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Widescreen
Size does matter in our essential widescreen features.
Faced with the threat of television, which could cannibalize decades of classic films on smaller screens, the motion-picture industry responded by making the canvas bigger--or, more precisely, wider than the proportions of a TV screen, which boasted an aspect ratio too close for comfort to traditional movies. By changing the dimensions of the image, keepers of the big screen offered the moviegoer a sweeping vista that exploited the sheer scale of the medium, an approach that subsequently forced the pan-and-scan solution to home-video transfers from widescreen titles. With letterbox videotapes now common, and DVD likewise keeping the faith for the larger format, however, it's now possible to see these essential widescreen features exactly as they were filmed.

	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) ~ VHS ~ Currently Not Available
	Keir Dullea / Rated G / Widescreen NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information
Amazon.com essential video When Stanley Kubrick recruited Arthur C. Clarke to collaborate on "the proverbial intelligent science fiction film," it's a safe bet neither the maverick auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would virtually redefine the parameters of the cinema experience. A daring experiment in unconventional narrative inspired by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel," 2001 is a visual tone poem (barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history of human... Read More
	Blade Runner - The Director's Cut (1982) ~ VHS ~ Currently Not Available
	Harrison Ford / Rated R / Widescreen NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information
Amazon.com essential video When Ridley Scott's cut of Blade Runner was finally released in 1993, one had to wonder why the studio hadn't done it right the first time--11 years earlier. This version is so much better, mostly because of what's been eliminated (the ludicrous and redundant voice-over narration and the phony happy ending) rather than what's been added (a bit more character development and a brief unicorn dream). Star Harrison Ford originally recorded the narration under duress at the insistence of Warner Bros.... Read More
	Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ~ VHS ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
	Richard Dreyfuss / Rated PG / Widescreen NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information	List Price: $19.95 Our Price: $16.99 You Save: $2.96 (15%)
Amazon.com essential video Anybody who has written him off because of his string of stinkers--or anybody who's too young to remember The Goodbye Girl--may be shocked at the accomplishment and nuance of Richard Dreyfuss's performance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Here, he plays a man possessed; contacted by aliens, he (along with other members of the "chosen") is drawn toward the site of the incipient landing: Devil's Tower, in rural Wyoming. As in many Spielberg films, there are no personalized enemies; the... Read More
	Lady and the Tramp (1955) ~ VHS ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
	Peggy Lee / Rated G / Widescreen / Clamshell NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information	List Price: $29.99 Our Price: $20.99 You Save: $9.00 (30%)
Amazon.com Disney's first animated feature in CinemaScope is now available in widescreen presentations on video, and it is definitely good to get the whole picture. One of the studio's most original and charming movies, the 1955 film tells the story of a rakish, street-smart dog named Tramp, who helps an aristocratic pooch named Lady out of some trouble and then commences a romance with her. Sweet, funny scenes abound, and the combination of innocence and sophistication would have done well in a... Read More
	Lawrence of Arabia (1962) ~ VHS ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
	Peter O'Toole / Rated PG / Widescreen NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information	List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $21.21 You Save: $3.74 (15%)
Amazon.com essential video There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside, David Lean's masterful "desert classic" is still enjoyable on the small screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (If your only option is to view a "pan & scan" version, it's best not to bother; this is a... Read More
	Spartacus (1960) ~ VHS ~ Not Yet Released ~ Release Date: February 1, 2000
	Kirk Douglas / Rated PG-13 / Widescreen NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information	List Price: $19.98 Our Price: $16.98 You Save: $3.00 (15%)
Amazon.com essential video Stanley Kubrick was only 31 years old when Kirk Douglas (star of Kubrick's classic Paths of Glory) recruited the young director to pilot this epic saga, in which the rebellious slave Spartacus (played by Douglas) leads a freedom revolt against the decadent Roman Empire. Kubrick would later disown the film because it was not a personal project--he was merely a director-for-hire--but Spartacus remains one of the best of Hollywood's grand historical epics. With an intelligent screenplay by... Read More
	Titanic (Widescreen Edition) (1997) ~ VHS ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
	Leonardo Di Caprio / Rated PG-13 / Widescreen NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information	Our Price: $18.99
Amazon.com essential video When the theatrical release of James Cameron's Titanic was delayed from July to December of 1997, media pundits speculated that Cameron's $200 million disaster epic would cause the director's downfall, signal the end of the blockbuster era, and sink Paramount Studios as quickly as the ill-fated luxury liner had sunk on that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Some studio executives were confident, others horrified, but the clarity of hindsight turned Cameron into an Oscar-winning genius,... Read More
	West Side Story (1961) ~ VHS ~ Special Order
	Natalie Wood / Not Rated / Widescreen NTSC format (US and Canada only) Click here for more information	List Price: $14.95 Our Price: $13.99 You Save: $0.96 (6%)
Amazon.com The winner of 10 Academy Awards, this 1961 musical by choreographer Jerome Robbins and director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music) remains irresistible. Based on a smash Broadway play updating Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the 1950s era of juvenile delinquency, the film stars Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as the star-crossed lovers from different neighborhoods--and ethnicities. The film's real selling points, however, are the highly charged and inventive song-and-dance numbers, the... Read More