I've been a radical movie buff for a long time, and I remember the time I discovered letterboxing on a Star Wars video. I only ever saw the original Star Wars Trilogy once in the theater, so I fully enjoyed the videotapes. When they were released in widescreen VHS, I realized what I'd been missing!

Video producers, from the beginning, modified films for video by chopping off the sides so the picture would "fit" the square TV screen. We've been spoon-fed these mutilated movies on video and TV for so long, that it's started to affect the theaters themselves.

Last week, I saw the new movie Charlotte's Web in two different places. In theater one, the film was comfortable to watch in approximately a 1.85:1 ratio. But in the other one, the picture was zoomed up to fill a 2.35:1 "scope" screen. The effect was that the top and bottom of the screen was cut off, sometimes cutting characters off at the eyebrows, and sometimes you couldn't even see Charlotte because she was walking at the bottom of the shot.

I had to write an angry letter to the theater, because there's no reason not to show the film in the theater the way it was intended to be seen. If there have to be small sections of black on either side (pillarboxing, if you will), then so be it. For the amount of money we pay to see a movie, we ought to get the whole picture.

Wouldn't you agree?