black bars on all blu ray films?

[witheygull]

Originally Posted by hourglass

Sometimes, (Kubrick springs to mind here...) the full-frame is the intended aspect ratio.

Kubrick, on the other hand, made sure the full 35mm frame was clear so that the film would fill up the whole 4:3 screen. Rather than losing information like with Pan & Scan, you get MORE information top & bottom.

The snag here is that these movies then don't take advantage of a widescreen HD monitor, thus the Kubrick movies that have been released to date on Blu-ray have been the matted theatrical versions.

More information is not always a good thing, especially when it negatively impacts the composition. Look at the 4:3 DVD for Eyes Wide Shut and compare it to the 16:9 blu-ray. The 16:9 image is indeed cropped on the top and bottom compared to the 4:3 image, but the result is a more aesthetically pleasing composition. The 4:3 image frames the characters with more space above and/or below them than is necessary. This diminishes the power of close-up shots because the actor's face does not occupy as much of the image as in the 16:9 version.

I love Kubrick's movies and I'm usually on the side of the director when it comes to preferred aspect ratio, but I think Kubrick was wrong in his preference for altering the aspect ratio of the theatrical presentation for home video release.