Reference: Title Line
Rick Retro’s Reference Rundown #2: Header Block, Title Line
Rick Retro’s Reference Rundown #2: Header Block, Title Line
Retro Reviews Reference
In the Header Block, the first line of the review is the Title Line, which will include information formerly (before 2025-07-11) included separately in a Version Line.
The format for this line is:
Title of Work (year) *[<version> (year)] — Review sub-title repeated.
*if applicable
The title of a work will be italicized or in quotation marks depending on standard usage, usually based primarily on length, so the title of a feature film or a novel will be italicized, while a short film or short story will be in quotation marks.
The year indicated for a work is usually the year in which the work was first published or released or premiered to the public. This includes limited releases such as a film festival. Exceptions are that works which were unpublished or unreleased for decades, and are now available, will be listed by the year they are believed to have been completed.
The repetition of the sub-title is not ideal, but is necessary so that Substack gives useful information when a review is linked in another post.
The optional version portion of the line will appear only when applicable and indicates a non-standard version of the work is being reviewed.
In most cases I will have previously reviewed the original version of the work. If I haven’t, it's probably not currently available.
The version portion of the line, if included, will often have a different year listed, indicating when this version of the work was published or released.
A special case is that if a movie was originally released simultaneously in both 3D and 2D to movie theaters, I might watch and review the 3D version first. But I will treat the 2D version as the original version, and not use a version portion on this line, since home 3D televisions are no longer in production, and not easily available for most of my readers.
The Title Line of the 3D version will then look like this:
Title of Work (year) [<3D> (year)] — Review sub-title repeated.
And in these cases the year both years shown will match, indicating the simultaneous release.
If a 2D movie is later upgraded to 3D for a new release, that will be apparent because the year in the version portion of the Title Line for the 3D release will be later than the year on the Title Line for the original 2D release.
When a new version has an official name, typically included on a DVD cover, for example, then I will capitalize the name on the Version Line. I will only use the word “Version” in those cases.
When there is no official name, I will use a description of the version in lower case.
Here are some examples of typical film versions you may see:
<3D>
<colorized>
<Director’s Cut>
<dubbed>
<extended>
<Extended Edition>
<Special Edition>
<unrated>
<Unrated Version>
For a written work of literature, you might see:
<abridged> (though I will probably avoid reviewing abridged versions except to denounce them)
<English translation by [translator]>
Retro Reviews Reference Pages:
Reference Overview
Header Block:
Title Line
Primary Information Line
Review-at-a-Glance Section
Secondary Information Lines
Franchise/Series Lines
Opinion Block:
Grade Line
Entertainment Quality Line
Dark Whimsy Line
POPCAP Line
Left-Right Line
Footer Block:
Review Lines
Genre Line
Content Block:
Family Suitability Line
Content Detail Line
Viewpoint Block:
Judeo-Christian Values Line
Christian Values Line
Biblical Values Line
Political Values Line
⬅️Previous (all sections) | Next (all sections) ➡️
Text Group Comment:
J: Speaking of abridged, I hear Amazon Prime streamed an abridged version of It's a Wonderful Life where they removed the entire trip to Pottersville! That's so stupid it's funny.