MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - i'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight

i recently saw the movie "charley varrick" on netflix. it was preceded by the old "this movie has been modified from its original form to fit this television screen" notices. great movie, and yes it's pillarboxed on netflix. so, i naturally (and rationally) assume there's a 16:9 film version out there that's the "original" format that the netflix modification notice is referring to. this is how shit always worked; 16:9 films had the sides cut off to fit onto 4:3 CRT tv's.

so then, i order the kino lorber blu-ray version that says it's the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. i start watching it and immediately it feels off - i flip the receiver over to the appletv and load the netflix version. the netflix version contains all of the horizontal data from the blu-ray, but additional data at the top and bottom of the frame.

all of the movie and dvd sites say the kino lorbner blu-ray release (which is what i have) at 1.85:1 is the original and the 4:3 version is a crop or pan-n-scan. but, this literally cannot be the case. the widescreen version is the crop. these two images are snapped at the same frame. the netflix version contains more information and is what i have to assume is the cinematographer's intended framing. i have never seen this happen before. it's angering me, and all the review sites being completely oblivious to it (or worse, continuingly saying that the situation is the exact opposite of what it appears to be) is further confusing me. wtf is happening here? do i need to continue purchasing other releases??

i mean... if the netflix version is a crop, then the blu-ray has to be a crop of a crop.

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i learned everything i know from KC