# Weird aspect ratios on movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789 "2013-11-26T00:23:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/1 "2013-11-26T00:23:48Z")
I was wondering if there are any movies recorded without the traditional aspect ratios (such as 16:9, 4:3, etc). For instance, are there any square movies or maybe on portrait orientation? I saw dew years ago that they made some extra-wide screen tvs, but they seem to be gone now… ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/2 "2013-11-26T00:32:02Z")
16:9 and 4:3 are largely video aspect ratios - there are [many others](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)#Previous_and_currently_used_aspect_ratios) that have been and currently are used for films - but I don’t know of any square or portrait orientations used for anything commercially released. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/3 "2013-11-26T00:40:40Z")
Galaxy Quest uses [three different aspect ratios](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177789/technical) during the course of the movie, for artistic reasons, but I think they’re all traditional ones. The [1927 version of Napoleon](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018192/technical) has a battle sequence filmed in 4:1, though it’s mostly in the usual 1.33:1 of the period. That may be the most extreme width, unless you count the 360 degree films at places like Disneyworld. I think there are quite a lot of aspect ratios that have been used within the general range of 1.33:1 to around 2.4:1, say. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/4 "2013-11-26T03:59:24Z")
[Ben-Hur](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052618) has the widest I have seen in a major movie at 2.76:1. ETA: The Blu-ray looks _fanstastic_, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/5 "2013-11-26T04:06:07Z")
Cinema, AFAIK, is usually more like 1.85:1 or 2.4:1. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/6 "2013-11-26T04:10:07Z")
> [@Space\_Vegetable](#): > > Galaxy Quest uses [three different aspect ratios](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177789/technical) during the course of the movie, for artistic reasons, but I think they’re all traditional ones. Didn’t [The Dark Knight Rises](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836) switch between 1.44:1 and 2.35:1 depending on whether there is action on the screen or not. The Blu-ray kept switch between 16:9 and 2.35:1 at least–I did not see it in the theater. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/7 "2013-11-26T04:21:01Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > [Ben-Hur](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052618) has the widest I have seen in a major movie at 2.76:1. > > ETA: The Blu-ray looks _fanstastic_, BTW. According to Wikipedia, _Ben-Hur_’s aspect ratio is 2.93:1. Parts of _How the West Was Won_ are also in this aspect ratio. ---
**Author:** ![TheBoltEater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheBoltEater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoltEater)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/8 "2013-11-26T05:06:13Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > Didn’t [The Dark Knight Rises](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836) switch between 1.44:1 and 2.35:1 depending on whether there is action on the screen or not. The Blu-ray kept switch between 16:9 and 2.35:1 at least–I did not see it in the theater. You would have seen that if you had seen it in an IMAX film theater. Nolan shot much of that film (and others, including next year’s Interstellar) with IMAX cameras that film at a different aspect ratio than traditional 35mm cameras. The jumping back and forth is simply a matter of which scenes were shot in IMAX and which were not. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/9 "2013-11-26T09:37:49Z")
I saw _How the West Was Won_ in the original 3-camera Cinerama, which seemed far wider than anything else. There also was a film at Expo 67 that was 360 degrees (though made up of multiple screens). ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/10 "2013-11-26T12:49:39Z")
More than you ever wanted to know about the history of aspect ratios… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3CgrMsjGk7k/maxresdefault.jpg "The Changing Shape of Cinema: The History of Aspect Ratio") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CgrMsjGk7k) ---
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/11 "2013-11-26T14:41:58Z")
Hey, tanstaafl, thank you for this video! Quite interesting… It is funny how ancient technology still influences things from today. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/12 "2013-11-26T15:46:04Z")
The beginning portion of _Oz: The Great and Powerful_ is square (and in black & white). I think there’s a Spike Lee movie that contains portions of portrait/vertical aspect ratio. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/13 "2013-11-26T16:57:28Z")
Not sure if it’s weird, but _Brainstorm_ jumped between roughly 2.2:1 and 1.7:1 ratios. The wider ratio was originally shot in SuperPanavision 70 to show the memory playback scenes (such as riding a roller coaster and other pleasurable events); Trumball wanted to use 60-frames per second projectors but that was too expensive for theaters. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/14 "2013-11-26T19:11:58Z")
I can’t remember the title but we watched a movie recently (via DVD) where the aspect ratio was quite squarish. Not even 4:3. And it was relatively new. (I thought it might be [Meek’s Cutoff](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1518812), but that isn’t quite as recent and is 4:3.) ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-aspect-ratios-on-movies/674789/15 "2013-11-27T00:50:53Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > Didn’t [The Dark Knight Rises](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836) switch between 1.44:1 and 2.35:1 depending on whether there is action on the screen or not. The Blu-ray kept switch between 16:9 and 2.35:1 at least–I did not see it in the theater. The Dark Knight did this for some scenes too. Kept on the Bluray. > [@garygnu](#): > > The beginning portion of Oz: The Great and Powerful is square Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it! In the Simpsons Movie.