My wife and I love old movies, and have a special fondness for Black and White. My dad hates it! I think it has something to do with having grown up in the 50's, when color was a big deal. To me, Black and White draws us back to another generation of film makers who knew how to do it!
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Hitchcock Would Approve!
You know, of course, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in B&W. It's not like they hadn't invented color! One reason was to keep the budget under a million smackers. But he also said he chose black and white because of the shower scene. Audiences, he explained, already know what blood looks like. I love how the camera pans down to the drain to reveal that dark black pooling up in the shower.
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Donald Spoto explains in The Art Of Alfred Hitchcock, "at the center of the film is the legendary shower murder. . . in it we receive the impression of violence brutality and despair without being nauseated with color blood and detail." (p.325)
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The Mist as a story reminds me more of The Birds than Psycho -- though none of us would have trouble believing Mother Carmody could have more than one person rattling around in that nutty head of hers.
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Some notes:
So here's my notes, with a particular eye to the black and white:
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1. I enjoyed Frank Darabont's introduction. By the way, the FBI warning is in color. (I'm just sayin'. . .)
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2. The B&W does give it a classic movie feeling. I think one of the goals was to give it the old feel of a 1950's horror movie. Only, the monsters get a lot more screen time than most old movies!
.3. The B&W also gives the movie an unworldly sense. It feels darker. My wife said it's a surreal feeling. The shadows are much more noticeable -- but it's more than that. Lilja writes this: "The black-and-white version is darker (and I don't mean picture wise) and gives the movie quite a different feeling --" (Lilja's Library, p.454)
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4. In the loading dock scene, the lighting makes the scene much more intense in B&W.
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5. Where B&W doesn't work as well. . . In the scene where the rope is pulled back to the store, the blood on the rope does not have the same impact it had in color.
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The Test:
So which do you like better? It's not left up to guessing, is it? You can actually watch both versions! What's interesting is that you can do the very same thing (almost) with Psycho. It was re-filmed, scene for scene, in color! The result? Well, in my opinion, Hitchcock was right! The chocolate syrup is a lot more scary than bright red blood. It almost makes the classic, well -- trashy. I'm actually not sure why the remake was done. Nothing new was added, except color and Anne Heche.
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Perhaps, like with Psycho, what I really like is that the Mist in B&W calls out to the imagination. Sure, everything is still on the screen, minus the color. But that extra demand on our imagination stirs us out of our lazy viewing habits and engages us at a deeper level. Or, I might be full of it on that! Just suffice to say, I really like the Black-and-White version.
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Darabont's introduction can be seen here: http://www.cinemablend.com/dvdnews/darabont-explains-black-and-white-cut-of-the-mist-9579.html
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