Ronin was shot in Super 35 format and distributed in anamorphic prints designed to be projected at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (according to the Internet Movie Database). This results in widescreen images that look like this in theaters:
The DVD of Ronin contains both letterboxed and panned-and-scanned versions--on oppposite sides of the disc. Here's how the scene above looks when converted to TV's aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
| Letterbox: Preserves the look of the theatrical screening of the film, but reduces the size of the image. |
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| Pan-and-Scan: The entire frame is filled. The edges are cropped slightly (we see less of Sam's face), but additional material is added to the top and bottom (we see more of Sam's arm and hand). The material above and below was not visible in the theatrical release. |
Look closely at the edges of the frames in the following examples.
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