Why Modern Movies Use Black-and-White
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Ever seen a modern movie in black-and-white?
The Lighthouse, Raging Bull, Schindler's List -- they all use black-and-white, when they could've been in color. Why?
This video explores why moviemakers might choose black-and-white as a color scheme, even though almost all movies and videos are in color.
Movies discussed herein: Pi, Mirror, Nebraska, Ed Wood, Roma.
See joshmatthews.org for more great movie criticism.
It definitely takes your attention towards certain elements, I think the same could be done with color though to a similar degree.
definitely true. the theory that black and white are the primal colors and "ignite" our brains in that way does sound interesting, but might be a load.
Very nice elucidation Josh!
I can think of another reason. When watching a B&W movie, our mind absorbs the narrative and at the same time fills the shades of grey with one's own colours. The viewing experience can be totally different for different observers as far as the visuals are concerned.
Take for example Yojimbo. One can see a rivulet of blood seeping from under the slain villain. Is it blood? It is , as the story tells us. But, our mind colourises the idea. At the same time, our mind , without any distraction absorbs the starkness of the death. The victorious Samurai leaning over his seemingly ultimate kill and the slain one dying gradulally.
The B&W allows viewers that freesom to bring on their own perspective about the scene.
Thanks for this wonderful video.
Please tell us more about Orange and Teal.
that's an excellent point about the greys allowing for the imagining of colors you want. thank you.
I'm not sure about modern color schemes, except to say at least Hollywood gets punished, as a for-profit business, for repeatedly showing ugly things, colors, etc. Any bad color fad ought to disappear quickly -- at least that's my hope.
Its spelled gray
@@anthonywilliams8956 gray = american english spelling
grey = british english spelling
✨the more you know✨
I honestly prefer black and white in certain types of films. When colour was first introduced to film it was used more as a tool than a necessity, most of my favourite uses of colour come from directors that had to shift from black and white filmmaking to colour such as Hitchcock and Kurosawa, as I feel in a lot of cases it should be, I've never heard anyone share this opinion with me before, but I think colour is taken for granted by a lot of films now that don't particularly need it, and I find that a lot blander than black and white sometimes.
Indeed, and there are several strange examples of modern movies that seem as if they are in color, and yet much of their run-time is B&W or nearly so. "Inside Llewyn Davis," for example, or the good-looking "Tron: Legacy."
Have you seen the black-and-white version of Raiders of the Lost Ark?
extension765.com/soderblogh/18-raiders
@@LearningaboutMovies I actually didn't know it existed until now, thanks. That'll be interesting. Also, Inside Llewyn Davis is one of my favourites of all time, I think a lot of Fincher's films can also be used as an example of doing that.
You brought up an excellent argument. Thank you!
Hey Doc (or Josh? whichever you prefer), thanks for this video series! I didn't go to college but have always wanted to study film as literature, and I really appreciate you making this accessible to me.
You're welcome
This video is gonna blow up, keep uploading bro! Enjoyed this!
hey, thank you. We'll see. I appreciate your comment and enthusiasm -- it's very helpful.
Use a few selected colored items in a largely black and white movie 🍿
Great video man. Really love your channel!
thank you, Nate. I really appreciate it.
Colors may say too much if bright. Black and white can be easier to look at
j'adore " the lighthouse " c'est super 👌
yeah, that movie's popularity with younger people on TH-cam is partial proof that Black-and-White should never die. Probably won't, as it likely inspired a few future filmmakers.
Learning about Movies bien sûr :)
I Hope your channel gets wider notice; some great stuff here. This comment isn't so much about why MODERN movies are in black and white (although it certainly coul dbe one of the reasons). One of the things I consistently students is "movies are not reality." No matter how Realist or Formalist, all movies are artificial expressions.So, I also get them to try to see how black and white is inherently expressionistic. Clearly, German Expressionism and Film Noir are the textbook examples of this. Another, more general way of putting this is that black and white can be so... (stark?) striking and beautiful, I use Night of the Hunter with them to illustrate all of this. Some movies CAN'T be in color.
Didn't mean for that typo (absent space after the period) to generate a link!
yeah, I can't imagine Psycho in color, even though Hitchcock had that option. What would be nice is if we could put a movie in color side-by-side with the same movie in B&W. Compare the two. Somewhere, several years ago, Steven Soderbergh linked to a B&W version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I thought looked better in a lot of ways.
I appreciate your comments about the channel. It's an experiment.
You can: Mad Max Fury Road Black and Chrome Edition!
Exactly Mark!
Sometimes our imaginations need a certain degree of freedom , so as to fill the stark colour palette with our own shades of colour or rather let it remain uncolored.
I can not imagine Seven Samurai in colour. The lushness of those hills and flowers would snatch pieces of our attention. Even the colour of blood would irk our sensibility , somehow devaluing the idealism of the seven samurai.
Look, what they did by colourising It's a Wonderful Life!
Thanks for your insight
I know this may seem like a stupid answer or opinion but to me I think black and white shows more detail then color in some movies both new a old if you think about it when you have color there's a lot to take in there's a lot going on some movies do work in color and some I think could have worked better in black n white and when you get a close up shot of someone in a movie if it's in black and white it actually shows more detail in there face then color would but that's just my opinion
I think that's right. what we need are studies of the human eye to prove it, yet the details in b&w are more interesting perhaps in their subtleties, or the complexity of any color is too difficult to master. My sense is that Netflix's strategy is to go in the opposite direction, towards big bold striking color in most of their new productions. They have, however, paid for "Mank," so bless them for that.
Very good
does it means that the film its old?
no. "Mank", released just a few months ago and a Best-Picture Nominee at the Oscars, is a black-and-white film.