The Star Wars trilogy was recut before the advent of DVD.
With the The Exorcist, Blatty had been pushing for a new cut since the film premiered. The 25th Anniversary was the catalyst that helped convince Friedkin to make some revisions.
Apocalypse Now: Redux is in its own special category. It's not a director's cut, but instead an alternate cut. It's not meant to take the place of the theatrical cut, which was never pushed out of print by Redux. Certainly Coppola used DVD as a means to distribute the film, but it was inevitable that he was going to revisit Apocalypse Now.
The insert says nothing. The word "definitive" is used once on the back cover of the DVD and can hardly be taken as the "definitive" word from the filmmakers.
Either way, "Redux" is a bad example to support your thesis that films are being re-edited because of DVD. If that were true, why did "Redux" get a much-heralded theatrical release? The same question could be asked about The Exorcist, the new version of which generated substantial box office.
The same thing happens in every thread about a film that's been re-edited. If someone wants to start a new thread on the general subject of recuts, they're free to do so. This thread will remain open, because it contains important information about ST:VI.
Sorry, but it's already true as I explained why in several posts. Previously re-cut movies before 1997 doesn't disprove my point about a growing, recent trend and DVD has *some* kind of influence. As stated to the effect previously, Alien is the most recent example we have seen.
On any rate, I have no more to say about the matter as I agree with the moderator that this has gotten off topic.
If there is 0% overscan, some of the data imbedded in the vertical blanking interval may show up on the lower border of the screen as little annoying flashing white dots...
Also, you never know what may show up outside the "Action Safe" area of a video signal, either.
While overscan should be as small as possible, a little bit may be desirable.
2:1 is pretty close to 1.78:1, but I would suspect that on a video monitor calibrated to minimize overscan, you'd be able to detect small black bars.
2:1 is not "pretty close" to 1.78:1- there is a SIGNIFICANT difference between those two ratios! There should DEFINITELY be noticeable black-bars on a "properly calibrated" 16:9 set showing a 2:1 movie. If there aren't, the A. either the transfer in question is NOT truly 2:1, or B. there is WAY too much overscan on the television set in question, and as such it is FAR from "properly calibrated".
Hell, I saw some HD clips from APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX being shown on a consumer Plasma HDTV set at the local Best Buy, and I could see black bars on that. And what's the APR aspect ratio, about 1.9:1? If you can see those black bars, you should most certainly see black bars on a 2:1 STAR TREK VI, and if you don't, then something is wrong, either with your television set, or the transfer itself.
The difference with Apocalypse Now, Tucker etc is that those films were shot in anamorphic (Technovision) and the 2:1 transfers lose image to the left and right, where as ST:VI was shot in Super 35 and were opened up to vertically to 2:1.
The heliccopter assault in Apocalypse Now is grander at the full 2.40:1, of course, with more helicopters being visable.