https://archive.is/m0NKM *Full Metal Jacket*, *The Shining*, and *Eyes Wide Shut* were all shot in 4:3 as well. I know @Conspirologist mentioned this, https://poal.co/s/Movies/325052, but I found this very interesting. Also, I found another 27 related to movies. >Leon Vitali, Kubrick's closest assistant answers the debate clearly in no uncertain terms in this interview. ----------- >[from DVDtalk interview] One of the areas of greatest debate in the DVD community is about aspect ratios. The two films that people talk about the most in terms of aspect ratio are Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, maybe because those are the ones that have been seen theatrical by the DVD buying audience. But people will go through kind of frame by frame and say "In the trailer of Eyes Wide Shut, you can see a sign on the street that you can't see on the full frame video. You can see an extra character…" So how do you address the differences between the theatrical releases of Eyes Wide Shut and of Full Metal Jacket in the DVD releases? >The original video release of Full Metal Jacket was in the supervised hands and owned by Stanley. The thing about Stanley, he was a photographer. That's how he started. He had a still photographer's eye. So when he composed a picture through the camera, he was setting up for what he saw through the camera - the full picture. That was very important to him. It really was. It was an instinct that never ever left him. What he wanted the videos to reflect was how he shot the film through the camera, what was on the original neg and what his composition when he was shooting it was. That's why Full Metal Jacket is in full frame. If people looked, okay? What you get on the video that you didn't get in the theatrical because of the 185 masking, was what Stanley was invisioning. You assume these soldiers in the world that they're in. And he uses wide angle uses to shoot. I mean an 18 millimeter lens was the commonest one. He used 24 sometimes. Wide angle lenses. It was important to him the relationship between things. You can see in Full Metal Jacket how small the people were in relation to this huge landscape. >The thing with Eyes Wide Shot, it was how he saw the thing through the camera and how he set it up. That's what he wanted to reflect in his videos. >He did not like 1.85:1. You lose **27%** of the picture on 1.85. Stanley was a purist. This was one of the ways it was manifested. How much do you lose? 27%! >From The Shining and Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley had marks on the camera lens so he could see where the 1.85 lines. He composed his shots for the full screen, but he wouldn't be hurt by going to 1.85 if he had to do it. >*So he did the reverse of what most directors do, who look at the 'TV Safe Area', Stanley looked at the '1.85 Safe Area'.* Now I have my own connections to why TV's started out as 4:3. It is about the area you can see with one eye (monovision). With both eyes open, you can see a greater width, stereovision. Most people go through life never seeing with both eyes at the same time. Interestingly it is very hard effectively use both eyes at the same time when looking at a screen. You can however do it outside very easily, it just takes some practice. I can look up at the moon at night and see two moons. There isn't really two moons, but you can see the moon with both eyes at the same time, to your brain it appears as if there are two moons. My ocular muscles when I induce this sort of vision feels similar to when I look at a stereogram to see the hidden image. Example: https://imgpile.com/images/7GuQ14.jpg [You should be able to see a human skull in the above image.](#spoiler) I pulled the above quotes above from here: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/hd-talk/596630-kubrick-aspect-ratio-controversy-answered.html However there is another thread on that forum that disputes the reasoning behind the 4:3: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/419899-new-kubrick-book-settles-aspect-ratio-confusion.html Either way, I still find it very interesting that this film was released in fullscreen 4:3 instead of widescreen 16:9 or an even wider format. Thank god it wasn't released as a vertical video to be viewed on iDIOTphones.