That guy who ranted about letterboxing for 20 minutes at my tape swap

At a flea market in Dayton last fall I handed a guy a pan-and-scan copy of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and he went off about how the TV cut version ruins every shot composition, then spent 20 minutes showing me frame comparisons on his phone. He ended with "you're watching a different movie if you don't see the full picture" and walked off without buying anything. So which side do you land on, do you chase the full frame or just accept whatever the tape gives you?

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dianas504d ago

Three TVs in my living room all have different aspect ratio settings and my buddy refuses to watch anything with me until I "fix the damn stretch" so I get it lol. But honestly that guy was doing too much, 20 minutes of frame comparisons at a flea market is wild behavior. The thing is we all do this with something, right? Like I have a friend who will not drink coffee unless it's from a specific ceramic mug she bought in Portland, says the paper cup ruins the whole experience. It's never really about the cup or the black bars on the screen, it's about wanting people to see things the way you see them. We get so attached to our own perfect version of stuff that we forget the movie or the coffee still hits fine in a different format. I watch pan-and-scan copies all the time when that's all I can find, and yeah it's not ideal but I'm not gonna miss a good story over some missing scenery.