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Well, that does explain the Venus de Milo.
It's sad to say but some people will never watch letterbox editions because either they think they are getting cheated by having black bars on the tops and bottoms of their screens or they are distracted by them. How you can be distracted by black empty voids is beyond me?
Amen! The time and money that studios expend to create butchered full screen versions of films could be spent on something that's of actual value. No one would want a novel with a bunch of sentences cut out or a painting with the sides chopped off. Pan and Scan editions of movies are lowest common denominator pandering.
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Pan and scan is unwatchable.
Never try watching a Stanley Kubrick or David Lean film in pan and scan, an aneurysm can result.
I call it 'fool-screen'. Cause it's such a crappy thing.
This is an old, old argument...
The consensus, reached about 1982, is that since not everybody has a big, expensive widescreen TV, different versions should be made available to film-buyers/renters
I used to have two laserdisc versions of the sound of music. One was letterboxed and one wasn't. I would show people the artistic differences between the two by comparing one scene in the movie, and the case was made:
When she is singing the title song, there is a point where she runs through a stand of Aspens spanning the screen from left to right, with a brook running through the grass below. With letterbox, the aspens dominate the screen from one side to the other as she runs from one side to the other, and then back again, zig-zagging and frolicking through the aspens.
In "panned and scanned" full screen, the camera follows her through the aspens. It is all about keeping her center frame and the aspens - and their visual impact - are greatly diminished.
We don't have tv - we only buy and rent movies. After Chrismas we will be getting a small projection tv with hdtv capability and component inputs, and roll down screen. It is literally BETTER than the theater. That will eliminate the one problem with letterboxing - small size on a normal tv.
Had the FBI been on the lookout for those who wanted to "pirate" jet planes to destroy buildings and lives, than in protecting the profits of the already well-connected and well-to-do, then full screen or wide screen would truly be important.
That is good to know. Thanks for post.
What about Dr. Strangelove? Stanley Kubrick did not like letterboxing, approved of a mixed aspect ratio transfer in later years, and used copious amounts of "full screen" stock footage in his film.
Benny Hill had a funny skit were they used pan and scan.
Lady & The Tramp was actually animated in Full Screen and Widescreen versions.
Why is it that television commercials and music videos have been broadcast "widescreen" for over a decade yet no network is still willing to show films this way?
I know with the new "digital" broadcast some are, but that opens a whole 'nother can of worms as the NBC logo in the corner of the screen is cropped in half on my traditional tv set.
How do the previous 50+ years of television look on those new "widescreen" tvs? Black stripes up the sides of the picture? Zoom cropped to cut off foreheads and chins?
The "solution" is to use a video projector and thus "every screen" is the right size (and original aspect ratio can be maintained).
More often than not these days, "full screen" will give you more image at times (open matte) and less image at other times (special effects closeups, and some information that falls out of the "television safe" middle of the screen). Few people in Hollywood don't consider television broadcast in the lifespan of their films.
When art theives cut a painting (on canvas) out of a frame from the front, they DO engage in such editorial decisions.
One more reason to consider "full screen" vs. widescreen. Travel. When you are looking at a handheld DVD player or even one in the backseat of a car (or airplane headrest), it gives the "maximum" size image.
There is no widescreen standard. That 16x9 ratio will still result in black stripes on the top/bottom or left/right side of the screen at times. Some will have their aspect ratios "fudged" to appear to not need letterboxing.
And there there are the people who just don't understand the difference. "I hate the black bars - why do they put them there?" Grrrrrr.... You'd think now that widescreen TVs and computer monitors are popping up all over the chopped screen crap would actually be disappearing not proliferating.
After a few minutes my eyes block out the black band atop and below the movie, but my TV screen isn't huge and it's not like one is sitting in the theater. I like the movies that have both options.