I've seen the DVD versions (through friends) and am not happy. Why would someone pay good money to watch films with added black bars top and bottom, missing a third of the film? GFs 1 & 2 were filmed in TV format, not widescreen - it ruins the whole frames!

? Strange. When I look my DVD's I see a great movie, sharp view, no black bars, no very broad people. Everything perfect for me.

The theater and dvd both had aspect ratios of 1.85 : 1.

i don't care about the black bars. i love the movie and i can adjust the set-up settings on my player if i wanted to have blackbars or not. pan and scan, letterboxed or wide.

GoodFella

Marlon Brando, all you do is b!tch. Does anything besides Marlon Brando make you happy?

take it easy joltinjoe, you've just become MADE!
Congrats Mang!

GoodFella

Ahh, I'm MADE. Who do I knock off first?
J. Geoff?

You don't lose anything, the picture is just presented in widescreen. You, in fact, get more because of this.

nobody violates the Don, that's impossible not difficult JoltinJoe.

GoodFella

Hey...if history has taught us anything, it's that we can violate anyone.

Marlon, the original film was shot in 1.85:1 (widescreen) as well as 4:3 (fullscreen). The theatres obviously showed the widescreen version. If you have a television that supports widescreen, then you will see no black bars, and I must say it looks great. The black bars come from TV's that aren't widescreen; they give it the illusion that you are watching a widescreen TV. One thing I can say is that while you lose a little from the top and bottom, you see more on the sides, and the picture is less distorted. If you compare the widescreen DVD versions with the AMC or Bravo versions, you will see what I mean. The fullscreen versions make everyone look short and fat. They made the right choice. I personally do not own 1 fullscreen DVD and never plan on it. A widescreen plasma HDTV is a necessity for a film student like myself, and I cannot go back to the fulscreen format, it is a bit archaic to me now.

You don't lose ANYTHING top to bottom watching the DVD's. You see the whole darn thing!

As much as I'd like that to be true, it's not.

You lose a small bit of picture with widescreen, but it pales in comparison to what you gain. If I'm correct, JGeoff's site has a GREAT section that compares the two formats. Could be another site, but I have a feeling that anything GF related can be found on his site.

I love widescreen. I can't stand to watch any kind of movie full-screen anymore.

Honestly, when I'm in a movie, I don't even notice it.

That's because you don't have a widescreen TV. If you tried a fullscreen DVD with a widescreen TV, you would notice the awful distortion.

Ahh, must be.

Widescreen is just much better in my opinon.

It doesn't matter if you see more or less of the picture. The widescreen version is the way that FFC intended on it being seen, so that's the way that you should see it. A movie is a director's work or art, and if he wants you to see a tiny bit less on the top and bottom, and a lot more on the sides, then that's the way that you should see it. How would you feel if someone cut the sides off of the Mona Lisa just so it would fit into a frame? It would be an outrage. Formatting movies to fit on a TV set is also an outrage, especially since widescreen will probably be the norm in about 3 years!

Does anyone have a PS2 that they watch the DVD with? I was wondering if anyone has had success in changing the output from the black barred wide screen to the full screen ratio on a PS2 (Playstation 2)...

Not that it matters, like Hollywood Hulk Hagan ( ) said, when you compare it to the TV versions, the widescreen makes it better.

Hollywood, I must have the wrong combinations of DVD and TV because I KNOW I lose a little off the top. As a film student, have you noticed the "halo" scene? When Don Vito addresses the Five Families, he stands up for his speech at the end. The candleabra/light on the wall forms a halo over his head. In the DVD-squash version, most of the halo is cut off.

go full screen then

I'm a widescreen kinda guy. I can't stand fullscreen when I can have it wide! I like widescreen b/c you see more in the shot. Whereas in fullscreen they cut off the sides of the shot to make it taller & you don't see as much. Wide is so much better, once you get used to those darn black bars!