How could anyone think black and white looks better than color? - Schindler's List (1994) Discussion

[–] fud-slush 8 years ago

Perhaps you could have done a little research. Spielberg wanted it to be like a documentary (hence all the hand-held camera work) - more like the extensive footage of various Holocaust activities.

Is this your view of all black & white films?

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[–] MikeHunt153 8 years ago

Yes it it. I don't think they're bad, I mostly judge a film by its script. I just think they don't look very good visually.

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[–] fud-slush 8 years ago

...so the likes of Citizen Kane, Yojimbo, The Third Man, Raging Bull, Manhattan, Psycho, The Seventh Seal, It's a Wonderful Life, Touch of Evil & the beginning & end sections of The Wizard of Oz all could look better...indeed, should have done? Scorsese, Fleming, Kurosawa, Welles, Bergman & Hitchcock each got it wrong?

Here's a decent article:

https://fstoppers.com/education/why-its-still-important-shoot-black-and-white-48141

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[–] MikeHunt153 8 years ago

Well most of those films were made when most films were black and white, but yes, they all would've looked better in color.

That article is about photography, it's different when the image is constantly moving. And even in photography, just because black and white has some positives, doesn't mean it's better.

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[–] fud-slush 8 years ago

Yes, that's right, photography...do you not know that film is just a series of photographs?! Dear oh dear.How grim it must be to have your eyes - no idea about cinematography at all...

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[–] NoRevisionism 8 years ago

yeah, IMAX 3D woulda really helped right MikeHunt?

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[–] RomaVictorrrr 8 years ago

Color would've been fantastic. And why not? Filmmakers only used b&w back then because that's all they had. And they made the most of it. Even the night time scenes of some b&w movies (like It Happened One Night) are gorgeous in my opinion. (I love b&w Golden Age movies BTW).

Using it now is mostly a gimmick or an effect. Spielberg wanting it to look like a documentary... Or making it look contemporary to the time... Or look like a European art film... Or maybe wanting to infuse his manipulative images into our brain so they mix with REAL photos of the time so that we can no longer distinguish fact from fiction!

Just kidding. ;)

But it worked, I guess. People praised it. But had he used color originally, I'm sure NO ONE at the time would've been asking, "Hey, why the F didn't he use B&W??!!"

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[–] Stevicus-2 8 years ago

For some reason, this thread reminds me of a time when I was a little kid, asking my older brother why older films and TV programs were in black and white. My brother didn't know either, but he considered the possibility that "maybe the whole world was black and white back then."

Years later, I came across this comic strip: http://calvin-and-hobbes-comic-strips.blogspot.com/2011/11/calvin-asks-dad-about-old-black-and.html

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[–] RomaVictorrrr 8 years ago

That was HIGH-larious.

Always enjoy reading some Calvin & Hobbes.

(And Pogo)

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[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 6 years ago

Thanks for sharing that, it would make for a great time travel fantasy fiction film btw!

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[–] Trax-3 8 years ago

Filmmakers only used b&w back then because that's all they had.

This is simply not true. It is true that at some point there was no choice, and then there was one but much more expensive (and with other restrictions), but from mid 50s to the end of the widespread use of it in mid 60 is was largely an artistic choice.

What ultimately did it in wasn't any lack of enthusiasm from filmmakers but studios desire to sell their films to colour television.

There definitely are examples of films shot in black and white on purpose even if there was budget or even pressure for colour and there certainly were filmmakers who much preferred working in B&W (Billy Wilder for example).

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[–] RomaVictorrrr 8 years ago

This is simply not true. It is true that at some point there was no choice,

So which is it? Simply not true or a little bit true?

You're focusing on the 50s and 60s, when things were sloooowly transitioning to color, but some filmmakers were still using B&W for aesthetic reasons.

Even though color was available long before then, economic and technological reasons kept them from using color, which is what I was focusing on.

Neither of us is wrong, I don't think, except I won't jump up and say, "That's simply not true!!" :)

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[–] Trax-3 8 years ago

There has been a colour alternative even if only 2-colour at first for pretty much entire Hollywood history, going back to the silent era.

You're focusing on the 50s and 60s, when things were sloooowly transitioning to color, but some filmmakers were still using B&W for aesthetic reasons.

There was no slow transition, in the 50s there was a lot of pressure from the studios. In Fox for a while all movies had to be in colour and in scope (and scope was actually banned for b&w productions) but that resolve was broken after a while and things turned to normal and found a natural balance.

Even though color was available long before then, economic and technological reasons kept them from using color, which is what I was focusing on.

As early as '40 Hitchcock insisted on black and white for Rebecca, although Selznick had plans for a Technicolor epic to rival GWTW.

It's not like everybody was longing for colour.

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[–] RomaVictorrrr 8 years ago

Okay we're getting way off topic but let me ask you this. Are you saying that economic and technological reasons had NOTHING to do with why B&W was used so much back then?

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[–] wannakiss 8 years ago

That's pretty racist, man. Not cool.

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[–] TheMouseShadow 8 years ago

The cinematography is this film is some of the best ever done.

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[–] PrometheusTree64 8 years ago

I smell me some trollin' up in here...

--

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[–] objviewer 8 years ago

Can't explain it - in this movie it is better. Maybe partly because it allow the scenes with the little girl in the red coat, though I don't think that is the only reason.

If I imagine this movie in color, seems like the color would distract from what is going on. Sometimes something just works, but can't be explained.

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[–] fud-slush 8 years ago

I think it would have been perfectly possible to use the same feature, ie the focusing on a little girl who's later seen amidst a pile of bodies, without the red coat.

Perhaps Spielberg did it in order to mirror the vast amount black-and-white footage newsreel footage of various Nazi horrors - make it more like a documentary & thus highlight the atrocities even more. I'm sure it would have worked in colour & there wouldn't have been a critic in the world who'd have wondered why it wasn't in b & w, but as you say, it works extremely well in this format.

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[–] christomacin (4656) 2 years ago

The Red Smoke scene from Kurosawa's "High and Low" may have been an influence as well.