I agree. The original artwork is far too brown to reflect the colour palette of the film, which while not necessarily "popping" with colour, is far more colourful than the original artwork.
Matt is absolutely on the money in describing this. The framing story is the weakest link in the film, but it's still sumptuously shot and Barbara Eden and Claire Bloom look fantastic. I'm just looking forward to seeing something better than the atrocious P/S VHS version where I saw it for the...
2.89:1 is based on an extraction of all usable image area on a 3-panel Cinerama element. Battle of the Bulge is an Ultra Panavision Cinerama title, so like Ben-Hur, is "only" 2.76:1. Some sources claim the correct AR for Cinerama is "only" 2.59:1, but Cinerama is an odd duck because of the...