BEAUTIFUL BLACK AND WHITE

     Several years ago a new dirty word snuck into the language. It may have even made it into some of the lesser dictionaries. It is COLORIZATION. It means taking movies originally shot in black and white and coloring them. Yeccch! Well- as far as I can tell that process is as dead as film darkrooms. I sure hope so.

     For some reason, many people seem to have something against black and white movies. I think this is a mistake. Good directors and cinematographers know how to use the shadows and nuances of black and white to great advantage. Some of the greatest movies ever made are in black and white. 

     Orson Welles perhaps understood how to use the subtle shadings of black and white as well as anyone. His landmark film Citizen Kane (1941) is exhibit A. But an even better use of the medium, though a lesser film, is The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) which is shot almost entirely in the gloomy old Amberson mansion. (Bonus trivia: this movie features, of all people, cowboy star Tim Holt!)

     In Raging Bull (1980) the brutality and violence of the ring (and the kitchen!) are more exquisitely captured in black and white than any color imaginable. The sleazy, smoky nightclubs that become Jake LaMotta's environment seem much more oppressive and atmospheric in black and white.

     Casablanca (1942) has dark filmic echoes of the war and the end of a culture, and is one of the most romantic films ever made. I cannot imagine it in color and hope Ted Turner and his lackeys can't either.

      My favorite example of black and white cinematography is How Green Was My Valley (1941), about life in a Welsh mining village and a boy who wants out. Use your freeze button on any frame in this movie and you could hang it on your wall.

     Some other splendid examples of black and white: Shindler's List (1993), The Hustler (1961), High Noon (1952), On The Waterfront (1954), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Brief Encounter (1945).

     One of the best recent examples of great black and white cinematography is George Clooney's Good Night And Good Luck (2005) a splendid film with David Strathairn perfect as newsman Edward R. Murrow (a Tar Heel!) taking down fascist Senator Joseph McCarthy. Even more recent is the superb Nebraska (2013) featuring Bruce Dern's career best performance.

      Okay so I'm a purist. But- if you happen to be one of the "no black and white" people, I ask only that you give any of the films in this article a look. Then ask yourself if it would have been as good in color.

     All of the movies herein are available on DVD and for streaming. None are really suitable for children under 12, mostly because they wouldn't like them.