But there are hazards still ahead. When all TV is in the 16:9 format, will classic 1.33:1 be cropped at the top and bottom to fill the screen? Since there's less real estate to work with, this would be an even greater barbarism than the current forms of widescreen cropping. Humphrey Bogart's hairpieces and Kirk Douglas' dimple would disappear from cinematic memory.

There are precedents for such meddling. In the 1970s, MGM disastrously tried a "widescreen" theatrical release of its crown jewel, "Gone With the Wind." Among the casualties was the full impact of the dramatic "street of wounded men" shot; the cropping cut off the top of the scene and made the street appear shorter. In the 1980s, Disney tried "widescreen" versions of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Pinocchio," but on our TV show Gene Siskel and I did a side-by-side comparison showing how much was being lost, and the studio abandoned the experiment. All rereleased pre-1954 Disney classics are now shown in 4:3, unless the projectionist in a specific theater lacks the wit to provide the correct ratio.

That can be a problem. Many projectionists lack the skill or the equipment to properly frame movies in their original aspect ratios. This problem is more common than you might think. When you see a boom microphone dipping down from the top of the screen, especially more than one in the same picture, the odds are overwhelming that the fault lies not with the filmmakers, but with the projectionist right there in your theater, who is showing the film in the wrong aspect ratio and allowing you to see more than the intended visible picture area.

Many people don't know that movies were not always widescreen. I got an outraged e-mail this week from a reader complaining that the new DVD version of "Citizen Kane" was being cropped, and demanding it be shown in the "original widescreen." It is also true that many people "prefer a full-frame presentation." If they do, it's their TV, and none of our business. But it's essential at this turning point in the video and television industries to insist on the principle of respecting original aspect ratios. Widescreen HDTVs will even make that easier, centering 4:3 images and accommodating widescreen letterboxing (when necessary) with more breathing room and therefore greater height for the picture. As for the home video industry -- all DVDs have two sides, and some studios have already discovered that you can use both of them, with a widescreen image on one side, and a 4:3 image on the other.

As for those philistines who believe a movie is an image that can be molded to their marketing requirements, the proper course is to shame them. I wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times about the HBO decision to use the wrong aspect ratio in Grant Park. To quote myself: "This is one more pathetic example of the dumbing of America -- to show the films in the wrong aspect ratio to placate the stupid, instead of in the right aspect ratio to reward the knowledgeable." "Stupid" was a strong word choice ("uninformed" would have been kinder), but HBO reversed its policy. And I have a feeling the curators at the Bilbao Guggenheim will discover that those Samsung monitors do a sensational job of centering a 4:3 image.

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