“How the West Was Won: Ultimate Collector’s Edition”-Own it on DVD September 9, 2008
- Release Date: September 9th, 2008
- Genre: Wild West, Period Drama
- Price: $41.99 on Amazon
- Run Time: 162 Minutes
- Publisher: Warner Home Video
- Rated: G
- Starring: Carrp;; Baler. Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, Eli Wallach, John Wayne, Richard Widmark,
- Special Features: New Historian Commentary, Cinerama Adventure, Theatrical Trailer, 36 Page Sinerama Souvenir Book Reproduction, 10 Collectible Color Photo Cards, 10 Black-and-White Photo Cards of Behind the Scenes Shots, 10-Page Reproduction of the Original General Release Pressbook
Story
How the West Was Won is a movie classic. Following the Prescott family with their journey west, How the West Was tells the tale of everything that happened from the 1830’s to the turn of the century. With events such as the Civil War, and Indian attacks life is not easy for the Prescott family. 41 years later How the West Was Won returns to DVD in this ultimate collector’s edition.
I know I am going to upset some people by saying this but I thought How the West Was Won was a pretty boring movie. Before you call me an idiot or wonder what in the world I am saying you need to take this into consideration. I am only 20 years old so this movie is over twice as old as I am. I don’t know if you have experienced this before but it is pretty hard to enjoy something that is over twice as old as you are.
I know a lot of people love this movie (since it wouldn’t have an ultimate collector’s edition otherwise). Just because I didn’t like the movie doesn’t mean that it is not a good movie. If you like period piece type movies I think you will like How the West Was Won.
Packaging and Special Features
Since this is the ultimate collector’s edition I really need to address the packaging. You can see the outside of the box in the picture above. Inside there are three booklets. They are designed to look like they are made of leather (they really aren’t).
The first pullout contains the three discs. The first two discs contain the movie, a commentary, and the theatrical trailer. For those of you interested the commentary features Filmmaker David Strothmaier, Director of Cinerama, In. John Sittig, Film Historian Rudy Behlmer, Music Historian Jon Burliname, and Stutntman Loren James. The third disc contains a documentary of the movie exhibition process. I don’t know if this special feature was included in other versions of this movie so if anyone knows it would be nice if you could leave a comment.
Now it is onto the second booklet. This booklet contains two little books about the movie. The first book is about the movie and how it was made. It has a bunch of pictures from the movie and also includes information such as the actors from the movie. The other book contains a bunch of promotional material. The book contains everything from movie posters to newspaper clippings. These books are well put together and fans should enjoy them. You might need to use a magnifying glass to be able to read everything though since the print is quite small.
The final booklet contains a bunch of pictures. In total there are 10 color photos and 10 black and white photos. The pictures are a lot like what you would expect for a postcard. They obviously aren’t postcards but they are of a similar size and they just look like postcards to me.
Final Thoughts
Overall I thought How the West Was Won was a pretty boring movie. This movie wasn’t meant for me. Since the movie is over twice as old as I am it’s not that surprising. I didn’t enjoy the movie but that doesn’t mean that you won’t. You probably have already seen it. If you have never seen the movie before or just thought it was okay I would recommend you just pick up the normal DVD since they will be cheaper and you probably won’t get a whole lot out of the extras in the special edition. If you really liked the movie though I would highly recommend that you pick up this DVD set since it is one of those collections that fans should really enjoy.
My Rating:
(Since I wasn’t a fan of the movie this collector’s edition really wasn’t made for me)
Fans of the Movie: 
