In the early 80s I saw it again on HBO as well as Star Wars and knew something was wrong but at that time OAR was nothing but three lettters of the alphabet shoved together that I had never heard of. I did not quite realize that I was seeing only half of the picture.
Forward to the early 90s and laserdisc where OAR was called widescreen and I still was yet to be educated about those three letters but I knew that widescreen meant the whole frame. I waited and waited and within a couple of years there was The Towering Inferno in widescreen. I rented it with the excitement of my youth only to have it all dashed on the rocks due to poorly defined fuzzy pictures. It was a drag to watch.
Forward to the last couple of years and trying it again on DVD. Ya, there was some improvement but still poorly defined fuzziness remained making the movie seem quite old and out dated.
Here we are in the present and this movie has been remastered for HD.
WOW This movie was directed for the large screen containing numerous details with tons of information in nearly every frame and only HD does it justice. The master looks every bit as fresh and new as my young eyes in the 70s recall and the only give away that it is old is the hairstyles, clothing and sound track. I found myself for the first time after the disappointing laserdisc and DVD versions excited, involved and wowed by the Oscar winning cinematography. In fact I look forward to seeing it again with my wife and son. It was that good!