The Biggest Rip-Off You've Probably Never Heard About

Its name is letterboxing. And the fact it's not being done more is the rip-off.

Every year, at the Academy Awards, speakers go on-and-on about how "the movies are better in the theater." Why? Because of the aspect ratio. Movies seen at the movies are wide-screen. TVs are narrower.

Of course, there is a solution, and the dead movie channels mention it often. Letterboxing returns the film to its original aspect ratio, although on an old set this means you have bands across the top and bottom of the screen.

This is not a bad thing. Letterboxing means you see the whole movie. The alternative, called "pan and scan," means you're getting a separate cut of the movie, an inferior one. You're missing most of the picture.

But once the movie leaves the theater, letterboxing is not done. Instead, when the movie goes to pay per view, then channels like HBO, then to broadcast, it is always pan-and-scanned. In fact, it's also pan-and-scanned on the DVD you buy at the store. Even on the dead movie channel, a letterboxed film is a big event. Most films made after 1950 are still shown hacked to bits, many decades after they were made.

Only later, after you've bought the DVD that contains just half the movie, does the studio offer the full version, the letterbox. After you've paid to see it maybe a half-dozen times in its butchered form, maybe the movie company lets you see the original.

And they claim it's your fault.

( That's Scorsese, directing his film The Aviator, to the left._

Why? Because they want to be paid multiple times for the same event. After they have extracted all the money they can from half-the-movie, they want to extract it again for all the movie. And most consumers don't even notice. Which is why people like Martin Scorcese get trotted out to rave about letterboxing. If you're not told you're being ripped-off you don't know it's happening, and you don't pay the blackmail.

This is an enormous, ongoing rip-off by Hollywood of you, and of the people who work for Hollywood. It's being done first to protect $5 popcorn, then to get a second bite of your dollar down the road.

This has been going on for over 50 years. The first wide-screen movies came out after television. Before television, movies had a much narrower aspect ratio.  When TV was new it made a sort of sense. Now TVs are plenty big to handle letterbox formats from the first release of a film to cable.

But they want to get paid twice, or more. So they're going to pretend there's something wrong with you, when in fact you're being robbed in broad daylight.