LETTERBOX VS. PAN & SCAN

Wild at Heart (1990) - Cropped 1.33:1 SDTV Aspect Ratio

Wild at Heart (1990) - Cropped 1.78:1 HDTV Aspect Ratio

Wild at Heart (1990) - Original 2.35:1 Theatrical Aspect Ratio

Last year we recommended you avoid using Netflix Instant Watching to view the David Lynch films Dune (1984) and Wild at Heart (1990) once we discovered they were presenting the movies in a different aspect ratio than their original theatrical presentations. We recently found a useful educational video below produced by cable station Turner Classic Movies (TCM). The video features several distinguished filmmakers explaining the importance of getting the technical detail of letterboxing right in our home video presentations. After reading our article and viewing the many examples we collected, you will better understand why every film should be seen as their directors originally intended.

FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982)

On the thirty-first and final Lynchian day of Christmas, we present Ingmar Bergman's semi-autobiographical family drama Fanny and Alexander (1982). We saved the best for last. Christmas films do not get more powerful or Lynchian than Bergman's last feature film and final masterpiece. Choosing to go out on the strongest note he could, Bergman planned his retirement from feature film direction at the height of his cinematic power and ended on what is arguably his best film. Although Bergman would make a number of simple-to-shoot TV movies in his latter years, Fanny and Alexander is Bergman's cinematic swan song.

A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983)

"28 Days... 6 Hours... 42 Minutes... 12 Seconds... That is
When the World Will End..."–Donnie Darko (2001)

On the thirtieth and penultimate Lynchian day of Christmas, we present Bob Clark's classic family comedy A Christmas Story (1983). Depicting a typical American small town during the 1940's, A Christmas Story follows young Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) who desperately wants a "Red Ryder carbine-action 200 shot range model air rifle" for Christmas. The film is Lynchian in subjectively showing Ralphie's frame of mind as he daydreams through life, constructing entertaining fantasies about gaining the admiration and respect he deserves.

SCROOGE (1970)

On the twenty-ninth Lynchian day of Christmas, we present the only Academy Award nominated live-action adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic novella A Christmas Carol (1843), Ronald Neame's spectacular musical Scrooge (1970). Most Lynchian things about this story were already mentioned in our twelfth day article, Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol (2009). David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) shows a strong Dickensian bent to Lynch's sensibilities, particularly in navigating a story between lighthearted yet inspiring melodrama on one hand, and bleak and horrifying human villainy on the other.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

On the twenty-eighth Lynchian day of Christmas, we present Frank Capra's classic Christmas drama It's a Wonderful Life (1946). One of the most watched and beloved movies of all time, It's a Wonderful Life presents an angel's eye view of the life of George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) who considers suicide after a particularly bad Christmas Eve brings him to the point of inevitable arrest and ruin. The film takes a powerful Lynchian turn into the bizarre when Angel 2nd Class Clarence (Henry Travers) attempts to help George regain the will to live. Clarence gives George a glimpse of what life would be like for his friends, family, and community had George never been born.

THE FAMILY MAN (2000)

It Might Have Been a More Wonderful Life...

On the twenty-seventh Lynchian day of Christmas, we present Brett Ratner's Christmas drama The Family Man (2000). David Lynch frequently focuses his camera's lens on a young man's transitional period from youth into adulthood, particularly when first confronting parenthood. In fact, ten years previous to starring in The Family Man, Nicolas Cage starred as Lynch's struggling ex-con "manslaughterer without parental guidance" Sailor Ripley in Wild at Heart (1990). In the course of the film, Sailor discovers he impregnated his girlfriend Lula Fortune (Laura Dern) and struggles to grow into his new role as a protector and provider for his new family.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)

On the twenty-sixth Lynchian day of Christmas we present Tim Burton's fantastically weird yet emotionally stirring fairy tale set during Christmas in 1960's American suburbia Edward Scissorhands (1990). Tim Burton clearly shares David Lynch's proclivity for the bizarre in his films, and also revels in creating strange new symbolic cinematic worlds that push audiences past the edge of what mainstream movies normally deliver to them. And from Beetlejuice (1988) to Alice in Wonderland (2010), Tim Burton has excelled at creating dark cinematic fairy tales for the modern world.

CITIZEN KANE (1941)

On the twenty-fifth Lynchian day of Christmas, we present Orson Welles's groundbreaking film on the meteoric rise and catastrophic descent of Citizen Kane (1941). Kane possesses an enduring love for his childhood Winters before his parents came into money and assigned him to the care of a prominent banker to give him a mannered education. A humorous yet brief Christmas scene between Kane and the banker helps establish early on one of the film's most important themes: money cannot buy you everything. David Lynch has long expressed an admiration for the films of Orson Welles, a man who took the entertainment industry by storm in his youth, helped reinvent live theater, and always seemed several steps ahead of everyone else when working with the relatively new mediums of radio and film.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)

Angela Lansbury was Nominated for Best Supporting Actress
as the Cunning and Ruthless Mrs. Eleanor Shaw-Iselin

On the twenty-fourth Lynchian day of Christmas, we present John Frankenheimer's mind-bending cold war thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962). A remarkably sophisticated film, The Manchurian Candidate paved the way for later filmmakers to include more psychologically rich abstractions in mainstream movies. In the film we follow Raymond Shaw (Lawrence Harvey) and Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who have returned from the Korean War changed men. Shaw and Marco's squad were captured by their communist enemies, held prisoner, and brainwashed before being released.

STALAG 17 (1953)

On the twenty-third Lynchian day of Christmas, we present Billy Wilder's World War II P.O.W. comedy Stalag 17 (1953). The second Wilder film to make this list—the first being The Apartment (1960)—Stalag 17 centers around a group of American G.I.s being held in a Nazi prison camp in the days leading up to Christmas. When two Americans are killed by prison guards immediately upon exiting a secret tunnel constructed for the small scale escape attempt, the Americans begin to suspect a German infiltrator is in their midst feeding information to the Nazis. Everyone's suspicions become drawn to each other as a second escape attempt is planned.

BRAZIL (1985)

We're All in it Together...

On the twenty-second Lynchian day of Christmas, we present Terry Gilliam's mind-bending Christmas movie set in a 1984-esque Orwellian nightmare Brazil (1985). The second Gilliam film to make our list—the first being 12 Monkeys (1995)—Brazil is a magnificently insane ride into a dystopian nightmare in which a clerical error can brand someone a terrorist and destroy that person's life. Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is bureaucrat who catches one such mistake and attempts to correct it, only to find himself branded an enemy of the state, too, for his troubles. Everyone abandons him to his fate, even his best friend (Michael Palin) and plastic surgery obsessed mother (Katherine Helmond).

DIE HARD (1988)

On the twenty-first Lynchian day of Christmas, we present John McTiernan's classic Christmas action movie Die Hard (1988). NYPD Officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) has a troubled marriage after he decides to stay in New York when his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) leaves with their children to Los Angeles where she pursues a career as an executive with the Nakatomi Corpoaration. John hides behind the veneer of his job for not following Holly to L.A., but seems secretly resentful and displaced when she becomes the more successful breadwinner of the family. Holly invites John to her company's celebration on Christmas Eve, where she hopes to reconcile with her husband, or at worst find closure. But a group of terrorists crash the party, led by the fastidious Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), who hold everyone hostage. John and Holly are forced reexamine their relationship while fighting for survival.