Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot

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Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot is an orientation film produced by Paramount Pictures and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1957, and has the distinction of being the longest-running motion picture in history, having been shown continually in the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center for over five decades.

As museum orientation films go, Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot is a landmark, both because of its high production value, and because of its structure. Where ordinary 35mm cinematography would have normally been considered extravagant for an orientation film, this one was both filmed and exhibited in VistaVision, a high definition widescreen process that has approximately the same negative size as 35mm still photography, nearly as large as that of Todd-AO. It was a unique VistaVision film in that it was shown with six-channel stereo sound, while most films in that process were either shown in mono or in Perspecta sound. The music for the film was scored by Bernard Herrmann, famous for scoring several Alfred Hitchcock films shot in VistaVision. Moreover, where previous museum orientation films (and many present day examples) are simple travelogues, with little or no narrative content, Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot told the story of Virginia's role in American Independence (up to the point of voting to propose independence at the Second Continental Congress), from the point of view of John Fry (played by a young Jack Lord), a fictional Virginia planter elected to the House of Burgesses. While it was filmed almost entirely in and around the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area, and points out a number of the historic buildings by name, it is overwhelmingly a dramatization of history, rather than a travelogue.

[edit] Restoration

By the 1990s, the film was showing its age, with severe fading problems in the original negatives, and differing shrinkage rates in the separation masters that had been made as a backup. As a result, even new prints looked no better than a 16mm orientation film would have looked. In the early 21st century, an extensive digital restoration effort was begun, the result of which debuted (in relatively conventional 70mm DTS prints) in 2004, and is generally regarded as coming as close as present-day technology permits to the clarity of the film as originally shown in the late 1950s. It is estimated that despite the 35 minute run-time of this film, the restoration required enough digital storage to hold several feature-length films.

[edit] Influence

Clearly, Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot has had influence on subsequent museum orientation films, most notably, the California State Railroad Museum's Evidence of a Dream, which contains several dramatic sequences, is shown on very large screens, and is anything but a simple travelogue.