The "Letterbox" vs. "Pan & Scan" Debacle
The Three Musketeers
"Hey, is this movie in letterbox?" one friend asks another as they prepare to pop a movie into the VCR for a Friday night viewing.
"Letterbox? What's that?" the other friend asks. "Oh, wait, is that that thing with the black bars? I hate those black bars! They distract me!"
And herein lies the great debate. In the old days, you stuck in a movie, and that was that. You knew what you were getting. The movie would fill up your whole TV screen, just like your TV shows would. But, it recent years, something has changed. Some say for the better, some say for the worse. There's now a choice--one creating a philosophical divide amongst film viewers--between "letterbox" format and "pan & scan" format.
If you're not familiar with these terms, you may know them simply--as they've come to be known these days--as "widescreen" or "full screen". These are easier for folks to remember, and might help you better visualize what we're talking about here.
Here's the basic problem: your TV screen and the average movie screen just aren't the same size. I'm not talking about their dimensions, measured in feet or inches. I'm talking about the ratio. In short, your TV screen is much more like a square (but not quite), and the movie screen is more of a rectangle. The issue comes in when a movie that's been made for the cinema screen (the rectangle) now needs to be seen on your TV screen (the square) when you rent the film for home viewing, or see it on cable. It just don't fit.
Here's where the process of "pan & scan" comes in. In short, they pretty much crop off the sides of what you're supposed to be seeing to make it fit into the square. You get what's left, sometimes only 60% or less of the original shot. You'll see an awkward sliding of the "camera" from time to time to catch something off to the side that can't be missed because it's in important part of the story. This is the "pan" part of the process. The "full screen" description means that your whole TV screen is filled because that pesky rectangle got cut down to a square.
Now, where "letterbox", or "widescreen" format comes in is when, in the transfer from film to tv screen, they kept the original aspect ratio. You're seeing the entire rectangular shot just as it was originally seen on the movie screen. But because you're putting a rectangle in a square, your only way to get that whole shot is to reduce the size of the rectangle. It downsized some, and then there's space left at the top and the bottom of your TV screen (what people refer to as "those black bars").
This "letterboxing" is a relatively new concept for home film viewers, and many don't care for it. They're used to what they've had their whole lives, and since they spent all that money on that TV, they want the whole screen to be used. Some will accidentally buy a letterbox VHS film, for example, come home and see those "black bars", realize they've made a mistake, and take it back to the store and exchange it for the regular full screen version they wanted. And they'll watch their newly bought film with a smile, happy to see their whole TV screen filled top to bottom again.
Blissfully unaware that they're getting screwed.
Pan & scan is, in short, crap. You're getting ripped off. You're being lied to. And people are accepting it. Seriously, if you had a family picture with you and few relatives, would you put up with several of your cousins getting cropped out of the photo--leaving you, your Uncle John, and half of your cousin Larry--because that made it fit into the frame? When the filmmakers are shooting this film, they are framing shots. Everything in the frame is taken into consideration. When you crop a film like that, you're not only insulting the filmmakers and destroying their work, but you're robbing the viewers as well.
We've all seen (but most haven't thought about it) examples of the worst pan & scan disasters. The number one culprit is Ghostbusters. Do this experiment sometime, if you have a DVD player. Go rent Ghostbusters on both VHS and DVD. It's up to you which one you watch first. Either way, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about when you start watching the next one. I advise starting with the DVD. See the film as it was meant to be seen. Then, while it's still fresh in your mind, pop in the VHS "full screen" version. Take a look at how much of the film you just saw is missing. For example, there's the scene where Sigourney first walks into the Ghostbusters office. She starts talking to Annie Potts at the front desk. In the background--as those of us who saw it on the big screen back in the day recall--there's an amusing bit of Bill Murray physical comedy where Bill hears her voice and pops straight up, then comes running over and leaps over a swinging door. In the pan & scan we've been subjected to for years, you don't see any of that. You kind of see him jump into frame at the last minute, but the whole scene you were meant to see is lost. Why? Because you don't like black bars!
There are any number of examples of how this ruins a film. Watch a cable movie sometime, and see how two characters are talking, but you don't even see one on screen. Try watching Multiplicity on cable or VHS sometime. AHHH!! It's terrible! You're left guessing what's going on in the scene in some instances. Not only does this shortening of the frame mess with the story, but it ruins many beautiful film shots. In this day and age of the home theater, more and more people are waking up from the big pan & scan lie, and are insulted if a film is only available in "full screen". Because they know the truth. You're not seeing the movie that the filmmakers made for you.
Here are some examples of the differences between a shot in pan & scan vs. a widescreen presentation, shown in the original aspect ratio. The former are taken from VHS, the latter from DVD versions of the film.
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Romancing The Stone
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Star Wars (Special Edition)
Can you see the difference, and how much you're missing? Pan & scan erases people, and, in the case of Star Wars, sometimes whole planets. Just look at this scene from Blazing Saddles, one of the great comedy films ever made.
Blazing Saddles
You totally lose Cleavon Little! How can you put up with losing Cleavon Little?! It's an atrocity, and one that's been forced on us for too long.
Thankfully, with the coming of DVD and the home theater experience, people are wising up, and demanding that they get to see their films the way they were shot. It was tough before DVD. There was a time between VHS and DVD when they started releasing VHS movies in special letterbox editions, and movie fans like myself went crazy and bought up as many as possible. I'd replace movies I already owned in pan & scan with widescreen editions, and then end up giving away the original version (usually to my friend Tim back then, but that's a whole story). There were movies I wanted to own, but I refused to buy them if they were only available in pan & scan. I felt that strongly about it.
Then came the DVD revolution. Now, in most cases, viewers really had no choice. As DVD was designed for the discriminating home film viewer, most every film came out in glorious widescreen format (those that didn't were reviled by us...this is why I still don't own Happy Gilmore as of this writing. DVD released in pan & scan? Come on!!). Finally, people like me and my fellow film nerds were vindicated, and the rest of the world--lied to for so long--finally had to start learning to deal with the idea that this is how films were meant to be seen, and how they were going to be seen if you wanted to step up to DVD. The lie was forced on people for so long, I didn't shed many tears at the idea of the truth being forced on people as well.
Okay, so, like many people, you still may be having a problem with it, and may still like your full screen movies like you see on HBO. I disagree with you (obviously), but it's a preference. And I'm all about choice. You see many DVDs now where one side, or one disc, is in widescreen, and the other is in full screen. I personally think every movie should come out like this. This gives you a chance to sample both and choose for yourself, and if you still prefer the hack & slash, you can watch it that way. But I implore you to consider what I've been discussing here, to watch your movies in total, to see the whole movie.
In case you're one of the eight or nine people that hasn't seen The Matrix yet, let me impart some wisdom from that film. There's a scene where Keanu's character, Neo, is watching a child bend a spoon with his mind. The child, wise beyond his years, says something along the lines of, "Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth."
"The Truth?" Neo asks.
"There is no spoon."
There are no black bars.
Stop thinking that someone has taken your movies and stamped black bars on them. That's not what's happening. It's all about visualization. See the black bars for what they are...not objects placed on the screen, but representations of empty space. This is the area above and below the movie screen in your theater. Don't look at them. Don't think of them. Just look at the film. When you realize that there are no black bars, you'll begin your journey toward a fuller, richer film watching experience, and will no longer be a prisoner to the great full screen lie. Eventually, you'll thank me.
Oh, and getting a bigger TV helps, too.
The images above were swiped from the very informative
Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page
Where you can learn more about the letterbox/pan & scan debate