I already own The Candidate on DVD (US pan&scan version). A new version was released in Europe in late 2006 (see http://warnerdvdshop.com/index.php?page=produit&id=32977) but there is no mention of whether it is widescreen or still pan&scan. Does anyone have more information about this new DVD? I asked Warner in october 2006 through the customer query form on their website but received no answer.
sharei want an anamorphic widescreen DVD of this classic as well!
shareAmazon Unbox has this movie available for download, and it's widescreen!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GOV6PS/sr=1-1/qid=1177926786/ref=sr_digr_1/103-5228521-7303030?ie=UTF8&qid=1177926786&sr=1-1
Unfortunately Unbox is US-only. A pity, because with a digital widescreen version already available the cost of a transfer to DVD is almost zero.
Yeah, WTF. This movie is incredible - why no official widescreen DVD?!?
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Wait a minute... who am I here?
bought the warner home german dvd today (12 euro),
its 1.78:1 (16:9)
quality is good (though its a DVD5), no extras (no subs, only german for the hearing im...).
and btw, the movie is excellent.
The R1 US DVD that is Full Frame is not actually Pan & Scan, it's rather "Open Matte", as most 70's film intended to be shown 1.85:1 was shot that way. That means that the film negative is in 1.37:1 which is then masked/matted in theatres to be presented 1.85:1 Widescreen. The main reason for this procedure was that the film didn't have to be cropped when shown on TV (and later on video), but rather open up the top and bottom of the frame. Of course, the directors and filmmakers rarely intended the film to be shown that way and it wasn't their vision, but most filmmakers took the Open Matte aspect into consideration during the filming stage.
So in a way, the Full Frame presentation of the R1 DVD is not that bad as you can adjust (by zooming/cropping off the top and bottom) the picture to widescreen on 16:9 TV's, and then the image matches the intended theatrical presentation.
Btw, the R2 DVD is in a 1.78:1 widescreen presentation, but unfortunately the film hasn't been digitally remastered.
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"You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!"
"Forget about it"