Cinerama Adventure

Packing so much material relating to Cinerama's history in an hour and a half is something of a feat. I just wish the film was longer. My family enjoyed the way that the Cinerama picture was formatted to look like the real thing, and the Dolby Digital soundtrack has enough power to let viewers sample what Cinerama sounded like. Cinerama was a lot of fun and always an event, and it was great to see that it has not been forgotten. I hope it's soon available on DVD. That's excuse enough to buy a really big TV.

I recently saw Cinerama Adventure at the ArcLight Cinema, adjacent to the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. The completion of this production culminates a six-year labor of love by David Strohmaier, the documentary's producer, director and writer. There is new music by John Morgan and William Stromberg, which blends perfectly with music excerpts from many of the original Cinerama features.

Though it had been test screened in Bradford, England earlier, I first saw a rough cut of this production, projected in video, in Seattle in 1999 and then saw it again last summer in Los Angeles when it was shown at a local SMPTE chapter meeting which was very well attended. It is now finished, on film, with Dolby Digital sound. The Interviews are shown at 1.33:1 inside a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The Cinerama cuts are shown in the C.A. Productions' SmileboxT curved screen simulation format at 1.85:1, which really "puts you in the picture."

This production is simply perfect! It blends the history of the people behind Cinerama with the story of the making of the films and highlights the technical aspects of this pioneering widescreen format in an exiting and dramatic way. There are numerous interviews with many of those who were involved with and stared in the original Cinerama films. I was most interested to learn more about Paul Mantz, who flew the Cinerama camera for all of the aerial sequences.

This is a not-to-be-missed documentary which is a uniquely American story of technology, movie making and film exhibition which started the whole widescreen era.

Essentially a labour of love, Dave Strohmeier has wrought a miracle with this gem of a documentary which deals with a very special subject, the history of Cinerama, the mother of all large format cinema. Years ahead of its time, Cinerama had an electrifying impact on its audiences back in the early fifties. Fifty years on we now have this very special and unique documentary. It deserves the full support of all those who love their movies big. Well recieved at the Bradford film festival by top people in the film business last year and up for Oscars this year, an absolute must to see.

I was fortunate enough to enjoy 3-strip Cinerama during the original release of "How the West Was Won" in Atlanta, GA and in recent years in Dayton, OH and Los Angeles. CA. I'm also a career projectionist with an affection for widescreen and esoteric processes.

Although I had previously seen rough cut segments of "Cinerama Adventure," I was not prepared for the final version. I found it informative, innovative, and surprisingly exciting. It's a story of people with a dream, some willing to risk life and limb to overcome obstacles, ironically making this picture's connection to "How the West Was Won" doubly significant.

While the Cinerama format information, clips, and witnesses interviews will certainly be of interest to fans of the large screen spectacles and the uninitiated, "Cinerama Adventure" is ultimately an encapsulation of the drive of filmmakers everywhere, a love letter to their devotion and desire to make bigger and better movies.

I do remember Cinerama at the London Casino as a teenager. I guess you can say that 'I was there!'(many, many times). Dave Strohmeir's piece not only entertains those of us who 'were there', but - more importantly - will inform, educate and preserve. Widescreen had been previously tried and abandoned until Cinerama came along in 1952. From that day, widescreen cinema was here to stay. Cinerama Adventure is a journey that anyone who has ever visited the cinema should see. It is, in itself, adventurous and often moving in its tributes to early cinema pioneers. It deserves to be seen - so go see.