Blu-ray discs and aspect ratios: 1.66 and 1.78/1.85

[tylerrad]

Does a 1.66:1 Blu-ray disc exist?

Eyes Wide Shut and Full Metal Jacket are available on Blu-ray only in 1.85:1 ratio (or 1.78, I'm not certain, but I've more to say on that in a moment). However, in the recent version of the Kubrick DVD box set, EWS and Full Metal Jacket are presented in 1.66:1 and I'll assume that whoever made the decision for 1.66 over 1.37 or 1.85 had good reason to do so. So, why are EWS and Full Metal Jacket available only in 1.85 on Blu-ray?

I can think only of one obvious and very annoying answer: Studios think that people expect every film watched on a widescreen TV to fill the frame. This same logic resulted in Pan-and-Scan VHS tapes and 'Full-screen' DVDs. Releasing a film in a cropped aspect ratio isn't exactly as heinous a crime as releasing a panned and scanned version, but it's still incorrect.

Kubrick films are an inherently bad example because he shot most of them open matte and nobody can agree on a definitive OAR, but what about 12 Angry Men or the countless foreign films that have been shot in 1.66 over the years? Nobody can argue that their OAR was anything but 1.66:1. Will they never be released on Blu-ray because of the 'confusing' pillarboxing?

Now, on to 1.85 and 1.78 presentation. When watching a film like Goodfellas on Blu-ray (officially 1.85:1 and presented in 1.85:1 according to blu-ray.com), the image will fill the screen on a widescreen television (1.78:1). What exactly aren't we seeing? Are the sides cropped slightly to fill the frame? Or are we seeing something extraneous, something that wasn't part of the original composition?

This holds true for 1.85:1 DVDs on widescreen televisions as well. It isn't quite as bad as going from 1.66 to 1.78, but it's still problematic.

What's happening here? Studios are doing a disservice to those who purchase their products by releasing them incorrectly. It's a mark of condescension actually, that the Blu-ray and DVD manufacturers assume the consumer wont notice or understand the difference between the correct and incorrect aspect ratios.


(I do realize that DVDs and Blu-ray discs by nature can only have video stored 16:9 and 4:3, anamorphic or not. Releasing a 1.66:1 Blu-ray disc would be more difficult because, theoretically, two versions would have to be released: one for 16:9 TVs with pillarboxing and one for 4:3 TVs with letterboxing. In a few years this will no longer be a problem. There will be no 4:3 HDTVs left.)