The power of the fans

Aspect ratio noted in the film leader

Criterion Collection has done a 360˚ and is now informing that the new restored and remastered A Hard Day's Night film will be presented in the aspect ratio of 1:75:1, which is how it was originally shown in movie theatres in 1964. They originally announced the aspect ratio of the release to be 1:66:1, which was our one criticism about the release.
It could have been a typo, which they now have corrected, or it could be that they have listened to us. Either way, we applaud it.

Still photo courtesy of Criterion Collection

That second theory would be very flattering, yet it does fall into a pattern. When Apple Records/Universal Music first published the cover of last year's "The Beatles On The Air: Live At The BBC Volume 2", they had lengthened George's tie. After we noted that, they went back and changed it, the final version that appeared on the released cover restored the original length of the tie.

Now if they had only released the full info about "The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963" a little bit earlier, we might have been able to inform them that they included two different radio recordings of the same performance of "She Loves You" on the release, and that some of their info about broadcast dates were off.

Still, it seems as we fans are beginning to have a bit of impact on some of their decisions, so let's keep on pointing out their mistakes!

As for the DVD in the Criterion Collection edition, it is region coded to 1 (USA), so unless one has a region free DVD player (which is perfectly legal), it can't be played here in Europe. A UK edition of the film is expected to be released on July 21st by Second Sight films if we are to believe the combined info from NME.com and Second Sight films.

Second Sight Films posted this photo on their Facebook page

"A Hard Day's Night" is also the subject of an upcoming documentary on UK TV Show "The One Show", much like "Magical Mystery Tour" was the subject of an "Arena" special.