Biggest Pan & Scan Atrocity? (1 Viewer)

[Jedrek]

I was waiting for Snow White and Fantasia in WideScreen DVD, but those idiots at Disney never them out!

 

[jeff.wright]

Although I haven't seen them in their DVD state, I always cringe when I see A League of Their Own or Ghostbusters on HBO, Starz, etc.

Ghostbusters has the most notable problem when during the "headlines" scene, when they are becoming famous and are listed in all of the newspaper headlines and magazine cover stories. The magazine zips from right, to left, and then it's off the screen before you can even read it all.

 

[John J Nelson]

I was waiting for Snow White and Fantasia in WideScreen DVD, but those idiots at Disney never them out!

You'll have a long wait - both these films were shot in Academy ratio, 1.37:1
-- J.

 

[Ric Easton]

My 2 biggest oan and scan complaints (Maybe they are open mat but it still pisses me off!) are "Honeymoon in Vegas" and Steve Martin's "The Man with Two Brains"

I had to finally break down and get Vegas.

Ric

 

[DaveBB]

All the recent Sony (Columbia/TriStar) Pan and Scans from the 90's are absolutely horrible. I don't know what method they are using, but they are unwatchable. This includes (some previously mentioned) films like:

• A League of Their Own
• Ghostbusters (yes I know it's from the 80's)
• A Few Good Men
• In the Line Of Fire

 

[Tom Boucher]

There are several I got/bought on accident.
Parenthood.
Happy Gilmour.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
are three that come to mind. There are probably more, but after you get so many DVDs you tend to forget.
Several that i've not purchased that are not anamorphic widescreen:
Full Metal Jacket
Can't Buy Me Love
Muppet Treasure Island
Muppet Christmas Carol
Of the four, I'm most annoyed about the last two. I've got just about everything I can find on DVD from the Muppets but those two. My collection won't be complete until they're re-released. And after reading this thread and seeing that the commentary actually had Brian Henson commenting on what was cropped out makes my blood boil

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Truly evil Pan & Scan TV broadcasts:
All the Panavision James Bond movies.
Mid-80's BBC2 broadcast of Leone's, Once Upon A Time In The West, but not in P&S, oh no! Shown at 1.33:1 squeezed!
Truly evil Pan & Scan VHS transfers:
All of John Carpenter.
War And Peace (1968, 65mm Russian version)
Waterloo (1970, Sergei Bondarchuk)
JFK - Truly bizarre.
The Apartment
The High And The Mighty (2.55:1 C-Scope)
The Man Who Fell To Earth (One of the great Panavision films ever made, it looks SO bad in 1.33 that I weep when I see it shown in P&S)
Truly evil Pan & Scan Laserdisc transfers:
The 'DiscoVision' titles: Jaws, Deliverance etc
Truly evil Pan & Scan DVD transfers:
The Great Waldo Pepper
The Man Of A Thousand Faces (is an anamorphic widescreen version now available? The film was released in 1957 - was it one of the last 2.55:1 CinemaScope movies?)
Lots more of course, by I feel depressed just thinking about these veritable Crimes Against Humanity! :frowning:
Gordy

 

[Nick_Scott]

Funny story about Pan and Scan....
My wife used to prefer "full screen" and I obviously prefer "widescreen". I wasnt until we watched Ghostbusters 2 on cable that I was able to change her mind.
Ghostbusters 2 is the worst P&S that I have ever seen. All 4 ghostbusters can't fit on the screen at once, so the screen it always panning left/right throughout the whole movie.
At one point, my wife says "why does the camera always have to move back and forth.... can't the actors just stand closer together???" God bless here, now she understands.. The pans were very abrupt and distracting. Thank god the DVD is widescreen!

 

[John J Nelson]

The later Stanley Kubrick films are presented on DVD at 1.33:1, which is what the director wanted. He saw theatrical matting to 1.85:1 as a necessary evil, and regarded 1.33:1 as the 'true' AR of these films.

-- J.

 

[Steve Phillips]

MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES was released on DVD in widescreen at 2:35 to 1 by Image in 1998! I am not aware of any panned and scanned DVD release.

Really bad panned and scanned examples: PILLOW TALK, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, GREASE, DIE HARD, JAWS, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, EAST OF EDEN, etc etc etc.

 

[Aaron_Brez]

In the case of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the atrocity is made worse by the fact that a (non-anamorphic) widescreen master *was already available* at the time, and it went unused due to the "family title = full screen at all costs" BS.

 

[Jay E]

Columbia recently released the 2.35:1 film Perfect on DVD in Pan & Scan. A totally outrageous thing to do in this day & age of DVD.

 

[John Stockton]

Well since this film was shot in 65 MM Super Panavision, the 2.35:1 picture is not a true representation of the original film either. The THX 16x9 WS anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer is from a 35 MM print which is horizontally cropped from the original 65 MM.

If MGM wants to do this film Justice, they need to do a new HD 16x9 transfer from a 65 MM source rendering a 2.21:1 aspect ratio.

 

[Brian McHale]

I wish I could remember what movie it was (one of the Emmanuelle movies, perhaps?), but back in the 80's I watched a T&A movie on cable that had to have the most complete P&S hack job ever. When it came time to pan, they actually froze the frame, then scanned across, then restarted. It was truly unfathomable.

 

[GregoryM]

The one that irritates me the most is The Karate Kid. It's available only as a 4:3 pan and scan (though filmed in 1.85, I don't believe it's open matte; the pans are noticable and the film always seems "zoomed in" rather than the "zoomed out" effect created by an open matte), but the sequels (I like 2, think 3 is fairly bad, and Next is complete dreck) are all available in widescreen. This makes no sense at all.

In many scenes, we have characters on opposite sides of the screen who get half cut off. Fighters in the climactic scenes disappear from the frame or the electronic pan to keep them in frame is annoyingly obvious.

 

[Stefan A]

Any 80's comedies that are not OAR. Like The Jerk and Vacation.

 

[JimmyK]

My vote goes to "Fierce Creatures". I don't understand why they released "A Fish Called Wanda" in widescreen but didn't release "Fierce Creatures" in widescreen also.

I keep checking to see if "Fierce Creatures" has been re-released in widescreen, but no such luck. Pisses me off....

JimmyK

 

[Jim Moore]

The Happy Gilmore DVD is an atrocity because its not widescreen? That is an awfully strong statement. I mean, come on, it is not like there is any great cinematography (in regards to composition, etc.) being lost with that movie. I know, I know, everyone has their own opinion when it comes to artistry, but lets be realistic. I often wonder if some people know WHY they like widescreen or if they just do because they are "supposed to."
A real atrocity? Take a look at the pan'n'scan side of Deliverance. Just imagine someone in the world is actually watching the film that way. That is the real atrocity.

 

[Robert_eb]

The Mission
Once Upon A Time In The West

 

[DaViD Boulet]

We should really focus on films that are not available in OAR on DVD IMO.

From that list:

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Muppet Treasure Island
Muppet Christmas Carol