"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who testified with Steven Spielberg before Congress in the 1980s against colorization and other forms of alteration, said the process yanks such slapstick performers as the Stooges out of the black-and-white universe they belong in.
Excuse me then, sirs? Could I have Han shooting first and federal agents with guns, please?
To be fair, Lucas's quotes reflect a desire to protect the artist, and he would say it's his right to modify Star Wars, but no one else's:
"Would color distract from their comedy and make it not as funny anymore?" Lucas said. "Maybe just the fact that they're in black and white makes it funny, because their humor is dated. But by putting it in black and white, it puts it in a context where you can appreciate it for what it was.
"But you try to make it in full living color and try to compare it to a Jim Carrey movie, then it's hard for young people to understand. Because you're then thinking you're comparing apples to apples, when you're not. You're comparing apples to oranges. I'm saying it's not fair to the artist."
Of course, I enjoyed Star Wars the way it was, too, outdated effects and all. I guess I really don't have anything to say except "Bite me!"
5 comments:
The stupid thing about the idea of researching the actual colors used and restoring them is that the colors were chosen for how they would look in black and white. Ebert pointed out in a recent Answer Man column that they should paint the actors' faces green while they're at it, since they used greenish makeup. Like the yellow stove mentioned in the article: they didn't pick it because it was yellow, but because it photographed the particular shade of gray they wanted. Fucking morons.
-goatdog
And I guess it said all of that in the article, which I would have noticed if I hadn't gotten all pissed off and commented before finishing it.
-shamefaced goat
I'm about as big of a movie fan as they come and can't stand to see anything altered from the original artist's vision but this doesn't bother me since they're releasing the ORIGINAL B&W on the same DVD. No one has to watch the colorized versions, they're just an added feature so people who can't get around the lack of color have a chance to enjoy the Stooges. For those of us though that like to watch things as they were orginally, then the colorized versions are nothing more than a waste of space on the DVD. If Lucas would release the original versions of the movies I wouldn't care if he had Jar Jar lead Luke along a poop-paved road to Yoda's palace on Naboo while Ewoks danced around them and pipes holding fire spitting flowers and marching Goombas tried to block their way there. Then it's just some special feature that shows how pandering and tame Lucas has become.
P.S. To Spielberg's credit, he forced Universal to add the original ET to all DVD versions of the movie not just the special limited collector's edition box set because he did not want anyone to miss out on the version they remembered (although you can't get the original or second version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind but some of that was a studio issue).
Yeah, the Stooges thing doesn't bother me nearly as much as Lucas's statements on leaving the original alone. If only he would...or would at least give us access to it.
It is ironic that he thinks we should protect the old movies' contextual existence, but he deemed it fitting to add special effects to the old Star Wars films when they were rereleased. I can kind of see the difference, being that it was HIS movies in the first place, but I did not like any of the additions. So I still think he is a bit of a hypocrite. That said, he's right that they shouldn't colorize any classics, the dumb bastards!
--shane
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