Search - The Big Trail (Full Screen Edition) on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 3/23/2024...

Well done black and white restoration and a young John Wayne if you are a fan!

PLEASE - BUY THE WIDESCREEN VERSION!

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 10/17/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Amazon to their complete discredit is posting reviews of two totally different films as one! There are two versions of The Big Trail - one shot in 35mm and lasting 110 minutes and released in 2003, and a newer widescreen version released in 2008 lasting over 122 minutes and shot in Grandeur 70mm and completely different in scale and impact. The important version, to add greater confusion, comes with the former as a box set. Potential purchasers have to be made aware of this!

The "Full Screen Edition" will confuse many purchasers - in fact it is nothing of the sort and therefore I mark it down to the lowest rating.

The movie in its historic format deserves a full FIVE STARS! and can be purchased in the set titled, "The Big Trail Two Disc Special Edition", which not only includes this inferior version DVD, but also the all important and hugely historic "WIDESCREEN EDITION" version of the movie as it was first shown.

Again, I would easily rate this widescreen edition DVD a full five stars!

The widescreen version is 122 minutes long, and taken directly from the original 70mm. The "Full Screen Edition" masquerading here as what its not is not a cropped version of the widescreen image, but instead is actually a shorter (110 minute) 35mm version shot at the same time by Fox for the majority of theaters of the day that could not run the huge film. Yes, it's a real film and certainly a good one - until you see the 70mm. My low rating is to draw attention to all these important details that are not mentioned in most of the positive reviews. Most of what makes this film epic in scale is so much better appreciated in a widescreen format, and not the totally confusingly titled full screen edition as offered here.

I'm normally tolerant of these concessions to the television medium - watching a widescreen "Lawrence of Arabia" on anything smaller than a 60inch screen is like peering at a colored ribbon streched across the middle of the televison. Facing such a tiny picture it's understandable why many people opt for cropped or 'full' screen versions instead of widescreen versions.

But the whole point of "The Big Trail" is the magnificent GRANDEUR format, a monstrous 70mm image delivering in stunning detail the vast panoramas making up the film's backdrops. These are jaw-dropping images, worthy of consideration with the great black and white landscape photography of America's finest photographers of the West. If you have a large television screen you just have to try "The Big Trail" in Widescreen on the Fox "Two Disc Special Edition". Once you've seen the film in its complete untrimmed glory on a good sized screen you'll wonder why Fox first released "The Big Trail" in 2003 DVD in a short-changing and very misleading "Full Screen Edtion".

So order the widescreen version of "The Big Trail" and see a landmark of American film-making, something absolutely spectacular as it was intended to be seen.

The Big Trail (Two-Disc Special Edition)

My only complaint is Fox's insistence on attaching the Full Screen DVD to the Widescreen DVD and charging us for two DVDs when most viewers only wish to see one version."