Dominator's Why's of Widescreen

Hopefully this might answer a few questions on the why's of widescreen, but note that it was written in 1996 when PAL Laserdisc was starting to gain a foothold (unlike today when the market is dead) and widescreen videos were also on the increase.

If you want to send me an email about it, drop me a line.

Why won't someone release my favourite film in widescreen?

All the video companies have their own reasons why they release some films on video in widescreen format, and seemingly ignore others.

Film companies like Academy, Arrow, Arthouse, Artificial Eye, Connossieur, Curzon, Electric and Tartan Video release plenty of films each year in their original widescreen ratio, and the majority of these are foreign language films, otherwise referred to as "Arthouse" films as they would not fit in the mainstream line of fire, and generally get played in theatres devoted to such films, ie. "arthouses".

Some of the best examples for top-selling widescreen videos include "Nikita", "Man Bites Dog", and the "Three Colours.." trilogy.

For those which release mainstream films in widescreen, the question is which films are going to make a big profit for the video company?

Action should surely be one of the most profitable types, and those which are available include the "Lethal Weapon" trilogy, the first two "Die Hard" films, "Basic Instinct" and "Speed".

Ever since the introduction of the Cinemascope format in the mid 1950's, many a Western has benefitted from the extra expanse of the desert plains, and for those which have the width preserved on video you can enjoy the full experience at home with films like "The Alamo", "Unforgiven" and "Once Upon A Time in the West".

One type of film which is rarely selected for widescreen release is the comedy, which is a shame for those that have been made by a director who knows how to fill a screen properly. Two of the few comedies which are available are "Groundhog Day" and "So I Married An Axe Murderer".

Some video companies release a P&S title at the same time as the widescreen equivalent, while some prefer to leave a six-month gap before the widescreen release. Presumably this is so that they can make people buy the same film twice!

Columbia TriStar are quite good sometimes for simulataneous releases in P&S;and WS, thus giving the customer the best choice. Such examples are "Wolf", "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" and "In The Line of Fire".

CIC, on the other hand, are not as good, leaving six-months at least before the release of a widescreen version. February 26th saw the release of four much sought-after films in widescreen : "Top Gun", "True Lies", "Forrest Gump", and "Carlito's Way".

Warner leave a lot to be desired sometimes by ignoring some choice titles like "Falling Down" and "The Last Boy Scout" out of their schedules while instead opting for older films.

However, they do make up for this with their "Beyond Vision" and "Terror Vision" range, for fantasy/sci-fi and horror films respectively, both of which have some excellent films available.

Buena Vista are one of the newcomers to the widescreen list, with only "Pulp Fiction" and "Leon" to their credit.

What price widescreen - why do they cost more than P&S videos?

Although the first two releases in widescreen were "Jesus Christ Superstar" in 1986, and "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1990, these were both around UKP 9.99, but in 1991 when Fox Video released the "Star Wars Trilogy", "Die Hard" and "Alien", the pricing went higher.

"Die Hard" was the lowest of the bunch at only UKP 10.99, the same price as the P&S version, but "Alien" in widescreen was UKP 12.99, and each title in the "Star Wars Trilogy" cost UKP 14.99. The newly remastered "THX" editions cost UKP 13.99 apiece, although the first film in the trilogy "Star Wars", has now been deleted, pending an extended edition being released in cinemas in summer 1997, with the video to follow by that Xmas.

It became the norm for a while that if the P&S tape cost UKP 10.99, the widescreen version was usually UKP 12.99. The reason for this is because, unfortunately, P&S tapes still outsell widescreen, so the price of the P&S can be kept down while those of us who want the film in its original aspect ratio have to pay a premium.

Nowadays, with many P&S titles being released at anywhere between UKP 12.99 and UKP 14.99, you are usually expected to pay around UKP 14.99 or UKP 15.99 for a widescreen video, which is getting ridiculous considering that the price of most films on PAL laserdisc, a format with 60% higher picture and sound quality than video, cost around UKP 25 to 35, and a few of those have already been reduced in price to UKP 20.

When Widescreen isn't Widescreen

...when the video hasn't been transferred at its correct ratio.
Examples follow :

The Abyss (*NOT* the Special Edition) (Fox Video)

The SE is the proper width as would be seen in the cinema, so this semi-WS version which is the non-SE may be a mix of P&S and open-matte - another "James Cameron fullscreen transfer special". Then again, it might just be a plain cockup.

Akira (Manga Video)

Not entirely sure about this, but the box does say "Original cinemascope ratio". Cinemascope was 2.55:1 when first invented, and later changed to 2.35:1. Maybe Akira was just mis-labelled. However, WS clips on the 'making of' appear wider than this version.

Always (CIC Video)

I saw this one projected at 1.85:1, so when I saw "Original Ratio" on the box and bought it I thought I was missing something. Maybe it was made at 1.66:1. Like the above, I could really do with some exact facts.

Alien (VHS Alien Facehugger-Boxset version) (Fox Video)

I checked this with the single-tape version with my double-decker VCR, so I could sync them, and flick between the two. It's very noticeable from the start when the word ALIEN slowly appears. On my slightly-overscanning TV, the boxset tape has the A and the N slightly fall off the side. With the single-tape version, there's no problem. The strangest thing is that Fox Video would have to get the boxset version re-rated, rather than just re-release due to the fact that the BBFC would classify it as a 'different film'. Hence, extra costs!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Special Edition (Columbia/TriStar)

The film was made at 2.35:1, but the PAL video, laserdisc and even the NTSC LD was apparently a transfer supervised by Spielberg, and he wanted it like the 2:1 ratio it is. Even the end credits fall off the side of the screen which is noticeable.

Godzilla films (Toho Company Ltd.)

Each of these films are originally 2.35:1 (approx) but the correct ratio has not been given for the current video releases.

The Hairdresser's Husband (Tartan Video)

The correct ratio of this film should be 2.35:1, but the video is approx. 1.9:1. So much for "Original Aspect Ratio" written on the side of the box!

The Indiana Jones Trilogy (CIC Video)

I thought all of these were 2.35:1 films, but as you go from no.1 to 2 to 3, they get slightly less-wide. I remember the following scene in the library near the start of the 3rd film :
As Connery and Ford are talking, and Alison Doody walks towards them coming through the aisle of books, I'd lay money on seeing some P&S-ing taking place.

The Lost Boys (Terror Vision/Warner)

This one is meant to be 2.35:1, but for some reason, it's just a mere 1.85:1. Apparently the NTSC LD is the same! What's going on?

Even a Widescreen film cannot always escape the censors

In 1992, Fox Video were allowed to release an uncut 18-cert version of "Die Hard 2", reinstating over 50 small cuts made to the 15-cert pan-and-scan release.

Nowadays, the BBFC steadfastly refuse to release a widescreen version of the same film with a different certificate, which is very annoying for those who like to consider widescreen as the ultimate format.

A film like "True Lies" would be uncut if an 18-cert video was released, but the current 15-cert release contains 8 seconds of cuts (only 1 second was cut for cinema 15-cert release). This is the version used on fullscreen video, widescreen video, and widescreen PAL laserdisc.
James Cameron, the film's director, was NOT happy about this decision, so insisted on a statement on the back of the video and LD to tell people that the film's content was edited.
The fullscreen release states something like "this film has been formatted to fit your television screen", which usually means that it has been pan-and-scanned, but more on this process later.

"Pulp Fiction" has also been edited, but not cut. Confused? Read on...

The only 'cut' I know of is not a cut time-wise, but goes like this:

When John Travolta shoots up in Eric Stoltz's place, in the cinema version you see the needle pierce the skin of Travolta's arm. In the video, it is P&S;so the actual piercing has been P&S'd off the screen because the BBFC did not want us to see the piercing.

As to the widescreen version, there was one problem to overcome :

The BBFC don't want us to see the needle piercing the skin, a la the theatrical versoin, so that part of the film would either have to be cut or P&S'd so we don't see it.
In the end, what you see on the screen during that moment is the same image of the P&S version, but with black bars stuck over the image. The rest of the film is as it should be though.

How Widescreen movies are treated on TV

Different TV channels have their own ideas on widescreen, and most these days seem to compromise with a 16:9 ratio (ITV and Channel 4 are doing PAL-Plus transmissions, in accordance with an EC directive, which are mainly in 16:9 but they could show films in wider format than that if they wished), but whatever the ratio a TV channel shows the film in, it's bound to be a better bet than the corresponding pan-and-scan version in most cases.

There have been two widescreen oddities on television lately.

TNT recently showed Douglas Trumbull's "Brainstorm" in widescreen format, which was 2.35:1 for special FX scenes, but seemed to expand to fill the screen a bit more (giving a ratio of approx. 1.85:1) for non-SFX scenes. I later discovered that this is the same with the NTSC laserdisc, and was intended by the director.

The laserdisc, for non-SFX scenes, actually window-boxes the picture, rather than enlarging it like TNT's broadcast. The end result is the same though.

Another widescreen oddity came with BBC2's showing of "The Hour of The Pig", which was shown just before the New Year.
The opening sequence of a man being hanged alongside an animal of his was at approx. 1.75:1. As the opening credits began a few minutes later, the ratio changed to 1.85:1 to fit all the words on screen.

Halfway through the credits, the picture enlargened to give a ratio of approx. 1.45:1, which does cause the film to suffer somewhat in certain scenes, including when Colin Firth is on one side of the screen, and a naked woman was on the other side. Sexism aside, the picture was panned-and-scanned such that we saw Colin Firth looking excitedly at the woman on the right, who was off the picture, so we couldn't see what he was getting worked up about until he exited, and the picture panned to where she was standing.

The film is available in the correct 1.85:1 ratio on video.

The sort of widescreen films that the shops stock

When widescreen videos first appeared in shops, it was treated as a bit of a fad, with the occasional promotional stand centreing on a few films from the same video company.

Shops like WHSmiths now have a separate section for their widescreen content, but there's not a great deal of variety. Our Price and HMV tend to mix the widescreen in with the rest of the videos in my nearest store, but some branches do have a separate section.

Obviously the titles most branches will stock will be the ones that sell the most, which is generally the Hollywood titles, plus the well known foreign films. Some shops get a few copies in of the ones which don't sell so well to try to keep all the punters happy.

Some shops have exclusive rights to some titles. For example, WHSmiths have exclusivity to some of Fox Video's range of biblical epics like "The Agony and the Ecstacy". Generally if a particular shop has exclusive rights to one film, it may be come available in every shop within about six months.

Wot no laserdiscs?

Only a few shops actually stock Laserdiscs, in my area at least. The Virgin Megastore, and Bill Hutchinson's Hifi both in Manchester, stock a fairly good selection of PAL LDs, with a few NTSC titles too.

Shops tend to stock NTSC LDs (the American format) less and less these days, especially if they've not been certificated by the BBFC, because in this wonderful land of ours, they're not looked on too favourably by the Government. Sounds crazy, but that's the way UK law goes. For more discussion on this and any other LD aspect, I'd recommend the European LD mailing list which you can subscribe by emailing a subscribe message to :