Newly restored 1958 film showcases life aboard tall ship Christian Radich
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- Category: Travel News Summaries
- Published on Sunday, 07 November 2010 07:40
- Written by Joe Follansbee
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Hollywood has always loved the epic, romantic quality of the sea, and occasionally film pioneers took to the water to showcase new technology. One example is the 1958 film Windjammer, a travelogue that follows a voyage of the Norwegian sail training ship Christian Radich. But if you're old enough to have seen it in theaters, you probably didn't see it the way it was meant to be seen. That's because it was shot in "CineMiracle."
Cine-what? You've probably seen lots of movies in CinemaScope, a wide-screen process developed in the 1950s to help the movies compete with a new disruptive technology called "television." (Still confused? Think of the "letterbox" editions of 50s and 60s movies on DVD.) There's a good chance they were shot in CinemaScope. CineMiracle was among a set of movie technologies that led to CinemaScope, but CineMiracle itself never took hold.
However, one movie was shot in CineMiracle and released to public screening: Windjammer. However, because the process never caught on, most people saw the movie after it was converted to CinemaScope. This year, L.A.-based film editor David Strohmaier and John Sittig, director of projection and sound at Pacific Theatres, have restored the original film and they've started showing it in theaters and they hope to release it on DVD and Blu-ray.
But enough geeking out on film tech. What's the movie like? I haven't seen it in theaters, but here's the trailer, and for tall ship fans, it's a treat. And for gravy, there's some cool footage of 1950s-era warships and scuba diving. (Fyddeye's fans on Facebook can also go to this page to see the trailer.)
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It's not clear when the restored Windjammer might come out on disc or whether it might be available online. So far, showings have been limited to the Los Angeles area, though there's rumors that the picture might go on the road to film festivals. To learn more about the film, visit in70mm.com.
