Movies not available on DVD in their original aspect ratio

Colossus: The Forbin Project

 

In the category of good movies that have been overlooked is In Country. The only DVD release was a pan and scan version. Another movie that is only available in p & s is Doc Hollywood.

 

By that I meant the DVD release.

Good choice! I've seen a dub from laserdisc which is widescreen. Fun movie.

 

Mr. Mom

 

That's not surprising considering MGM was the original distributor for that film. Since they were among the first of the major studios to release their films on DVD, in many cases they just transfered their old videotape masters to the new format. It really sucks since nearly all of them were pan & scan and the source materials were just whatever prints they had lying around.

 

Apparently; the movie is available on iTunes (or some downloading service) in widescreen (?!). Maybe it will get a Special Edition DVD release at some point.

 

Not that I want to open this can of worms again, but Head is open matte full screen (which is different from pan and scan, BTW). You see the entire filmed picture, without the mattes at the top and bottom, but it's not in the originally intended aspect ratio. The DVD producers intentionally made the decision to not letterbox, but to show the entire filmed image instead.

 

The two Anthony Mann epics "The Fall Of The Roman Empire" and "El Cid" are available on DVD from Universal in "restored widescreen" form. Thing is they're cropped to 1.78:1

It turns out you can get the original widescreen prints on DVD from France or Germany. I got them from France but had to dig out my old Panasonic DVD player as it was the only one that would allow me to switch off the French subtitles.

So after much hassle I finally got to see "La Chute De L'Empire Romain" in the correct aspect ratio (or at least something pretty close) - not bad and certainly worth the effort.

Next up is "Le Cid":

 

I would think there would be a new widescreen DVD of this movie available sometime in the near future.

 

It's possible that this was shot full screen many films were shot in an aspect ratio for showing on TV (so the movie wouldn't be cropped). Often they had soft mattes that were used in theaters (although they would occasionally be shown incorrectly)so that it would be in the proper projection aspect ratio.

Kubrick shot both "The Shining" and "Full Metal Jacket" assuming that they would eventually be shown on a 1.33:1 screen and shot them in an open matte format but had them shown soft mattes in theaters.

Films shot in the 30's, 40's and during much of the 50's were not shot in a widescreen aspect ratio.

 

Which makes me curious if the Kubrick reissues will, indeed, all be in widescreen.

 

The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut will be in the 1.78:1 ratio.

 

Whew! While it may be true the useful information in EWS is in the centre of the frame the man was a very visual craftsman and that movie was mesmerising in its theatrical release. I miss the fulll view of the beautifully lit and framed pool table scene.

 

Apocalypse Now

 

The Deep was a pan and scan only DVD when it was reissued a few years ago IIRC.

 

Is there a correct ratio for this one???

To be honest, the only theatrical version I have ever seen (twice) was the blown up 70mm at the dome.

 

The version currently on DVD is not pan 'n' scan, but the full image as captured by the camera. The upcoming release will have less image, losing from the top and bottom, approximating the theatrical experience (which was probably 1.85:1 but will be 1.78:1 on the new discs)

 

I have a widescreen plasma set, and of course I always get anything in widescreen when possible and appropriate.

But as I don't watch any TV in HD (I just have standard DirecTV), when I'm watching just run of the mill TV stuff, all of which is of course 4:3, I usually stretch it for the TV. Since I probably watch a lot more fullscreen-sourced material than anything else, the bars on the sides of the screen would probably burn in eventually over a long period of time if I watched the stuff in fullscreen mode. My plasma set also has two different stretch modes, one of which stretches the stuff less in the center and more on the edges, so it doesn't look as "stretchy."

There are some things that are 4:3 that I leave unstretched if it's something important to me or worth maintaining the original look. But I'm just watching some old sitcom rerun or something on cable, I stretch it. Otherwise, my 50-inch plasma turns into a 37-inch!

But it is funny, for a number of years I worked on a number of friends and family trying to explain the "black bars." One person I know who never was willing to accept my explanation of black bars/widescreen/anamorphic, etc., finally got around to getting an widescreen TV. But they kept the same DVD player, which was still setup as being hooked up to a 4:3 TV set. So, even when they were watching a DVD that was shot and mastered anamorphically at exactly 16:9, they were still feeding the video into their HD set within a 4:3 frame, thus they were watching a stretched 16:9 image (with of course the black bars still present) on a 16:9 set. They must have got really ticked off when they played a film shot in something like 2.40:1!

 

The Gidget movies are available on DVD only in pan & scan, and it annoyed me to no end while I was watching them. People were constantly talking to someone off screen, you'd see actors' reaction shots but couldn't see what he/she was reacting to, and the Four Preps perform but you can never see more than two of them at a time.

 

The Trouble With Angels
Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows

 

"The Sting" is not available on DVD in the original widescreen, although Turner Classic Movies shows it that way...

Derek

 

Wow. That really is an extraordinary aspect ratio! The shape of a sky scraper.

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

 

I'm a sucker for the Dexter Riley/Kurt Russell films.

1969: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes - Filmed for TV, but then released theatrically. Only the full-frame/ open matte is available on DVD.

1972: Now You See Him Now You Don't - 1.85:1 on DVD

1975 - The Stongest Man in the World - 1.33:1 on DVD

 

The 2005 "Legacy Series" DVD is 1.85:1. Not a very good transfer, but it's no longer fullscreen. Here's my review:

http://www.dvdmg.com/stingls.shtml

 

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. My girlfriend hates seeing the grey (yes, grey.) bars on my TV and well, the girlfriend is always right

The good thing is that most (nearly all) of the fullscreen content we watch is animated...and I've no problem watching Invader Zim with fat characters