Topic: I'll get flamed, but...

[scribe8585]

I actually support the idea of the colorized DVD. I bought one of them tonight - my first Stooges DVD actually - and I am very impressed. I have no problem watching things in black and white - I've been a fan of the Stooges since I was three or so back in the late 80s, but seeing in color really gives them new life. There's potential to attract younger fans who absoultely would never watch black and white, too. The audio and video are significantly better than on any of my old VHS tapes, another plus.

I can understand the other view - that colorizing old films is vandalizing them - but people ought to relax a bit. The BW versions are still around, and do look better as well...

[leandar]

I won't flame you.  I would like to have the b & w preserved, but I would like to see the color versions especially for curiosity's sake as I've never seen anything like that before.

[Pilsner Panther]

I actually support the idea of the colorized DVD. I bought one of them tonight - my first Stooges DVD actually - and I am very impressed. I have no problem watching things in black and white - I've been a fan of the Stooges since I was three or so back in the late 80s, but seeing in color really gives them new life. There's potential to attract younger fans who absoultely would never watch black and white, too. The audio and video are significantly better than on any of my old VHS tapes, another plus.

I can understand the other view - that colorizing old films is vandalizing them - but people ought to relax a bit. The BW versions are still around, and do look better as well...

I'm not going to flame you either, but colorization is vandalism. At least Columbia/Sony gives the viewer the option of watching the Stooges in the original B & W, so they get one Brownie Point for that.

I'm still not buying the DVD's, though... another problem here is that the corporate media keeps reselling the same sure-fire material over and over again in different formats, just because it's good for their bottom lines. Like, for example, in music rather than film, Columbia's record division has repackaged the great 1959 Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" album something like five times now in CD format over the past couple of decades. How many times can you "improve" the sound quality of a recording that was really well-made in the first place?

Colorization is basically the same thing; a "wishful thinking" version of older films by people who, for the most part, weren't even alive at the time the originals were made. What right have they got to do that, other than that they own the copyrights?

Funny coincidence— just as I write this, I'm listening to Fred Astaire singing "I Used To Be Color Blind," and I have my CD changer set on "random play!"

[shemps#1]

A word to the wise...

Never start a thread with "I'll get flamed, but...":you're just begging for it.

[leandar]

I have to agree that colorization is vandalism.  A sarcastic thank you to whoever started this craze.  The only reason I'd like to see them as such is just for pure curiosity's sake to see what everything and everybody looked like in color.  But otherwise, I'll stick with the black and white myself.

[scribe8585]

Curiousity was the only reason I bought the DVD. I really didn't expect a great transition to color, but it was magnificent. It was like I was experiencing the Stooges for the first time all over again, and that was a great feeling. Black and white or color aside, the four shorts on the Stooged and Confoosed DVD are some of Curly's best. Once Curly began to lose his boyish mannerisms that really made him who he was - 1943 or so - I can barely to stomach most of those shorts filmed after. Even when Curly was in his prime, I'd still take Shemp anyday.

[wakkyjaky]

I don't like when black and white movies are colorized. I like to see the movies as they were originally seen. 

To me it's like an artist tring to cover a hit song and not singing it the way it was originally recorded.

[Honey Bear]

I don't like when black and white movies are colorized. I like to see the movies as they were originally seen. 

To me it's like an artist tring to cover a hit song and not singing it the way it was originally recorded.

Are you referring to a 'remix'? Sometimes I do prefer the 'remix' over the original recording but that's just me.

As for the colorized DVD's, I got the colorized two-pack as a gift for an elderly relative.  He actually was around to see a lot of the Three Stooges shorts first run in the movie houses. He wanted to see the colorized shorts because he was curious of the innovation. He was actually quite impressed by the technology and he thinks it's an amazing job. Although, I think he got a little scared. It's creepy that something from his youth can be made to look like it was recorded yesterday in modern times. The funny thing was that he thought the B&W version looked too perfect. I guess he misses the specks, scratches and hairs in the reels of yesteryear. 

Personally, I did enjoy the colorized version of the shorts. I wasn't even a twinkle in my parents' eyes when the shorts were made. So the colorized shorts gave me a perspective on how things might have looked in real life back then.

Although, the concept of modernizing the works of the past makes me wonder. For instance, if holographic technology becomes a reality in my lifetime; will I accept formally 2-D film conversions into holographic presentations? I could just imagine watching a Three Stooges short in a colorized, holographic immersion, surround-sound presentation. That would be freaky.