The Horse Whisperer Aspect Ratio
 

I just bought The Horse Whisperer and started to watch it noticing an unusual problem. The movie is letterboxed at 2.35:1 throughout the film, though it has black bars on the side of the screen throughout the first forty minutes of the film. Did I get some really strange disc or was this movie shot 1:85:1 and 2.35:1 or something? I've never seen a movie like this and I'm very confused.

It has dual aspect ratios. The New York portion of the film early on is in approximately 2:1(I think) and then the rest is shown in 2.35:1. BTW, when is Buena Vista gonna get around to re-releasing this with an anamorphic transfer?

That is correct. I believe Redford was trying to make the NY section more claustrophobic and then "open it up" to the wide vists of the west in the later part of the film. I remember noticing this when I saw it in the theater.

... look at the bottom of this page - and all will be revealed...

. . . :o . . .

That sure was an interesting move on Redford's part. It looks cool on DVD, but this probably would have been awesome to see in the theater. I've never seen a movie switch aspect ratios before, thanks for the info everybody.

"Galaxy Quest" pulled a similar trick. The movie started in 1.33:1 for the scenes of the old TV show, then went to 1.85:1 for the first part of the movie, then swept out to 2.35:1 when the doors of the space ship open up to reveal outer space (when Tim Allen's character realizes he really is in space).

The DVD starts with the 1.33:1, then goes straight to 2.35:1.

If I remember correctly, Douglas Trumbull's "Brainstorm" did something similar. Not sure of the acutal ratios, so I'm presuming, but most of the movie was in 1.85:1, when a character used the virtual reality device and switched to a POV shot, the frame went to 2.35:1. I believe that Trumbull originally wanted the POV scenes to be presented in an enhanced film process that he had worked on ... I believe that system was based on widescreen 70mm prints and a faster fps rate, like 80 vs. the standard 24. As this proved impractical to implement in theaters, just the widescreen portion of this was used to make the POV shots more distinctive.

I believe Trumbull went on to implement his enhanced film process in theme parks (like Universal Studios) in VR rides, where it has been a great success ...

This is all from memory, please correct if I'm wrong.

...ahh... yes... Brainstorm... on the huge Cinerama screen... ahhh... they don't make 'em like that anymore...

. . . :o . . .