HBO
No matter what time you grew up watching TV, there is a universal plague that haunts watching parties, spoils classic films, and sparks passionate and frustrating debates without a satisfying winner: the dreaded “black bars” monstrosity. If you are watching an older film, you may find large black bars pressing the film at the top and bottom of the screen. If you are watching TV before the turn of the century, they can compress the image from the sides. It is a common curse of proportions of past ages that do not exactly align with the size of the screens that we keep in our homes. At least we can expect some conformity from contemporary TV and films made for modern televisions, right?
Maybe not. Meet Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a meme cut movie which originally debuted in a wide screen ratio three years ago, but was reborn on HBO Max with new scenes, more characters and two intimidating black bars flanking the two sides of a square image.
Do not adjust your TV. This is exactly what Zack Snyder intended.
So, what’s going on here?
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is countering an industry trend, featuring a 1.33: 1 ratio as opposed to a more standard widescreen format. It’s absolutely weird and it feels “wrong” because we’re not used to it, but it’s actually not that weird. The square frame of the Snyder Cut is only slightly wider than the 4: 3 frame that dominated television programming from the 1920s until the late 1990s. Most importantly, it is structured in this way to better fit the IMAX formatting.
Why would he do that?
The short answer? Artistic vision. While working on Batman v. Superman, Zach Snyder was delighted with how his IMAX scenes looked on the large format screen. Speaking on a JusticeCon digital panel last year, Snyder said that watching these strings in the oversized format made him “obsessed with the big square”. When it came to filming Justice League, he kept that higher proportion in mind.
“I really started, in terms of composition, really falling in love with this concept.” Snyder said during the same JusticeCon panel. “Superheroes tend to be, like figures, tend to be less horizontal. Maybe Superman when he is flying. But when he is standing, he is more vertical. Everything is composed and filmed in this way, and much of restoration is kind of trying to put it back. Put those big squares back. “
But the 2018 version of the film doesn’t look like this.
It is not, but it is not exactly Zach Snyder’s fault. Although he started producing this version of the film, he had to step aside in 2017 after a family tragedy. Joss Whedon intervened complete the movie for theatrical release, but the change of direction left viewers with a film that strayed far from Snyder’s original vision. The fans asked Warner Brothers for #ReleaseTheSnydercut, and here we are – in a new proportion and everything.
The good news is that it means that you are actually seeing more of the image than you would in the original film: Snyder filmed most of the footage with the larger, square frame in mind. Technically, the widescreen cut in the 2018 version of the film cuts out key parts of the scenes that Snyder filmed before Whedon took over for reshoots and the final cut. The new framework is the difference between each director’s final vision for the film.
JusticeCon
Snyder even made a drawing to illustrate the problem: without the black bars on the sides, you wouldn’t be able to see the bat sign.
It’s still weird to watch it on my TV. Why is that?
Because it was not designed for your TV. Zach Snyder is right, in an IMAX presentation, on a 21 meter giant screen, 1: 43: 1 may seem incredible – but with most cinemas closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you are probably watching it on a TV. Although technically there is more image to see, it looks smaller because your TV was not designed for a more square image. It does not use the entire screen. This is a little less incredible.
Is there anything I can do about it?
Yes, but you probably won’t want to. Most TVs today include aspect ratio settings that allow you to change the way the image is displayed. You can zoom in or stretch the image to fill the entire screen. You will get rid of the black bars, but you will probably cut off part of the image in the process.
Is there anything else I should know?
Only aspect ratios are a trend and trends change. In the first 30 years of the film, a 1.33: 1 frame very similar to Snyder Cut was the standard, but that has changed over time. In the 1950s, movie studios started recording Cinerama and CinemaScope panoramic movies to increase ticket sales. In the 1970s, IMAX debuted as a “high” response to widescreen films. Today’s common 16: 9 format was a commitment made by TV manufacturers to reduce the amount of black bars in the mailbox that viewers had to place when watching movies shot in all other proportions.
HBO MAX
And nowadays, the framing argument is more complicated than ever. Shows how The Mandalorian, Wandavisionand Westworld sometimes change proportions in the middle of an episode. It is a bit shocking, but it is clear that filmmakers no longer follow any single pattern.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League looks absolutely weird, especially on your TV, but love it or hate it, there’s nothing you can do about it. With a run time of 4 hours, you will have plenty of time to decide how you feel about it.
And you can even see more films like that in the future.