This will be of little interest, I realize, to anyone except for aspect-ratio fanatics like myself. But within the past month I’ve watched Amazon rentals of Billy Wilder‘s The Spirit of St. Louis (’57) and John Guillermin and Irwin Allen‘s The Towering Inferno (’74). And neither made me happy.
Both films were shot within a standard widescreen a.r. (2.39:1), but for reasons of pure laziness and indifference are being presented to Amazon renters with flat aspect ratios of roughly 1.78:1 or 16 x 9, which is the dimension of a standard widescreen HD TV.
The difference between the two screen shapes (comparison below) is obvious — the 1.78 version chops the sides off. It’s just as obvious that certain parties (most likely on the Amazon end) involved in the presentation of these films couldn’t care less about showing them correctly.
I’ve been watching The Spirit of St. Louis for years so why did I pay to rent it on Amazon? Because the 1.78 version is presented in HD, and the 2006 DVD is obviously available only in 480p.