John Carpenter: P&S Fans Are "Idiots" (1 Viewer)

[Kevin M]

William Friedkin for one.
He actively blocked Paramount Home Video from releasing a letterboxed version of Jade on laserdisc.

You know I love & respect Friedkin's "good" work but...yeah, he did.
In fact he also did this to Sorcerer.

 

[Geoff_D]

Carpenter has, and always will be, one of my favourite directors. He has shot his movies in Scope from Precinct 13 onwards, so every movie of his since then has suffered the indignity of the pan and scan process. He knows it ruins his movies, but many (oh, so many!) do not. Thank Yoda for Laserdisc and DVD where his framing can be presented in it's original splendour at a higher quality than evil VHS.
PS
That new Fog DVD is awesome! And anyone know where I can preorder the 25th Anniversary version of Halloween? How about the 30th Anniversary edition?

 

[oscar_merkx]

just go to www.dvdpricesearch.com for the best price

 

[AaronMK]

Way to go Carpenter!!

Now if only more directors would make similar statements.

Does anyone have a link to Michael Mann comment, in context?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Aaron, here ya go:
Entertainment Weekly
I agree with his point.

 

[Peter Kim]

For all of the talk of pan and scan as a 'legitimate option', it's refreshing to hear such a blunt and factual remark. In light of growing vox pop that P&S should be an offered format, it's great to hear a prominent director proclaim it like it is. And why not...it's sad to see widespread acceptance of a format borne from ignorance and/or indifference.

 

[Drew Mertz]

yep read the piece in the paper this morning very nice randy.

John Carpenter is one of the best film makers out there. I`d by any product with his name on it!

 

[Patrick McCart]

John Carpenter is one of the biggest users of Panavision in the last 20 years. I think all of his films since Halloween were shot in scope.
As for my take on this...
People who buy and support P&S who don't know any better are ignorant. (I used to be one of these...although I just didn't pay much attention) Those who know the facts about P&S and LBX and still buy and support non-OAR media are idiots, fools, imbeciles, and cretins.

 

[Douglas Bailey]

In regards to Lyle's comments, it's worth pointing out that the more recent DVD releases of William Friedkin's films -- the 25th anniversary edition and "Version You've Never Seen" of The Exorcist and the Five Star Collection French Connection disc -- are widescreen-only. And Friedkin participated in the creation of all three of those discs.
Rules of Engagement is widescreen-only, too.
Whatever Friedkin's views in the past, it seems as if he -- like James Cameron, perhaps? -- has changed his mind about the feasibility of widescreen home video.
doug

 

[JohnE]

Does anyone know which actually sells better? It seems like most new major releases are offering both formats, and I'm curious which is doing more sales? Not just a particular movie but as a whole. Anyone?

 

[Dharmesh C]

WIDESCREEN, all the time, JohnE. It's about 60-40 in favour of wide per title at the moment

 

[Robert Spalding]

To give JohnE some perspective:

LOTR Widescreen is #2 on the Amazon.com sales ranking right now while the Fullscreen is rated #46.

 

[Tony-B]

I believe that the fullscreen LOTR peaked at either 3 or 4, I don't remember which one. For some more comparisons, Spider-Man widescreen is at 7 right now, while fullscreen is at 68. Star Wars: Episode 2 WS is at 4, while FS is at 68. Back to the Future WS is at 40, and FS is at 348. The Rookie WS is at 12, and FS is at 43. Finally, Queen of the Damned WS is at 30, and FS is at 90. I think WS is doing really good. Just look at BTTF!!!!!!!

 

[AaronMK]

Thanks Peter.
Mann's comments there seemed pretty pro OAR.
JohnE,
As far as WS vs. P&S sales go, it depends on the outlet. For online retailers and most electronics chains, WS usually outsells P&S by a large margin. In the Walmart and Target type stores, it seems that P&S is favored.
Billboard's DVD sales chart ranks editions seperatly, but does not give actual numbers. The WS usually comes out on top. But the P&S is usually right below it.
WS is currently favored, but I don't know of any sources that indicate by exactly how much.

 

[JJR512]

And since Mr. Carpenter didn't personally post
those comments in this forum, I'll just keep
my mouth shut and add a big fat smile to my face.

Good.
I personally wouldn't call anyone who likes P&S an "idiot". There are two kinds of people who like P&S: Those who honestly do not know better, and those who do, but find the black bars too distracting.
If a person doesn't know better, that may sound idiotic to you, but it might just be something that they never thought of. This kind of person might not be a true movie fan, just a casual watcher. This is the kind of person that we can try to educate about OAR. Then they will either become an OAR fan, or they will become the second kind of P&S fan.
The second kind of P&S fan is the person who does understand they are missing part of the picture, but they find the black bars too distracting. Maybe this is difficult for most of you to understand, but it is real. Some people just cannot get their minds off the black bars. It's kind of like the "chroma bug": Many people do not even notice it, but many people do. It's unfortunate for these people, because they do understand that OAR is better, but unfortunately, watching a widescreen movie is not possible. They would be too distracted by the black bars to enjoy the movie. They can more easily live with the knowledge they are missing part of the picture, than see those black bars. And I know many of you believe in "OAR or nothing", and you may say, if you can't watch the movie in OAR, why bother watching it at all. Well, these people bother to watch the movie in MAR because they want to see the movie and will enjoy it. Do they not deserve to be entertained, just because they happen to be distracted by the black bars? If you say yes, that they do not deserve to be entertained, then you need to seriously reconsider just what the movie business is about. It's to entertain people.
None of these kinds of people are idiots. I said there were two groups, but OK, there is a third, and it's the kind of person that just cannot understand the concept, or do but just don't care. Maybe the term "idiot" might somewhat accurately be applied to people in this third group. But I believe this group to be very small, relative to the other two. I believe that most of the people whom you might think are part of this group are probably, in reality, actually part of the second group. Most people are smart enough to grasp the concept, once properly explained, and if they do understand it, most people would not just not care. I think that most people who do understand it but say they don't care really mean that they don't care that OAR is better because the black bars are too distracting; this is why I say that most people who might at first appear to be in this third group are actually part of the second.
In short, I don't think it's a good thing to call someone with different opinions or tastes from your own an idiot, and that's what this comes down to. That's what John Carpenter did. I'm glad there are rules against calling people different from yourself an idiot in this forum, because I don't like to see that kind of thing happen. There is a great diversity of people in this world, and I believe some people, including some people here, and John Carpenter, need to be more tolerant. If someone gets more entertainment from a movie by watching it in MAR, fine, let them be entertained. That's the purpose of this business.
I am pro-OAR, but, for the people who are more entertained by MAR, I say let there be MAR. Let them have that choice. Even John Carpenter himself said let there be the choice. As long as those of us who are pro-OAR continue to have our choice available to us, then all is good, In My Humble Opinion.

 

[Iain Lambert]

John, I've not got figures to hand, but from what I've seen, Widescreen is slightly ahead, overall, but (1) not for all titles, (2) not overwhelmingly, and (3) more copies are often sold than when only one version is available, so it does seem to be making financial sense to do them both.

 

[streeter]

First about Michael Mann - remember when The Insider came out on VHS and DVD? It was only available in widescreen, even on tape, making hundreds of Blockbuster customers so aggrevated that they grew donkey ears and a tail.

Then about sales comparisons - Big titles usually sell more WS... but the problem is family titles like Princess Diaries and Snow Dogs. Because Princess Diaries sold so few widescreen copies (compared to FS), we got stuck with a FS-only release of Snow Dogs. Snow Dogs and Princess Diaries were Direct-To-Walmart movies, IMO.

 

[Malcolm R]

As long as those of us who are pro-OAR continue to have our choice available to us, then all is good.

People keep saying this and it's not true. I'd like to know where you all live that you can get ALL titles in either WS or P&S, cuz in my world there are a fair number of titles that are available only in P&S.

 

[Jan Strnad]

In short, I don't think it's a good thing to call someone with different opinions or tastes from your own an idiot, and that's what this comes down to.

I don't believe in calling people whose opinion differs from mine "idiots," but when their actions impact my own life, anger and frustration can lead one to excess.

Does anyone know whether President George W. Bush prefers widescreen or pan-and-scan? Or does he not ever watch movies on television, what with that private screening room and all?

Just curious.

Jan

 

[Dave Scarpa]

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