reynolds character is truly annoying (to me.)

 

It's just one of those "big" movies with a "big" cast, that thinks because its subject matter, actors, and god knows, its running time is "big", that that will make it good.

I say it's one "big" mess.

 

But then, off-hand I can't think of a single epic film that I like. I intensely DISlike the whole concept of them. (and yes, that includes "Gone with the Wind" , which I think should have ended with Scarlet clutching a clod of dirt up to the sky.)

[markfp2]

Ted Turner hasn't had anything to do with TCM since the mid-1990's when he merged his company, Turner Entertainment,with media conglomerate Time-Warner. He served on the board of directors for a bit, but then had a parting of the ways and took his money and ran (in a manner of speaking).

[hamradio]

Goodness everyone in missing the reason why HTWWW was created, to promote the Cinerama format for standard movies (other than travalogues). One of the issues the actors and director brought up is that close ups were virtually impossible. This plus the expense and technical issues in presenting it is why Cinerama failed.

 

Todd_AO and Diminsion 150 tried to resolved the issues which came out of Cinerama.

 

 

[misswonderly3]

Thanks for that info, hamradio baby.

 

But to me, that just proves my point that despite its "bigness" (guess we can include the screen, too), there's not much to the film.

 

And anyway, that does not seem like a very worthwhile reason to make a movie - mainly to utilize and promote some new technical aspect to film. The movie should actually be good , too.

[FlyBackTransformer]

Yes absolutely it's a mess. Couldn't agree more with you, misswonderly. When I saw this thread I thought it was about the weird way TCM showed it on monday meaning the bulging convex formatting. I thought it was kinda novel but it flabbergasted my flatscreen's picture settings. The chief thing I hate about HTWWW is Debbie Reynolds' obnoxious narcissistic character but alotta hilarity can also be had from Spencer Tracy's overblown (like the movie) narration. Truly the only decent thing about HTWWW is Alfred Newman's wonderful opening.

[Dargo2]

...and the train robbery sequence.

 

Ya GOTS ta love the train robbery sequence TOO, don'ts YA?!

 

(...at least that was the only part of this movie I remember liking when as a 10 y/o kid back in '62 our family watched this movie at the Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd, anyway)

 

Edited by: Dargo2 on Sep 3, 2013 9:46 AM

[FlyBackTransformer]

Only had 'er on for a minute to admire the formatting.

[hamradio]

 

 

 

 

[Dargo2]

All this talk of "Cinerama", "Smilebox" and such now reminds me of Disneyland's now gone "Circle-Vision 360" theater which would sometimes cause some in the audience to experience mild nausea while watching the film which featured some of the more picturesque locales in America and from the perspective of the camera(s) mounted on board a flying aircraft.

[DownGoesFrazier]

Nothing wrong with being "big". You like "big" salads, don't you?

[Gorch]

Hamradio is right on the money about why this movie was made - to lure the audience into seeing the new wonder of the big screen - Cinerama.

I was twelve then and my family wasn't excited about the cast, but we had to go to the Monroe Cinema to see the new huge curved screen which had been hyped locally for months.

This was back when everyone got dressed up for such an event. My brother and I wore ties and suitcoats. Popcorn was a must as were souvenir books.

No one then had a stereo sound system to rival the theater. When the overture ended and the curtains opened and opened even more, the audience gasped.

Sure the movie was episodic and Debbie Reynolds was annoying and sang too many times, but no one walked out. I do remember a laugh when the title card appeared - The Civil War - Directed by John Ford.

The audience also gasped at the aerial view of modern California's road system and burst into applause.

We just don't have that kind of experience any more. I miss it.

[FlyBackTransformer]

I was in there once at DisneyWorld. It was like wall to wall Cinerama,

[JamesJazGuitar]

I had a very similar experience (but I was about 5 years younger) and it is one of my few remaining childhood memories. It was an event.

 

While my brothers and I would go to movies without the parents, as a family, dad would pick one or two movies a year where the entire family went.

 

This practice stopped after dad took us all to see Mash! I can still see mom yelling at dad. My brothers and I; well we liked the show!

[Gorch]

James, as a supposedly responsible adult, I normally consulted with my wife and we would select movies that we would like to see with our son and younger daughter. Since I'm the movie expert, she relied on me. Of course, there are no more road show engagements and the last souvenir book I've ever bought was for Star Wars - which was a good family choice. Others included The Princess Bride, Mr. Mom, Superman and countless others, but I tried to keep the family event theme intact.

I goofed big time though when we took the kiddies to see The Untouchables. My daughter still is outraged that she saw some thug's brains splattered against a wall while my son is still laughing about it.

I guess that I identify with your dad.

[heuriger]

Ted Turner hasn't had anything to do with TCM since the mid-1990's

 

Well, he began Turner Classic Movies in April 1994. Not much of a honeymoon was it?

[coldnaps]

Wow. Thisthread really tooka left turn... To whoever asked, no of course I wasn;t referring to Ted himself. And I agree that HTWWW is WAY too overblown. But the question was, why the hell does TCM play it so much?

[Hibi]

They probably have a good rental deal. And it fills up a good chunk of time..........