TV screen format uncultural shame

[nighteagle]

This is maybe addressed to my US friends: why, in a country
like the US, home of the temple of cinema (Hollywood),
and of the OSCAR, and of the best actors,etc.etc..... why do some
boneheads repeatedly format widescreen movies to TV
size, when everybody knows that PHOTOGRAPHY is one
essential element in the art of cinema? When you rent a tape at Blockbuster, 90% probability of reading the hated
sentence: ... has been modified to fit your TV screen
Can you guys out there give me some explanation?
Thanx and good shootin

[visitor]

I could ask the same as many foreign videos are full frame(Brazilian dvds etc)it's not just the USA-
Most videos and tv presentations have been in standard size forever-movies came first but-tv size rules as those were film's first standard dimension.
It wasn't tv that cropped and blew up to 70mm GONE WITH THE WIND-it was hollywood trying to compete with tv.
Most modern filmmakers shoot for video dimensions, in fact I would guess that a great majority of modern films are shot full frame and matted. And it's been that way for years.
When you see PSYCHO by Hitch at 1.85:1 you are missing picture as it was shot at 1.66:1, so a full frame unmatted is a closer viewing approximation. EXORCIST -the same. THE SEARCHERS the same.
Since there are so many formats and so much compositing of picture sources now, you'll never get a comon dimension to pictures-RESERVOIR DOGS at 1.77:1? matted to 2.35:1 for dvd and laserdisc...JURASSIC PARK from full frame computer animation and matted live action was destroyed when put together for video and even worse when done for tv...the list goes on and on.
And by the way-they are in competition, television and hollywood and rental outlets-and don't think they're not

[Il Buono]

Yeah, that's right, when tv became very popular in the fifties-sixties, cinema lost many audiences.  The widescreen format was a way to gain popularity to the public, which could now see movies, news and whatever more just lying in their sofa at home.  With the painful consequence that those widescreen movies appeared on screen with both left and right side cut off.  Tv has been trying to compensate this with the so-called pan 'n scan and only recently by showing some movies in widescreen format.
 
Problem is that the audience nowadays is so used to the 3 to 4 format that some even react in a negative way when they see a movie like this.  'The image is smaller!  And those black belts on top and bottom are bugging me!'  So most people don't give a rat's *ss about the artistic vision of the director, and 'a widescreen tv costs more than a normal tv' and mostly they don't believe widescreen is the future and normal program will now be flatted or shown with black belts left and right and so on and so on and nag nag.  Sad, isn't it?    

You knew all this, but hey... It's one step closer to the four stars...