Adding some LDs I bought last might to my collection I noticed two films, Edward Scissorhands, and Full Metal Jacket were listed as TV Size, open matte. I thought these were far too new to me filmed in the Academy ratio, so I looked up their DVDs and BDs which are in anamorphic widescreen. I was puzzled by this until I looked up what open matte means. Basically they filmed in the Academy ratio, framed it for the widescreen, then matted it for the theatrical presentation. Upon the transfer to LD they just used the unmatted 4:3 frame. My question is, is this the correct way to watch the films since they are actually framed for widescreen? What are people's opinions of watching an open matte vs the theatrical aspect ratio?

Open-matte transfers are better than cropped ones, insofar as you can zoom them on your widescreen TV to see the theatrical frame. (Some people have been known to tape letterbox bars on their 4:3 TVs to accomplish the same effect.) In general, the area outside the matte was never meant to be seen, & it may contain booms & other "garbage" that interferes with the scene, which was composed for the theatrical aspect ratio. Open-matte on animated films may leave you with unfinished animation visible.

To my mind, the whole point is to see what was seen in the theatre.

I agree with Publius in that I would always choose open matte over pan+scan if those were the only two options, but the (matted) widescreen is usually preference. Even though these movies were filed in academy ratio using Super 35mm the shots were all composited for widescreen viewing and opening up the frame can interfere with that. I think most open matte movies provide more picture on the top and bottom, but as mentioned sometimes there are elements under the matte that you wouldn't want to see such as dolly tracks or boom mikes so certain shots or scenes would have to be pan&scan. Also most special effects shots are only made to fill the intended theatrical screen so a lot of those shots are cropped too.

I agree with going for matted whenever possible. When I was a kid and I watched Peewee's Big Adventure, I never got the visual gag of the infinitely long length of chain that comes out of Peewee's bike bag for locking his bike up because you can see the chain coming through the bottom of the bag since it is open matte. When I finally got a Widescreen DVD copy, I saw it as it was meant to be seen and the scene becomes hilarious.