Films That Have Not Seen An Anamorphic DVD or Blu-ray

[BillieCassin]

It's funny, because I've seen this mentioned in three different threads just today.

How many movies were only released on DVD in non-anamorphic transfers in the U.S., and haven't made it out to Blu-ray yet? From my collection, and responses in this thread:


ABYSS, THE
ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
BOUND (*on BD in France, region-free)
BRIDGE AT REMAGEN, THE (1969)
BULWORTH
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
COLOR OF MONEY, THE
CONAN THE DESTROYER
EVITA
FIERCE CREATURES
GAME, THE
HALLOWEEN H:20 (*possibly in 3-pack release in 2009 it was? anyone confirm?)
MEMPHIS BELLE
MOON SPINNERS, THE (Disney)
MORTAL KOMBAT (*releasing soon)
OUTLAND
PAPER, THE
QUIZ SHOW
RANSOM
REMO WILLIAMS : THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
ROCKETEER, THE
SCREAM (*there was a non-US release on DVD, available on BD in Canada in 1080i)
SHADOW, THE
SUMMER OF SAM
TRUE LIES
WHAT ABOUT BOB
WING COMMANDER
ZULU DAWN (*French DVD is anamorphic)



I'm sure there must be more?

[BillieCassin]

Whoops, meant to put this in Wishlist - not sure where it's most appropriate.

[Zoodles95]

Add TWINS please.

[Talal86]

I'm not sure what's Anamorphic, but if it is what I think it is

The Game (David Fincher)

[biglou114]

Fierce Creatures (The A Fish Called Wanda semi-sequel)

[AKORIS]

SCREAM

RANSOM

HALLOWEEN H20



* I think they may have re-released H20 in 16X9 at one point but I never
saw it

** shockingly, Disney re-released RANSOM a few years back as a special
edition and it still wasn't anamorphic!!

[The Prowler]

From my wishlist...

The Color of Money
Quiz Show
Summer of Sam
What about Bob

[Arkadin]

a shockingly large number of Disney live action films haven't been given anamorphic transfers.
really pathetic that Disney continues to ignore their own film legacy.
I mean they can't even issue anamorphic dvds of many titles--like "The Moon Spinners" and some of the other Hayley Mills' classics for example--much less bds.
There are a ton of non-anamorphic MGM titles--especially from the 60's.

[WMAangel]

Originally Posted by Zoodles95

Add TWINS please.

If you are referring to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, then sorry, but it WAS released on an anamorphic widescreen DVD as part of the "Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy Favorites Collection" release (along with 16x9 versions of Kindergarten Cop and Junior).....

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by Zoodles95

Add TWINS please.

Done.

Originally Posted by Talal86

I'm not sure what's Anamorphic, but if it is what I think it is

The Game (David Fincher)

Anamorphic = Widescreen Enhanced = Enhanced For Widescreen Televisions = Enhanced for 16x9

etc.

...is when a title was released on DVD as a flat-letterbox picture burned into the screen. It's kind of remarkable that they thought about it, but DVD specs (and players) were able to take a full 16x9 image and squeeze it onto a 4:3 screen so as not to lose the resolution like letterboxing in other formats.

The player did the work of making the black bars, basically, taking the rectangular image, scaling it down, and putting it onto a 4:3 TV while maintaining as much resolution as possible and not using up that space to make the black bars. This was done because they had hoped HD was gong to catch on a good ten years before it did, and a new format was so far away. It's also why most of us had never seen our DVD's true capabilities (and faults) until you watched them on a 1.78 screen.

This was an advantage over putting letterbox on VHS or even Laserdisc, because those analog formats just pasted the black lines as part of the picture right on the media, meaning taking up some of the films resolution space (sometimes to a large degree). One (slightly ill-informed but actually accurate) reason some people complained about Laserdiscs was that here you have this superior resolution - and you waste half of it on black bars. For most of us it was worth it to get films in OAR (the main reason I bought Laserdisc), but it is true we sacrificed resolution (and why DVD was so revolutionary).

There are far more technical descriptions out there - the Anamorphic primer over at Digital Bits is quite good, as is the Wikipedia article.

[Duffy12]

I have been waiting forever for...


OUTLAND

[Talal86]

Originally Posted by BillieCassin

Anamorphic = Widescreen Enhanced = Enhanced For Widescreen Televisions = Enhanced for 16x9

then yeah, I watched The Game recently and I had to zoom the picture to get a normal widescreen

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by Duffy12

I have been waiting forever for...


OUTLAND

good one-- another movie that's NEVER had a good video release....

[miller_time22]

The Rocketeer

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by miller_time22

The Rocketeer

+1 and I echo my comment from post 13!!

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by Talal86

then yeah, I watched The Game recently and I had to zoom the picture to get a normal widescreen

Yup, that's it. I love that movie, too. I haven't seen it since it came out on VHS. Added!

I added the rest as well, thanks guys! I was shocked when I added SCREAM - I actually had my Scream DVDs out because we were talking about it in another thread (and I'm amping up for the release because Wes Craven keeps tweeting about it LOL).

Even after I saw the DVD for 1 didn't say enhanced but the others did, I still stuck it in just to make sure. Yup, sure enough. Though, unlike some titles, it's actually a pretty good transfer - it certainly doesn't look great, but it's not absolutely unwatchable zoomed.

That seals it - if they don't release them stateside before the sequel, I'll be ordering the...gasp...1080i versions.

[miller_time22]

Did From Dusk Till Dawn ever get an anamorphic release?

[cinemaphile]

Originally Posted by biglou114

Fierce Creatures (The A Fish Called Wanda semi-sequel)

forget anamorphic. it hasn't even been released in widecreen of any kind! except on VHS!!

Same with the great Michael Keaton movie THE PAPER. To this day the only widescreen version released was on Laserdisc. DVD was full frame only.

[HD Goofnut]

Please add the following:
Mortal Kombat (being released on BD in a couple months)
Memphis Belle
The Shadow
Conan the Destroyer
Wing Commander
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

[MCT]

Originally Posted by The Prowler

From my wishlist...

The Color of Money

this definitely needs a BD release. Paul Newman was on fire here. The scene with he and Forest Whitaker is just amazing.