Criterion Yojimbo non-anamorphic: why? (1 Viewer)

[Eric T]

I was a little bummed out last night when I watched Yojimbo. It was presented in 2.35:1, but was letterboxed. I couldn't zoom the image on my widescreen HDTV, because then I lost the subtitles at the bottom.

Any reason why this was not made with an anamorphic transfer?

 

[Marc Colella]

Criterion didn't clue in to anamorphic transfers until later in their collection.
I believe their first anamorphic transfer was Insomnia.
I've heard a few "reasons" why Criterion didn't go anamorphic right out of the gate... but it's probably just their lack of forsight into the future sales of widescreens TVs.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I was a little bummed out last night when I watched Yojimbo. It was presented in 2.35:1, but was letterboxed. I couldn't zoom the image on my widescreen HDTV, because then I lost the subtitles at the bottom.

If your HDTV is itself incapable of doing the trick, get a Malata N-996 or another DVD player with similar capabilities: it creates an anamorphic picture from a non-anamorphic source, zooms in the picture, and allows you to shift it all the way to the top of the screen, so you can see the subtitles at the bottom.
My Sony widescreen TV does do the zoom & shift thing, but the quality of the zoom is much worse, and due to overscan, the bottom row of subtitles was getting lost. All that was fixed by the Malata.
Your third option is getting the Region 2 (UK) Yojimbo DVD which is anamorphic.
Ted

 

[Jean-Michel]

Your third option is getting the Region 2 (UK) Yojimbo DVD which is anamorphic.

All the information I've seen (reviews, etc.) say that it's nonanamorphic as well.

 

[Rob Lutter]

FYI, the reason that Criterion did not make their first discs anamorphic was that they did not like the anamorphic downconversion (letterboxed on a regular 4:3 TV) on first-generation DVD players. The non-anamorphic video looked much better to them on the most televisions.

 

[Mark_vdH]

It was presented in 2.35:1

The Criterion transfer was (mis)framed at about 2.20:1.

 

[GerardoHP]

You should be able to zoom into the picture and scroll it up so that you can have both the scope image and the subtitles on your screen without the need to watch it in the 4x3 mode.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Like Jean Michel, based on the reviews I read, I believe it's non-anamorphic as well. I'm wondering though if the subtitles on the R2 disc are also on the bottom, as that was the main reason for me to get rid of the Criterion disc.

I stand corrected, the R2-UK is indeed non-anamorphic as is the recent R2-France DVD.

Ted