paz09

Has anyone commented on the aspect ratio for the new release of the Great Escape?
According to the box, it is 2.35:1. I don't know what the ratio is on the old non-anamorphic version, but a comparison of the two shows that the old version has significantly more picture information on both sides! For example, in one scene in Track 4, a group shot of Hilts and others, in the original dvd release, there is one full person to his left and two full persons to his right, with another person visable in the background. In the current version, the person to Hilts' left is barely able to be seen, and the background person on the right is gone completely.
Why did they do that? It is true that the picture fills about 2/3 of the screen now, but at the expense of lost picture information. I am somewhat disappointed, because in all other regards, the new version is far superior to the old.

larry bender

2:35 is the correct aspect ratio. The older dvd was way over letterboxed at a ratio of 2:70 showing way more than it should.

natevines

It was panavision, so it is undoubtedly 2.35.

DonnachaOne

paz - the original DVD was misframed; the transfer used the whole frame of the film, including the parts that were supposed to be hidden by soundtrack.

obscurelabel

More information here:

http://207.136.67.23/film/DVDCompare3/greatescape.htm

Very interesting screen shots from several different DVD versions of the film, including the current SE.

paz09

Thanks all for the update--and the website was very interesting. You certainly cleared up my concern!

dfriend

On my DLP projector with no overscan, in the first scene where Hiltz is in the cooler, you can see a guy on the left side of the screen holding a boom mike up to the door. Kind of ruins it...