Author: [log in to unmask] Date: 12/13/94 11:00 AM [Editor's note: This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).] Mark writes: "Liz Weis brings up a very good point, in that most videotapes are not letterboxed. I, as I think a lot of "film-types" are, am a big fan of letter-boxing of films. I think even the worst film has the right to be shown in its original format, and even more so for the very best, which use the screen to its full width ("2001: A Space Odessy" is damn near unwatchable without letter-boxing). Luckily, the letterboxing trend has been catching on with some interest. More and more films are being released with the option for letterboxing, such as "Schindler's List." And other films, such as, if I recall correctly, "The Last of the Mohicans" are released only in letter-boxed formats. Moreover, many classic films are re-released inletter-box formats, (Recent re-releases of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", "Red Beard", and "Dersu Uzala" are all letter-boxed. I've recently purchased "Yojimbo," and it's gorgeous, couldn't imagine it any other way.) However, though the trend of letter-boxing has some brief commercial appeal to Hollywood; trailers and commercials, as well as title sequences, are often full-width; letterboxing on the whole seems to suffer from the same stigma it always did, especially on vidoe-tape." This is true enough, but I wonder if an audience for letter-boxing will slowly grow as cable/satellite channels like AMC and even Captain Colorizer Ted Turner's TNT show more letterboxed videos. It may take a while, though. I often get puzzled inquiries from students about why those black bands appear on some films--and why some bands are thicker than others. --Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN