Oklahoma! (50th Anniversary Edition)

From my earliest memories of childhood this musical was part of the background of our family life. Listening to Dad's 8-tracks riding around in his pickup truck at work as a young boy on the weekends, to recordings playing this music in our home to even an occasional sing along at family gatherings, Oklahoma! was part of life's soundtrack. Rogers & Hammerstein essentially created a new art form in 1943 of American musical theater with this work combining song, dance and story all in one entertainment. This genre would be a powerful part of Americana for several decades both on stage as well as cinema. It's an art form that has paralleled other unique American creations like Jazz, Tap and Rock'n'roll. Rogers & Hammerstein were so perfectionistic that they waited over a decade to attempt to bring this masterpiece to the cinema. They assembled all the required vocal and dance talent including the original choreography from Agnes de Mille's groundbreaking work and a high production value including using a state-of-the art filming technique called Todd-AO that actually required filming most scenes twice each day. Once in the well-established CinemaScope and once mostly earlier in the day in the new Todd-AO. All this combined to produce a true classic. I found myself tapping toes and singing along to old favorites with some nostalgic emotion as the classic songs and scenes filled my memory and imagination. I can strongly recommend this film not only for us folks of a certain age but for younger generations keen on simply enjoying great family entertainment for all ages and tastes. This Blu-ray release from Fox supplies both Todd-AO and CinemaScope versions on two separate discs along with two DVDs of the same setups for a total of four discs. While the CinemaScope version is most familiar to home viewers it's the Todd-AO version that has eyes popping out of one's head! There are slight differences in some scenes and how they were shot. But it's the increased detail, more accurate color timing, and almost 3d depth of the Todd-AO version alone that is enough to warrant a purchase of this disc. Also, there's more of the full frame of the film to see in the 70mm Todd-AO presentation as the 35mm CinemaScope actually cuts portions off the top and bottom of the picture. It's a shame that the Todd-AO technology never caught on in Hollywood. It was just too complex and expensive. Filming two separate versions of each movie, one at 24fps and the other at 30pfs as well as investing in a 2nd set of extremely large, expensive lenses was just not going to work at this stage of movie making. Fortunately for mainstream consumers this is the best in-home version of this musical you'll ever see. Sound is also impressive as the Todd-AO 70mm film width allowed for additional tracks of audio. The DTS-HD-Master 7.1 audio gives extremely rich high fidelity and great envelopment to the favorite songs. There's no distortion or tinniness to the soundtrack. Special features include audio commentaries, a singalong, as well as a few fascinating featurettes on the Todd-AO technology. All in all, this is a must own for fans of this musical and American musical theatre in general as well as a strong recommendation for any fans of older styled family entertainment. Hopefully it will create some fond memories for future generations.

Feeling down in the dumps? Slip this in and play it and be smiling in minutes. How’s everything. Outstanding music, outstanding performances by everyone in the cast, and an excellent touch of “scary” for a little drama. Seems suitable for all ages. And the special features included Are absolutely fascinating as is the narrated copy with Shirley Jones telling about the fascinating backstory.

I love everything about this musical! With current events, it's nice to escape into something fun for a while.

Though today's audiences might consider this a dusty relic, in its day it was virtually revolutionary - not only was ballet integral to a Broadway show - a shocker to audiences of the time - but, more significantly, the songs were embedded in the action and served to further the plot. This musical changed forever the way such shows were written.Still, the musical opened on Broadway over 70 years ago, and so you can't fault those caught in the maelstrom of the ever-sprinting zeitgeist, for whom last year's hot musical is already hopelessly passe, for relegating Oklahoma to the cultural equivalent of their great-grandmother's attic.But one thing pop culture never acknowledges is that quality is timeless, and the movie, made a long 12 years after the play premiered, retains the original's magic quality; indeed, it has aged remarkably well in the years since. It is a gorgeous piece of filmmaking and a joyous dip in the refreshing pool of unabashed Americana, with innovative camera work, a sumptuous palette of color, iconic performances all around and a ballet-within-the-musical that is so evocative and satisfying that, even if you're not a particular fan of ballet, will mesmerize you with its lush expressiveness and the scope of its rendering of the totality of the human condition - our aspirations, our fears and, especially, the evil that tends to brush up, however fleetingly, against even the sunniest of lives.The ballet is essentially a restatement of the arc of the play writ in dance, and a lovely arc it is.I won't get into the plot here, but I will say that the performances are all outstanding; it was Shirley Jones's first movie, and it rightfully made her a star. She is lovely and strikes just the right tone as the skittish Laurey, who badly wants to marry Curley, but whose games of hard-to-get almost get out of hand.Gordon McRae is excellent as well - yes, there might be more dynamic actors out there, but none who can sing as well as he, or who can do it while exuding unbridled, unapologetic alpha-male charisma as he.Gloria Grahame is one of my favorite female film actors of all time, and she almost steals the entire movie as the would-be trollop Ado Annie, whose sexual appetite is somewhat tempered with her essential innocence.Eddie Albert, another underrated actor who often spun pure gold, is a wonderful comic counterpoint to the dark Rod Steiger as Jud. I'm sure many think Steiger was too leaden or hammy as Jud, but he succeeds marvelously in making your skin crawl.And no, nobody's ever going to mistake Eddie Albert's Ali Hakim for a real Persian, but who cares?Charlotte Greenwood as Aunt Eller is a wonderful presence throughout the film - she may be one of the "old folks," but the light behind her eyes and her physical vitality are a joy; she is, in fact, the sun around which all of the other characters orbit.Gene Nelson's rendition of Kansas City - along with the wonderful staging and use of the chorus - is as good as any dance number ever caught on film - and I'm a huge Fred Astaire/Gene Kelly fan. So I don't say that lightly.The rest of the cast is appropriately homespun and distinctive.The plot is quite simple - it all revolves around the box social dance that's going to occur that night, and the love machinations that ensue as folks attempt to pair off.This movie is, quite simply, a delight. If you can transport yourself to a simpler time (when sentimentality wasn't an embarrassment and irony wasn't the oxygen that pop culture breathes), you will be richly rewarded.

Gran musical, con una gran calidad de imágen y sonido. Con subtítulos en español. Hay dos versiones Todd Ao y Cinemascope, en 7.1 y en 4.1 fabuloso.

It's difficult to put into words how magnificent the BluRay is.First the obvious: the movie is choc-full of wonderful Rogers & Hammerstein songs and some gorgeous dream sequences/ballets. The subject is corny, but like the corn 'as tall as a elephant's eye' in the opening song, corn has never been so beautifully delivered.The choreography is absolutely brilliant.The absolute revelation though is the 70mm Todd-AO print and THE SOUND. The visuals are pin-sharp HD, you can see the textures in the leading lady's make up - it's almost frighteningly good. The colours are rich, and there's one particular fantasy scene shot on a Hollywood sound stage that is so HD I was screaming with joy!Literally you are looking into 1955 (and possibly 1954 given a long post-production lead time).But the killer is THE SOUND. Todd-AO used a six track system that is scarily close to modern digital quality.Yes the soundtrack will have been re-mastered, but you can't create what wasn't there in the first place. From the first thrilling bars of the full cinema overture, you experience layers of strings and horns that are true high fidelity. The fact it was recorded nearly 70 years ago is simply beyond belief. And when Gordon McRae starts to sing in the cornfield, the technical recording quality of his vocal is perfect.Other movies were filmed/recorded using this process - notably the Sound Of Music and South Pacific - but this is the finest product of that system.Buy it and be thrilled.

El blue ray incluye la versión Todd-AO que es mucho mejor que la de CinemaScope. La calidad visual es magnífica.

C'est une movie classique avec la musique et la danse superbe. Je le recommande aux tous.

I love this movie