Rating: 
Summary: INTERESTING FACTS
Review: W. Wawrzyniak "Woj"
I am sure glad to find your letter. I could never find out why Ron Howard would do this to his greatest work "Apollo 13." In some way I wish he hadn't but at least this explains the difference between my VHS copy and my Widescreen DVD.
I already posted a letter about another film called "Colossus - The Forbin Project." "Universal" is releasing this only in 1.33 or Full Screen version while it was film at 2.35:1Ratio. So I use "Apollo 13" as an example of how "Universal" and the rest have been cropping other movies.
Your letter shows that I was wrong when it comes to Apollo 13. Yet, the majority of the 1.85 movies are nothing more than 1.33 with black bar cropping the picture. I hope someday they well stop doing this.
Rating:
Summary: SPACE ODDYSSEY
Review: Ron Howard's flag-waving, spirit-boosting APOLLO 13 is a very well done and convincing movie. Relying on the intensity of the real life dangers, Howard eschews overwhelming special effects or inappropriate sidebars.
It's interesting to remember that in 1970, we had just come off of landing a man on the moon, so what could possibly overshadow that? Indeed, in 1970, space travel was so mundane or 'unexciting' that when the astronauts gave a live broadcast from their capsule, the networks did not even run it; they said it wasn't dramatic enough. However, when the crew and program became jeopardized, television couldn't get enough of it. A prime example of the desensitized, ratings-craved television world.
The performances are excellent throughout: Tom Hanks gives his usual stalwart performance as Jim Lovell--the thing about Hanks is he makes his characters believable and displays a wide range of emotions, sometimes with just the look on his face: Bill Paxton calms down a bit to play Haise, the more "cowboy" astronaut; and Kevin Bacon is good as the last minute addition to the crew when Gary Sinise is ousted because he was exposed to measles by one of the backup crew. Sinise's disappointment is captured in his understated performance. Ed Harris is brilliant as the flight director, a man who keeps his cool and faith in the catastrophic conditions. Kathleen Quinlan does well as Marilyn Lovell, Hanks' on screen wife, who bravely tries to get her family through the crisis.
An intelligent script, special effects and Howard's assured direction combine to give us a heart pounding realistic view of the endangered space program.
Rating:
Summary: Quick note about widescreen complaint...
Review: Hi there,
Just pointing out that Apollo 13 was actually shot using the Super 35 process, which utilises the FULL film frame (4:3 ratio) and the CROPS it to 1:2.35 for the cinema film print. This way the filmlmakers do not have to worry about their films being panned and scanned later on and sides of the image being lost. When watching the TV 4:3 version of Apollo 13 you are in fact seeing the entire film as it was shot.
The cinematic release, still valid by the film makers (as they shoot with a 1:2.35 mask on the viewfinder so as to capture all the intended action in frame), is in fact a cropped version on the top and bottom; hence the widescreen DVD of this film is still exactly what you saw in the theatres, so don't worry - you have not been ripped off. All is well.
Rating: 
Summary: The "Widescreen" Version is Not Widescreen !!!
Review: The movie, the story, the acting ... all superb!The problem with this movie is the claimed "Widescreen" format, which is fraudulent. What they have done is taken the full-screen version... and sliced the top and bottom off of the picture and fraudulently packaged it as "Widescreen." I am currently watching "Apollo 13" on the Sci-Fi channel in fullscreen... and running the DVD at the same time, flipping between them. What is immediately viewed is that the width of the field of view is identical between the cable TV fullscreen version and the claimed DVD widescreen version. The DVD "Widescreen" version has deliberately cut off the top and bottom of the fullscreen view and then dared to call this "Widescreen." As all who have compared fullscreen with widescreen know, the widescreen version should reveal up to a third more width than fullscreen without decreasing at all the vertical field of view. This DVD does exactly the reverse, keeping the width the same as the fullscreen cable TV airing while cutting off the top and bottom of the fullscreen picture. Thus... this DVD has ripped customers off in claiming it is Widescreen.
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