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I’ve seen a few 2.35 movies presented in 1.78 pan/scan in the last decade. Some examples are Sound of Music, Enter the Dragon, and Stargate. I’m sure, like me, many of you here were introduced to the OT in pan/scan 1.33, and later amazed what widescreen brings. All because the consensus of the TV or home video market was “the whole screen needs to be filled.” Sometimes leading to creative (or necessary) pans from one character to another within a normally static shot, look at Star Trek IV or Ghostbusters. Now tv shows use 2.35 ratio to look “cinematic,” for better or worse. Black bars be damned.
So tell me has there been any officially broadcast/streamed/whatever 1.78 versions of the OT or PT? (Funny how Back to the Future trilogy in “full frame” had open-matte normal scenes, but pan/scan visual fx scenes. The prequels would probably be reversed.)
Bear in mind that many films of the late 70’s and early 80’s although the cinema release was very important there are many examples of shot’s being designed to be cropped or as it would seem the eventual format that people would watch it many times would be in 4:3 on their little box at home so cropping was already in mind.
Take for instance Alien = The POV shots within the Space Helmets only work in 4:3 aspect ratio. once those are in 16:9 you definitely understand there is something clamped on to the camera to look like a helmet that has no sides.
There is also the Alien looking at the Cat in the Box far better the close up than the expanded image…
Enter the Dragon seems like it zoomed in on the action so much as a pre-requisite for the cropping that would occur in 4:3 that it feels like there is a whole different film beyond the top and sides and also probably done for censorship too.
Star Wars has a few instances like this intended cropping.
The Guard changes at the door in Princess Leia’s prisioner cell when the torture droid comes in. In the 4:3 version there is only the stone faced guard not the soppy looking guy who fancies Carrie fisher 😃 He is cropped out so it has no issues.
Again the Escape from the death star Hanger is also better in the 4:3 version as in the 16:9 version you see the same stormtrooper fall over 3 times in the 4:3 version this is not as bad.
Also the Targeting computers on the x-wing and the falcon guns work better as the box crop fits those very well. The Targeting computer in the 16:9 version feels wider than the prop in the x-wing and zooming in did it favours.
I don’t know the answer to your question but I am saying that it’s not all bad 4:3 aspect and some 16:9 shots could do with being cropped to keep the stylistic zoom in some instances to get eid of stuff that breaks the 3th wall. Film makers knew too well that they would be cropping stuff out and this both hurt cinematic releases by making them lazy fix it in the P&S or pre-paring a cropped image zoomed that should / could be wider in 16:9 to readily slice of the sides.
It’s all budget related no doubt.
