"The coloring of black-and-white films is wrong. It's morally and artistically wrong"
-James Stewart
James Stewart said it best, colorizing black-and-white movies and TV shows is wrong and this is why...
Color in film has been around since the 1910s, though it was very much still in its infancy back then. Color films didn't become popular until the 1960s, so that means decades worth of black-and-white films exist. Classic films like Dracula, Frankenstein, Casablanca, all the Three Stooges shorts and, of course, Citizen Kane. Colorization didn't become popular until the 1980s as there was a boom of films being released that were originally in black-and-white, but now have been colorized. It's a Wonderful Life was an unfortunate victim to this, and ever since any DVD/BD release of the film has had both the black-and-white film as well as the bastardized colorized version.
Miracle on 34th Street
Television was not safe from this travesty either. Shows such as: Bewitched (the first 2 seasons were filmed in black-and-white), Gilligan's Island (the first season was filmed in black-and-white), I Dream of Jeannie (the first season was filmed in black-and-white) and then random episodes from both The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy, both shows were filmed entirely in black-and-white. During the 1990s some episodes from these series were released on VHS. But, the worst was in the early 2000s when companies such as Sony, began releasing complete season sets of their back catalog. Both Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie had their first (and second, in the case of Bewitched) season released on DVD in both black-and-white and the shitty colorized version. Years later, I Dream of Jeannie (and possibly Bewitched) were released in complete series sets with their first season being colorized, the black-and-white season(s) was only available in separate season sets.
So, why is this all bad? People like color films better than black-and-white films, right? Sadly, the general US population would probably watch a colorized version of a film (or TV show) over a black-and-white film (or TV show). I am a firm believer that films and TV shows should be seen the way they were originally released or premiered on TV. Colorizing a film is the same as creating a pan-and-scan version of a film. If you are not familiar, pan-and-scan was a way of taking widescreen films and changing them so they would fit into the square box of your TV. Obviously, this was most popular in the 1980s and 1990s. This was the common thing for movies on VHS, but pan-and-scan means that they are taking the widescreen image and zooming into the middle until the dimensions are that of a TV screen. Meaning, that all the film on the sides was being cut off so you couldn't see it on your TV. Well, what if something is happening on those parts of the film not visible? Well, they created an artificial pan, so if something important was happening on those parts of the film that were not visible, they would put this artificial pan of the camera to that part of the film and then it would come back when the important part. Thankfully, this stupid process (which was just to appease the general population who couldn't understand what widescreen meant) died out in the 2000s. Anyway, back on topic: so just like pan-and-scan destroyed a film when released for home release, colorizing the film is just as bad. These are fake colors, everything you see on the screen is fake. Does it make the film look better being in color? No, not at all, there is just an artificial feeling to the entire film (or TV show) when it is colorized. Why would anyone want to watch a film that is filled with irritating crap that wasn't there before (Star Wars, I'm looking at you)?
I'm sure the filmmakers weren't too pleased with this boom in the 1980s, obviously, taking from the James Stewart quote above. Basically, what colorizing does is it places these fake colors on top of the real film, to make people who can't comprehend black-and-white happy. When I watch a film (or TV show) I want to see it the way it was released. Period. I'm not interesting in watching a fake colorized version, when I can watch the original version.
Sadly, today, it seems some things will only be colorized, at least on TV anyway. Every year CBS broadcasts the I Love Lucy Christmas episode, in color. It's sad that these generations are not able to watch this episode in its original black-and-white glory unless they pay to buy the series on DVD. The one thing positive I do have to say about colorizing films is that, normally, when released on DVD, the black-and-white versions are at least available to purchase instead of the colorized garbage.
In the end, it really depends on what you want to watch. I urge people to watch the original black-and-white versions, but if you want to watch the colorized version, that's up to you.
