"Sweetheart, they're suspecting things. People will say we're in love."
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. Read more