Hello All,

I went to best buy to pick this title up and all they had was full screen. I looked on the internet and couldn't determine if there was in fact a widescreen version of the dvd. Does anyone know if there is a widescreen version of the dvd?

Thanks!

Maynerd

if i had to make a guess, its full screen mainly because of all of the archival footage that was shot back in the 60's and what not that wasn't shot in widescreen.

It is only Full Screen but it didn't have to be.
It is part of the American Masters series and every other show I have seen (Hank Williams and Joni Mitchell) have been 16x9 High Def.
According to the PBS website, there is no HiDef showing of the program which tells me no 16x9 version.

16mm archive footage...

this is a documentary. Full screen is pretty standard for a documentary.

buy it

I would disagree that this is not really the case anymore. It's actually a shame this documentary wasn't widescreen, but that's the filmmaker's choice, so I really can't argue.

widescreen or not this is an excellent documentary.

Another great job by Scorcese!

Just a comment about documentaries and OAR, I wish that the accepted practice were to show archival footage in the correct aspect ratio, whether pillarboxing or letterboxing to get the right shape. Footage from before the mid-fifties should almost certainly alwas be 4x3, and any footage originally shown on TV up to the late 90s should be 4x3 as well. So many times I'm watching a new 16x9 documentary with TV footage from the 60s cropped off top and bottom, and it just grates on me. I suppose one could argue that footage not originally shown in theaters doesn't have a fixed AR, but for that type of thing, 16mm and the like, I think 4x3 is probably the best ratio.

Does this bother anyone else, or am I alone in the wilderness?

Certainly it does. I'm glad the AR for this one is 1.33:1.

Given Scorsese's passionate advocacy for OAR over the years, this was clearly a deliberate decision on his part. If he wants it to be 4:3, that's all I need to know.

This is going to be on TV (PBS) next Monday and Tuesday(9/26 & 9/27) if you want to try it before you buy it.

There is a vast amount of 1.33:1 footage in this documentary. Scorsese had to choose whether to crop it all for 16:9, or to use a dynamic AR, or to shoot the whole thing in 4:3.

Cropping would be out of the question for someone like Scorsese.

A dynamic AR would have been visually horrible, with constant inserts of 4:3 clips into 16:9 interviews. The AR would change dozens of times, for no good reason.

Making the whole thing in 4:3 was the only rational choice.

RichC

I picked it up without looking and thought I made a mistake when I got it home, but I was so excited to watch it, I didn't care. Now that I know it was only full screen, I'm a little relieved, but it's brilliant either way. Best money I've spent in a long time.