It’s funny – I was reading the Wikipedia entry for It’s a Wonderful Life and noted the section about colorization. My first reaction was, “Geez, that seems like a horrible idea.”
It’s not just me, is it? When colorization of old movies was first floated, I’m pretty sure I thought it was A-OK. Or at least not very noteworthy. But in thinking about it further it just seems like a bad idea. There’s a reason, for instance, that Norbit should never be updated for 3D when the time comes. (Of course, it shouldn’t have been shot in 2D either.)
Black and white movies might look different when compared to color, sure. But it was a technological limitation at the time. It’s just How It Was, and attempts to change that seem really silly to me now.
Making color movies black and white, on the other hand, could be kind of interesting. Except for films like Norbit.
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music
Rob June 18, 2008, 7:48 pm
Yeah, I hate colorized movies. It’s just a gigantic waste of time, and they never look good or even remotely realistic. What’s the point? And some directors and cinematographers back then took advantage of the black-and-white effect, I’m sure, just as filmmakers today sometimes choose to shoot films that way. Bleh.