When these movies were shown on TV, they were "panned and scanned," which meant the visible area was manipulated to contain as much of the essential action as possible. In the late 1970s, the emerging home video industry adopted panning and scanning. Viewers expected a movie to fill up their whole screen, whether it had been shot in 4:3 or not. This led to strange results; in "The Graduate," when Benjamin stands palpitating with his back to the wall while Mrs. Robinson takes off her nylons, you can see all of him, but only her toe.

The solution was "letterboxing," in which the full width of the film could be shown. But it was only with the rise of laserdiscs in the mid-1980s that letterboxing gained popularity. The wide picture was shown in a band across the middle of the screen, with black masking the top and bottom. In the case of subtitled movies, this provided a splendid black background below the picture for subtitles. Laserdisc users were sophisticates and early adopters. When letterboxing began to infiltrate VHS tapes, however, renters brought them back to the store complaining they were flawed because they didn't fill the whole TV screen. Most video clerks didn't understand letterboxing, and some chains refused to handle the format because of "too many complaints." I personally had the experience of explaining letterboxing to one of the executives of a national video store chain, several years after he should have known what it was.

Laserdiscs never caught on. Fewer than 2 million machines were in service when in the late 1990s the movie industry introduced DVDs, which became the most successful new home electronics product in history. Today some 16 million machines are in use, and because so many DVDs are purchased instead of rented, their dollar volume exceeds VHS tapes at many stores. With the introduction this autumn of recordable and rerecordable DVD machines, the VHS format is doomed.

Most DVD fans insist on letterboxing. Warner's decision to pan and scan "Willy Wonka" in 4:3 ultimately created a firestorm of protest. The studio belatedly announced a widescreen edition. (Families may "prefer a full-frame presentation," but what Warners forgot is that many Wonka fans are no longer kids but have grown up into video purists.) True, letterboxing is an ordeal with a really wide picture on a really small screen. To watch the letterboxed "Lawrence of Arabia" in Panavision (2.20:1) on a 17-inch TV would not be a pretty sight. But screens are growing larger, and two other developments are important.

  • Slowly but inevitably, consumers are turning to widescreen HDTVs. They can take a widescreen image and pop it out to fill the available screen. ("Lawrence" would still need to be letterboxed, but the effect would be much less severe.)

  • Many movie buffs are turning to overhead projectors and wall-mounted screens. The new overhead projectors can handle both widescreen and anamorphic formats, filling the wide screen you have been thoughtful enough to provide for them.

    TV projectors are now so good (and more affordable) that most serious home movie nuts prefer them to big-screen conventional sets. From the point of view of the cost-to-picture size ratio, they are cheaper. New upscale homes include an obligatory "home entertainment center," and if the installer has not specified a widescreen TV and a widescreen-capable projector, he should be locked away with "Lawrence of Arabia" and a 17-inch set until he does.

    • Recent Stories