I was under the impression that "Academy film" was 1.37:1, pretty close to 4:3 shot in 35mm (pre and early 50s), with no AM.rocco said:
1.85:1 is called Standard film, Standard Widescreen or "Flat" as it requires no special lenses (as does anamorphic) with the aperture mask mentioned by Rocco. It might be called "Academy-flat" too.
The narrowest film ratio used now is with the IMAX cameras 1.43:1 which is still pretty close to 4:3 and the reason why most IMAX feature films are only available in 4:3 when transfered to DVD.
There have been a couple that have been modified for HDTVs, such as "Super Speedway", which I used to use for testing large LCD and Plasma TVs. That gives a nice "Full Screen" with the correct AR on a HDTV.
I agree with Smee and others of the same opinion, that is a ridiculous law suit.
