As you should know, Terry Gilliam’s Tideland was just released on DVD in the US, Canada, and the UK.

If you live in the UK, everything’s fine – you have an absolutely perfect copy of the film, presented as Terry intended..

However, if you’ve purchased a Region 1 copy of Tideland, you’re not getting everything that Gilliam intended. While the bonus materials are all hunky-dory, the film itself is presented in an incorrect aspect ratio. While the theatrical aspect ratio was 2.35:1 and the UK disc was released at 2.25:1, the Region 1 release is 1.78:1.

Here’s what Terry himself had to say about the situation, courtesy of Phil Stubbs’s Dreams website:

“I mastered the DVD and decided that opening it up a bit vertically from the strict 2.35 looked better on the small screen. It’s probably about 2.25. It is the choice of the director. Tell the fans to relax. I prefer it this way.”

So while that is the way it was presented on Revolver’s UK DVD release, such is not the case with ThinkFilm’s 1.78:1 disc.

Initially, Terry believed that the Canadian release was correct, and sent this note into the Dreams site:

“I think we have to get the word out NOT TO BUY the American version of the DVD. The Canadian version is correct. It’s Region 1… so Americans can see the film as intended” but, sadly, Mr. Gilliam had been deceived about the US release and may yet be wrong about the Canadian one. Is there ANYBODY out there who can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that the Canadian release is in the correct 2.25:1 aspect ratio?”

Unfortunately, the Canadian release is presented in exactly the same incorrect ratio as ThinkFilm’s US release.

After discovering this, Terry has sent us a follow-up…

“I’m embarrassed! Having been assured that the Canadian DVD was the correct format, I now discover I was completely misled.

What was I thinking? Why hadn’t I jumped a plane and flown to Toronto to buy a Tideland DVD on the 1st day of sales? I would have known the truth before opening my big mouth. What a fool!!! I can begin to see why Stanley Kubrick went a bit whacko trying to keep an eye on every print of his films in every far-flung corner of the globe… and he had a full-time guy doing the legwork.

Any volunteers?

What I recommend for all the owners of the North American Tideland DVD is to get a roll of wide black tape… sorry, before you do that, go out and buy a dozen more copies of the DVDs and pass them out to your friends, then… pause the disc at the Capri Films logo when it flares out into a blue sky. What you see is the correct proportion of 2.35:1. Then, unrolling the tape, mask off the black areas on the
screen above and below. If you want to leave a little bit more space top and bottom of the logo you will end up with the UK proportion. Then you should just sit back and enjoy. All the information left to right is there. There was no panning and scanning. Just stupidity.

-Terry

p.s. Check next day to see how many of your friends will still look you in the eye. They are the people you should be spending time with. Fuck the others!”

So there you have it, straight from the man himself. Will ThinkFilm release a corrected version? We can only hope… Though I’m not exactly holding my breath.

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