MetaChat - Wasn't Close Encounters wide-screen?

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02 May 2010

Wasn't Close Encounters wide-screen? So, I'm flipping through the channels right now and I see that TCM, normally a bastion of properly-formatted movies, is showing Close Encounters of the Third Kind in full-screen format. It looks really odd. →[More:]

I'm pretty darned sure CEotTK was a wide-screen movie, so, I'm wondering if either TCM has dropped the ball or if Comcast has decided to flip TCM to full-screen this afternoon.

Anyone else seeing this?

post by: Thorzdad at: 17:43 | 7 comments

As luck would have it, my Tivo noticed it was playing while I was out and grabbed it for me. Looking at it just now, it looks like it wasn't in letterbox. It is hard for me to tell since Tivo grabs the analog version of TCM and Tivo stretches thing to fit my 16:9 TV. But last weekend it grabbed The Graduate from TCM and it was presented in letterbox (the program guide will say if it is in letterbox and Close Encounters didn't say it was in letterbox)

(I have Cox so it appears that TCM did the 4:3 version...if I recall though there's some pan & scan stuff done in some scenes)

posted by birdherder 02 May | 20:59

Whenever I've seen it on TCM, it's got a bunch of pretty egregious pan-and-scan.

posted by Eideteker 02 May | 22:24

IMDB says that it was filmed in 2.20:1

posted by octothorpe 02 May | 22:24

Something odd I saw at the end...the end credits were displayed properly widescreen and letterboxed. Could it possibly be that TCM can't show the thing in widescreen format due to some contractual issue?

posted by Thorzdad 03 May | 06:35

I find it unbelievable that, in this age of ubiquitous hi-def TVs, HBO still shows most of its older library of films in pan-and-scan. Are they just too cheap to replace all the old titles they own, or is there still a sizable segment of the public that objects to the black bars "blocking out" part of their screen?

posted by Atom Eyes 03 May | 13:38

Atom Eyes, sometimes it's licensing.

posted by dhartung 03 May | 17:53

That's horrific. Should never be done, especially, ESPECIALLY with Close Encounters.

Reminds me of the time I caught The Royal Tenenbaums on Comedy Central in pan and scan. That was painful

posted by gc 04 May | 04:42

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