I love this film. It’s campy, musical, silly, low budget, and never going to win any awards from Hollywood....... so why the two stars?



This 2018 version on DVD is once again formatted to fit wide screen HD T.V.’s. By doing this we lose some of the picture because it’s been cropped. Both sides, top and bottom are missing from the actual film. Why is it every version of 200 Motels has either been edited or formatted incorrectly is a mystery to me. I’ve compared it with the version TCM broadcasted several years ago and, yes, this 2018 has been cropped. What we lose most is the top and bottom of the original format. Ringo’s chin is clipped off in the opening scene, and tops of heads are also clipped off throughout the film.



Because the Zappa Family Trust doesn’t own the rights to Frank’s movie, it’s been messed with by anyone and everyone who can legally or not release a version of 200 Motels . The only solution is Blu Ray where films are scanned from the master reels and restored for the best picture possible. Yet 47 years have passed since this film was released and it’s still not available in it’s original version.



My dream would be that this important film find a home at Criterion Collection for a proper release. Until then I will be content with the copy I recorded from TCM which had the correct format.



As for this release, it does contain the original trailer as its only extra feature and a nice cover, but unfortunately it’s still the wrong format to enjoy what Frank’s original vision was.



So for fans of this crazy film that are still alive, we wait for this original United Artist film now owned by MGM & 20th Century Fox to release it correctly. Maybe on its 50th anniversary we might get lucky but I’m not holding my breath.