Shane (1953)

[JGD]

I have just a quick comment on aspect ratios. I really do prefer a widescreen presentation but if it was shot 1.37 it should probably stay that way. But if it was released at 1.66 and cropped for theatrical release that is a good point too.

When I purchased "The Quiet Man" I could watch it 1.37 with black bars on the sides or my HDTV could stretch it a little left and right making it look widescreen. It is not totally objectionable but it is slightly distorted and this may bother some people.

However, for some reason I used the zoom feature and noticed that my LG Blu-ray player is capable of zooming in 2% increments. At about 112% the screen is almost completely filled or maybe it actually is. I found this a nice feature and maybe other Blu-ray manufacturers could implement this as well to satisfy everyone. This way the full resolution of the original source material is not compromised nor the AR.

This way the original film is not cropped and the studio cannot be criticized for doing so. It is also certainly easier for the Blu-ray player manufacturers to implement this digitally anyway. And if the Blu-ray transfer is descent I doubt you'll notice any reduction in sharpness either. This way the user can crop the film himself for a widescreen presentation.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by JGD

I have just a quick comment on aspect ratios. I really do prefer a widescreen presentation but if it was shot 1.37 it should probably stay that way. But if it was released at 1.66 and cropped for theatrical release that is a good point too.

When I purchased "The Quiet Man" I could watch it 1.37 with black bars on the sides or my HDTV could stretch it a little left and right making it look widescreen. It is not totally objectionable but it is slightly distorted and this may bother some people.

However, for some reason I used the zoom feature and noticed that my LG Blu-ray player is capable of zooming in 2% increments. At about 112% the screen is almost completely filled or maybe it actually is. I found this a nice feature and maybe other Blu-ray manufacturers could implement this as well to satisfy everyone. This way the full resolution of the original source material is not compromised nor the AR.

This way the original film is not cropped and the studio cannot be criticized for doing so. It is also certainly easier for the Blu-ray player manufacturers to implement this digitally anyway. And if the Blu-ray transfer is descent I doubt you'll notice any reduction in sharpness either. This way the user can crop the film himself for a widescreen presentation.

Yes, stretching the picture to fill the 16x9 screen IS most certainly "totally objectionable" just as much as watching an anamorphic widescreen image in its squished-to-1.18 format and cropped to 1.33 would be, but zooming in to crop off a bit off the top and bottom is far less objectionable, and actually can often be preferable for many films released during or after 1953. And THE QUIET MAN is definitely a 1.37 film, although any re-releases were likely projected somewhere between 1.66 and 1.85 (most likely at 1.85).

Those 1952-53-54 and even 55-56 production and release years are frequently "iffy" as far as optimal aspect ratio. I'd say that if the distributor does not want to go to the expense of releasing the Blu-ray edition with multiple aspect ratios (like Criterion's ON THE WATERFRONT and Olive's THE TRAP), then it's best to release it in 1.37 and let the consumer use the zoom function on their HDTVs or projectors to watch the movie in widescreen. A little bit of resolution is lost in the process, but with a good full-HD scan the loss of quality with that amount of enlargement is minimal.

I'd like to see the 1.66 version of SHANE on Blu-ray as an option, but if it was a choice between only the 1.66 or only the 1.37, I'd definitely prefer the 1.37 and am really glad they've decided to use that one instead of the 1.66 (though I'd still prefer both options since they seem to have manually reframed each shot to look its best in that format). With a projector I can still zoom the lens out to display exactly a 1.66 image, with the excess above and below barely visible projected onto black masking, or I can just use the digital zoom function to enlarge and crop it to 1.78 (which is an adequate compromise between 1.66 and 1.85 but I expect will probably be a bit too much cropping for something originally composed for 1.37).