Apparently there was also a huge debate about it when they came out with the Blu-ray editions:
http://www.highdefdigest.co…

Which is a related issue not addressed in the Atlas Obscura page (probably so as not to muddy the waters): Movies shot in in the spherical, non-anamorphic format, matted down for widescreen release, and then re-framed for home video. This was the reason why a boom mike would occasionally find its way into the frame in…

I'll be the Devil's advocate: Letterboxing, in the pre-HDTV era, was far from an ideal solution. If you've ever watched a film like 1959's "Ben Hur," shot in MGM Camera 65 with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio, letterboxed onto a 21" direct view SDTV set, you know what I'm talking about: You end up with this tiny little strip…

Does that mean Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, and Paul Williams were imposters?

I always found it ironic how the "classic rock" genre grew from freeform and progressive FM stations, which were the antithesis of the AM top 40 stations of the day, almost literally playing the same 40 or so songs all day long. Of course, like everything new and innovative in America, corporations figured out a way…

I could stand to have a lot of songs be more played on the radio. FM Radio is god-awful these days. Which is why everybody seems to be switching to streaming or satellite.

Oops, I meant "best male Motown vocalist." I've re-edited to clarify.

This is sort of a transitional song for the group: It's an all-time great vocal performance by Ruffin, and one of his last hits with them before his departure from the group. Of course replacement Dennis Edwards was no slouch, either. But after Ruffin left, Whitfield started producing the group as more of a singing…

Yeah, if I had to pick somebody as the best all-time male Motown vocalist, I would probably pick David Ruffin. And that's in a record company that had the likes of Smoky Robinson and Marvin Gaye in its roster.

Hey Internet, I think it might be a good idea if we, uh… each took some time alone to figure out where this relationship is headed… No, no… you don't understand: I think we should do this *because* I'm committed to making it work. So, yeah - I'll be in touch. [Sound of footsteps out the door.]

The funny thing about that is that "Animal House" is kind of the opposite of MASH in this sense - there, the Deltas are the fraternity of the weirdos, nerds, freaks, and loosers. The jocks all belong to Omega. It's much more about the outsiders taking on and taking down the system.

Well, I think there is a certain mean-spiritedness about the film that goes beyond the fact that people are generally more "sensitive" about different kinds of behavior today. Put simply, Hawkeye and Trapper are assholes in this film, and it seems to celebrate them for that fact. Secondly, just because a movie or…

One would be Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. Erle Stanley Gardner's character was played by different actors in movies and on the radio before Burr took the role. But as soon as the T.V. show started he *was* Perry Mason. After the original series ended they tried to do a 70's version with Monte Markham that flopped.…

Towards the end of the run of the "oldies" format on FM radio, such stations would play this song practically every hour. Which would really piss me off, because there was really such variety and innovation in pop and rock during those years between about 1955-1975. And given this vast well of source material, the…

"Those on a low-carb diet are advised to proceed with caution." That was the subtext I got from the one with the last scene between Luke and Rey. On the one hand, he's gone to this remote island on a distant planet so that he can do the full Atkins diet without any temptations. It's been going good - he's due to go…

"[A] deadly glow in the trunk of a car (similar to what showed up in Pulp Fiction a decade later)…" Add in the opening of the Ark in "Raiders," and it sure seems like filmmakers kept returning to that "Kiss Me Deadly" well over the years.

You know, I always sort of had that impression of Donald Sutherland in the back of my mind, probably because when I was growing up the first role I saw him in that really made an impression was as the super creepy arsonist Ronald in "Backdraft." Though recently I watched "Ordinary People" again, and I was struck by…

The jocks analogy is very perceptive - when you think about it, the MASH is basically like a High School. You have the out of touch, ineffective adult authority figure (Henry Blake), a couple of hot-shot jocks (Trapper and Hawkeye) who are phenoms on the field (here, the operating room) and popular with the ladies.…

It's been a few years since I watched this, but my recollection is that, yeah, from today's perspective whatever anti-war message MASH holds is kind of buried underneath the meanness of the main characters. Granted, surgeons kind of have a reputation for being arrogant assholes in general. But I feel this movie really…

Although it is not very well known, and very infrequently used, one of the protocols he comes programmed with is "Kill without mercy."