Super Panavision 70

David Lean's original composition. It simply won't fit on television. Besides that, there's just too much distracting scenery. Rather than watching the characters, the viewer's attention is held by those two windows in the background. What's beyond them? This sort of compositional flaw runs throughout the film.

Pan & Scan

Pan & Scan is the long standing solution to the problem of presenting wide screen films on the narrow screen television. The reader can easily see the problems in this particular example. In the left frame, the sergeant is saying, "Mr. Lawrence, is it?". Well, how would we know? If you have a short attention span then you might not remember who it is that has been excluded from the image. A moment later we learn, in the right frame, that it is indeed Mr. Lawrence, but we might have forgotten who asked the question in the first place. Making matters worse, those pesky windows appear in the background of both sections, making it still more difficult to appreciate the continuity of the film.

Letterbox

Letterboxing satisfies those people that are totally anal about seeing a wide picture, but at the sacrifice of valuable image resolution. Those damned windows are still there to distract the viewer and the limited resolution leaves them even more hungry to find out what's behind them. Letterboxing is not especially good for televisions with screens smaller than 50 inches. There must be something better...

The Digital Solution

Finally, with modern digital technology it has become possible to eliminate the problems associated with pan & scan along with correcting directorial errors in the original film that are still visible in the letterbox version. The FlikFX digital recomposition system now places all the actors on the television screen without those jarring jumps back and forth all over the original frame. Attention distractions by the windows in the background have been reduced by over 50%. Additionally, the drama is heightened as the sergeant now faces off against Mr. Lawrence.