Originally Posted by MattO

Umm, that's the aspect ratio they shot the film in. I don't there's a TV made that will reproduce Lawrence of Arabia in it's full width without the bars, it's 2.20:1, more than twice the width than the height. If you were to blow it up to fill a 16:9 or 4:3 television, you'd lose all the picture on the sides.

Oh and that TV will let you blow it up to fill the screen if you want but I'd rather watch the film in it's full width.