South Seas Adventure

This is my long-awaited return to the world of Cinerama: 

As it’s been a few years since I’ve reviewed one of these-which were travelogues presented in a bold fashion for the 50’s and 60’s, although South Seas Adventure was a little different as I’ll elaborate upon later-it’s best to copy and past the opening paragraphs from an earlier review to describe what I viewed last night: 

“I need to explain the whole Cinerama presentation from the 50’s and 60’s. It is a presentation where three screens wrap around a viewer as films shot especially for that format are shown w/ 7 channel stereo; for those unfamiliar w/ film history, such a widescreen multichannel stereo presentation was astounding for the time. A few narrative films were shot that way along with various documentaries which presented nature & culture from around the world. 

The way people can view those now is via Blu-ray releases from niche label Flicker Alley. It’s a simulation of the tri-screen presentation done via Smilebox, which has a curved aspect ratio and they stitch the three prints together into one. The discs aren’t the cheapest purchases; on the other side of the coin, the picture & sound are both great, along with all the special features included. To me, they’re worth the money. 

In fact, as this is niche even in a community like Letterboxd, that is why a list was just created of all the ones I’ve seen; this includes a review of How the West was Won on Turner Classic Movies. That is because they started showing it via Smilebox, which is IMO preferable to the one screen version with the outrageous aspect ratio.”

Typically, these were travelogues where a narrator presented footage from around the world that would best impress an American viewer, both visually & aurally. A threadbare story would tie it together. However, in this case, while a narrator was heard (Orson Welles!), several different segments featuring fictional characters & plots were presented. Note that the first half is Hawaii and several tropical island areas in the South Pacific like Tonga and Fiji—the second half is New Zealand then Australia. Oceania is pretty cool as well so no complaints from me. When there’s a luscious Alex North score, that’s an asset.

It was nice to see what I’ll presume are traditional ceremonies and dances from the natives of those islands and weren’t made up specifically to present something “exotic” for ignorant crowds. Aide from marveling at those exotic sights & sounds, these are also educational. Today I Learned that medical services were (and still are) provided in remote Outback areas by the Royal Flying Doctor Service-where contact is made via radio back then-and School of the Air is how children in these same areas receive their education-via radio communication and homework is sent in via mail. This was done until 2009 when the Internet made this much easier for everyone. At least for me, this was quite educational. 

These Cinerama films will always be a niche proposition even among film fans. Me, I was happy to have learned about this niche from a fellow nerd & I can support a small label like Flicker Alley.