Chopped Widescreen

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 2006)

I am a High School Physics teacher and I use this film as part of my curriculum so I have watched it many, many times. I used to own the VHS version which had the sides of the picture chopped off "to fit my screen". I was happy to get the widescreen version on DVD but very disappointed to find out that the widescreen version seems to be the chopped VHS version with further chopping on the top and bottom to make it appear widescreen. There is definitely less picture on the widescreen DVD than there was on the formatted VHS. Is this normal, and is there any way to get a copy of the actual size theatrical release? The way I found out about this is by some of the goofs that appear on this site. Most were visible and evident on the VHS version but are no longer easily caught on the DVD version. For example, when the daughter is holding the Beatles album, it was easy to see what album it was on the VHS version but you get only a quick glimpse on the DVD version. Likewise, the ashtray that disappears is no longer evident because you don't see enough information. This is very disappointing and I am interested in purchasing the full size version if it exists.