Product: Moonstruck (1987)
Rating: 5.0
On the Whole Widescreen Issue...
First off, this is a brilliant movie. Absolutely wonderful, delightful, funny, romantic, and magical. Divine. Worth a cosmos of the brightest, most glorious stars, but I guess in this case a mere five will do.But I'm sure you've heard what a great film this is by now, if you haven't seen it already and found out for yourself. What I want to address is the controversy regarding the new widescreen transfer on the deluxe DVD. It is indeed true that you see more in the original MGM pan & scan release--but this is still a legitimate widescreen presentation, and the way this beautiful movie was originally intended to be seen. There are many different ways to shoot film in widescreen, and one of these involves shooting onto 1.37 ratio film (pan & scan ratio) while composing it for theatrical widescreen with the aid of two lines representing the "bars" you see on a TV on the monitor. This how "Moonstruck" was filmed, and it is done so that the director can have control over how the film will look both when seen in a theater and when cropped for viewing on a conventional television. Thus, the film is shot with more image on top and bottom than you actually end up seeing in the theater, but although you are technically seeing more in pan & scan, the widescreen is still really the "definitive" version.Anyway, I hope this review helps those who may be debating between which version of this wonderful movie they ought to buy. Both are legitimate--I've seen the pan & scan and it's lovely (it clearly was carefully composed for both aspect ratios) but I'm going to buy the widescreen version. Thanks, and hope I could help!