I just went to pick up Bowling and Roger and Me, but noticed that the R&M DVD case stated that this was the "standard" version, formatted to fit your TV", i.e. full screen.

Does anyone know what aspect ratio the film was originally shot in, and if there is a non-butchered version available anywhere?

IMDb claims 1.66:1, but I think that's just a compromise number they chose.

The movie is a documentary and was Moore's first film, shot on 16mm in slapdash fashion. Composition is not exactly the type of thing he puts a lot of thought into. It's mostly point the camera at the subjects and chase after them when they slam doors in his face.

A full-frame presentation would not be "butchered". That's probably the best choice for this material, in fact.

I don't know what she hits those rabbits with, but it wasn't an oar.

I picked this up too, and noticed the same thing.

I also noticed that the graphic of Moore on the back is not blended into the background very well. The white behind Moore is darker than the white of the background on the rest of the artwork. There is a very distinct line that shows the edge of the picture. Looks pretty crappy, if you ask me. It's slightly annoying, but I'll be replacing it with a keepcase soon enough, so I'll fix it.

The movie was shot full screen 1.33:1 and matted down in some theaters to anywhere between 1.66:1 and 1.85:1.

The "formatted to fit your screen" is probably a mistake. The official OAR is 1.33:1 I think.

I e-mailed Mike to find out. Hopefully he will respond.

It was shot on 16mm, so it's aspect ratio is indeed 1.33:1 ie. Full Frame... the version in stores is the way the film was shot, so do not hesitate to pick up this excellent film... you are seeing everything you were meant to see...

MATT

And if you don't pick it up, Deputy Fred Ross will come and put you out.

I find it odd that WHV didn't include the follow-up short Pets or Meat: The Return to Flynt.

Thanks for the responses! I'm looking forward to picking it up then, it's a great film!

Like 35mm, 16mm has a 1.37:1 negative aspect ratio that can be matted down to any other ratio at the filmmakers' discretion.

As I said earlier, Moore wasn't overly focused on composition, so full-frame is probably the best way to watch this movie.

But that does not mean that 16mm has to be 4:3.

Actually, the OAR is a 1.37:1 ratio parallelogram that is skewed hard to the left.

HA! That is both a witty response and an excellent way to avoid getting accused of a threadcrap.

Touche!

They should have put something akin to the way standard format is explained on the bottom of the Kubrick Collection dvd's. I just saw the responses here but in the past 3 days I passed up getting this DVD twice as I was unsure about the way it was intended to be seen. I will definitely be picking this up now but knowing nothing of the film except for the information presented on the back of the package how was I to know that this was not a pan and scan hackjob?

Thanks for the compliment, HyPyke :>)