Why Every Film Looks Better in Black and White 

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Worth mentioning that Oppenhimer which was a huge box-office success had significant portions of black and white.

As many in the comments, I am a Kurosawa fan and for me, motion, framing and expressions are more important than color. Love black and white films.

la la land looks good in color. and so does drive. yes they might have better contrast in b and w, but the color MAKES the movie. it actually adds atmosphere and is tied into the sense of nostalgia in both.

So many color films up to the '90's retained black and white lighting techniques--three-point lighting with bright, hard key light. Look at PULP FICTION. That's why such films work so well when stripped of color. More recent low-contrast, low-key color films shot at wide apertures (the Bradford Young look) would have a harder time holding the eye in monochrome.

I think Black and White is a primal thing. Many animals see only in monochrome. Maybe thats how our eye used to be before colour and somehow theres a deep connection thats still with us.

Crazy you didn’t mention the official B&W version of Fury Road. Black and Chrome. Looks absolutely fantastic, the lack of color lets you eye wander more and notice more detail in every shot.

Better call saul ended its show with episodes shot in black and white. The emotional contrast that was created by going from colour to black and white hit me right in the heart. That transition from colour to black and white gave in my opinion the story more colour and depth as a whole. I love seeing black and white film.

I remember watching the Noir version of 'Logan' when that released on Blu-ray and I have to say the black and white version impacted me more than colour. Obviously they both work, but something about the way they lighted a lot of the scenes just worked so well in black and white.

I never thought about the next step in the progression of style of Batman movies being black and white but it’s an excellent idea. It goes perfectly with my idea of a Batman movie set in the 1930s when the character was originally created.

My film teacher explained it this way: color movies are one step away from reality because they’re two dimensional. Black and white movies are two steps away from reality because they’re 2D and monochromatic. Silent films are three steps away because they’re 2D, Monochromatic, and mute. He said that each step is harder for the average person to take, which is why B&W films make people uncomfortable unless they’re used to them, and Silent films are nearly unwatchable. They were fine in their time when people had no choice, but color and sound simply make it *easier* for audiences. Bergman once said that he hated using color. I think the quote was, “In black and white I can simply write a shot saying ‘the ball bounces,’ but in color I have to think about what color the ball is, and why it’s that color, and that’s simply too much effort. It distracts me from my purpose. I have a technical question: If you’re looking at a B&W film like, say, “The Trial” (1962), which was shot on 35mm B&W stock, do you get a greater depth of field than if you shoot something on color and convert it to B&W?

My viewfinder is set to BnW. I prefer it like this so I can see shapes and contrast better.

I bought the movie The Mist on blue ray, specifically because it comes with the black and white version, which was the original plan for the film. It’s the only way to see it as it was intended, and it’s a much better film when the color is removed. It shines a brighter light on its influences, old black and white monster movies

I love black and white films and photographs. I prefer shooting photos in black and white, but my family says things like this would have been such a good picture in color. Could you imagine Citizen Kane or an Ansel Adams landscape in color? ( I know Adams did shoot some photos in color, but no one remembers those as special )

Batman in black and white would be the sickest movie ever!

I used to hat eBlack and white films, but as i started watching them to learn cinema, i now love it, you focus on great composition and not distracting things, you are more invested in the frame in a way, and after 10 minutes, you forget about caring for the color anyways. Do any of you feel the same?

I wholeheartedly agree with your conclusion that more high-profile and commercial Hollywood productions should take the B&W route. The other day I was telling my wife that Matt Reeves, who has fully embraced the neo-noir esthetics in The Batman (2022), should make one movie from his Batman 'saga' black and white-although I wouldn't bet one cent on it happening, alas.

💯 % When Kurosawa Mode was revealed for Ghost of Tsushima I played it entirely in B/W before I ever played it in color. It gave my playthrough a profound sense of mystique and ominous foreboding with every encounter and made it so much more impactful. I remember to this day, I was riding casually through a forest road and came near to a clearing, a light at the end of the tunnel if you will only to be met with the silhouette of two bodies strung up from a tree with arrows piercing their bodice. Their black shadows against the light behind them was so beautiful and tragic and I was so moved that I cried. I was in mourning and in awe the sight. After I regained some composure i took a photo 😂. As an pencil artist i am really scared to color in my drawings and just don't do it, so I compensate for that by being a bit more abstract with lighting while trying to balance details. Mike Mignola does this masterfully and I take my inspiration from him. I have always, as you say in the video, "see in black and white first."

Love black and white movies, I can't stand it when classics movies are colorized they just don't feel the same.

A great movie you didn't mention is Raging Bull. The black-and-white cinematography, along with the overall set design, really helped create the authentic feel of the 1940s, where the story is set. I don't think this movie would have worked as well in color.

I can't see the appeal of B&W version of The Red Shoes, Singing in The Rain and Vertigo.

The Justice is Grey edition of _Zack Snyder's Justice League_ is my preferred way to watch it. Because it made the film look and feel even more like a graphic novel come to life.

Main thing I like about Black and White movies: I can hear and understand the voices of the actors well and clearly. I think if I were to give my main reason I don't like watching BW movies it would be that they are not immersive. I am very aware that I a sitting in a chair at home while watching BW movies. It's like watching a play, only somehow less engaging. Some color movies have the same problem, but the movies that I have loved, Hatari!, LoTR trilogy, Galaxy Quest, and Titan AE, all immerse me and cause me to neglect my real life self while I submit my attention to the screen. Although I must say, I love using BW or bichrome in my photography. Always seems to look good. Make it warm like Sepia, or cold high contrast BW can give a lot of creative control.

Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It" is another black and white film worth checking out. I love how he introduces color temporarily and then cuts back to black and white.

I just spent my 401K on mostly post production equipment, I didn’t have more than $300 left over for a basic 4K camcorder but I had a thought, “ this camera is so sharp and low buget that if I shoot a short film on it even a really well composed, lit scene it will still look like a cheap camera,…let’s shoot a few black & white shorts” It occurred to me that not only would I get a few feet away from cheap looking but I also get to play in one of my most favorite cinema looks. I got a camcorder with a wide angle so it has a dynamic look to it. I’m 55, I’m not trying to be rich or famous but I love this stuff, I’m excited to play.

I agree. I didn't get a color TV set until 1984 so I had no option but to watch in Black and White. My parents had color. I watched Black Beauty on both and just loved it better in Black and White. I'd turn the color off on my tv if I could.

The Genius Akira Kurosawa just winked and smiled at the Genius Sareesh Sudhakaran. 🙏🏾

I love black and white movies and plan for my next movie to be in black and white. My dad refuses to watch them because he grew up with a black and white TV. He desperately wanted a color TV and it was years before he could afford one. He sees watching black and white as a huge step backwards.

Black and white has it's obvious advantages, but it's also asking me to sacrifice the joy of colour to get there. It's why even though I've seen it 20 times I still haven't watched the black and white version of Fury Road, because the colour in that film is one of my favourite parts of it and I don't think that film is lacking in texture either way. Trading colour for texture is a value proposition most won't make. I don't think popular audiences have ever complained about Schindler's List being in black and white because the film is so great and the palette feels so integral to that. Oppenheimer also received no complaints for a major amount of it being in black and white, and there was also the beloved sequence in Dune II, both nestled in within the colour scenes of the film. I think this is how you get people to watch black and white on a larger scale. Either be so unmissable an experience that viewers could not ask themselves why it couldn't be in colour (for Schindler's List it would be sacrilege), or meet viewers in the middle. While obviously an important creative decision, in a parallel world where Roma was in colour would it be any less artistically impressive?

The black and white sequence (filmed in near-infrared) in Dune 2 is a visual gem in this already beatifully photographed movie.

What once a technical limitation (b&w) helped form some of the most majestic films. Carl Theodor Dreyer took advantage of the recent innovation of Panchromatic film in 1928 for The Passion of Joan of Arc. This film stock registered reds better in b&w, giving a more fully fleshed out, realistic look to the faces in the film. It’s palpable. Today we almost have the inverse problem of knowing there is color and therefor audiences outright rejecting and refusing to see b&w films. I love color but find b&w more moving as it’s dreamlike and an abstraction. It makes one focus on line, shape, texture and composition. Bela Tarr used it exclusively after the 80s. Coen bros were forced to shoot Man who wasn’t there in color (foreign markets) and desaturated. Also, nice choice of choosing Empire Strikes Back, as that was shot by Peter Suschitzky. David Cronenberg chose him as his DP 8 years later for Dead Ringers. Peter’s work is modulated, painterly and expressive. His films always look brilliant including the Cronenberg films. He was trained in b&w photography as well as films and his father, Wolfgang, shot original Get Carter, and his son, Adam, is also a DP!

As you said Black & White carries a stigma of being old, low budget or outdated yet I have seen many reviews of the original '12 Angry Men' (1957) where the reviewers forgot it was black & white within minutes of starting to watch because the beauty of the movie is in the acting & script & raved about how good the movie was. Yes the photography also played a big part of making this movie so good. Visuals help sell a movie & play a big part in making the great spectactical experience movies like in the new Dune movies, but it is the storyline that really makes a great movies. So the bad press black & white was is unfair & needs to be exposed as an unfair prejudice.

7:08 "Ask any kid to watch black & white cartoons, it's just impossible. Left to their own devices, they'll pick colour most of the time. Maybe most black & white cartoons look old and dated, the sound is different..." When I was a kid, I definitely didn't like black & white content very much, and for me, it was because I found it scarier... creepier. There's something kinda haunting and nightmarish about it, especially in darker scenes. As I've gotten older, I've gotten more comfortable with it, but colour has always just felt more comforting and I still feel like that's the main difference in how it makes me feel. It's great for something scary or somber, but for something more positive or exciting, I think you need colour. Black & white makes things much more stark and surreal. It inherently feels more artistic, because it's naturally not feeling as much like reality. You're aware that there's a lens of some medium between you and the content much more keenly. I think that kinda shifts expectations a bit, where we're automatically not as bothered by things seeming fake or off or cheap or something like that, because we're not as much in "trying to believe this is reality" mode as we are when we're looking at a color image. In color, cheap sets, bad visual effects or color design, bad make-up or costumes, unflattering or flat lighting, etc... will all bother us a lot more and kinda pull us out of the movie/show. But you put the filter of black & white over it and suddenly we're just like, "Oh, whatever looks weird is intentional and artistic." and we just focus more on the content instead of being distracted by things having to look believable. I think a famous example of this is The Mist, when the colour version was released, the visual effects looked terrible and everything felt cheesy... but then in black and white, suddenly it looks and feels like an intentionally stylized shlocky horror movie that works on that level. On a technical level, colour can be a tricky thing to handle for cameras and colour graders, etc, and on a lot of displays, it can be the thing that's recreated the worst. It varies from display technology to technology, etc... the settings of your tint and saturation, etc, will sometimes make colours look weird or just different than intended, and certainly not realistic. It can cause artifacts like banding, reds can bloom, it softens the image, etc.... Taking that element out and just normalizing it across a grayscale spectrum immediately takes away a lot of variables that can make a picture look bad or weird.

I wish TV's had a setting so I could watch old shows in B&W like I originally did.

I clicked on this video because I love great B&W films.

Brilliant take on the many advantages of shooting B&W, I think audiences can sometimes be turned off by this (including myself unless there's an auteur like Cuaron or Spielberg who can voice clearly their artistic reasons for doing this) but some recent B&W films that I watched and thoroughly enjoyed are 'Frantz' and 'Blue Jay.'

The case of «SIn City» gives us a clue: contrast and creative lighting. Watch the french, italian or russian 40s and 50s films. They are masterieces of cinematography, they rely on really great light setups.

Ripley is a masterpiece for real

Fantastic channel. Your work is so well done on all levels. Congratulations

I was skeptical about the Noir version of Logan, but about a quarter of the way through I realized I was far more engaged than I was when I watched it in color. I actually switched to color halfway through just to compare a scene, and the color version felt "cheap", so I switched back and finished the movie in black and white. Well worth it.

I love to watch films in B&W. Especially older films. This is why I enjoy watching Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

I've never experience 'getting tired' of color film. I think that's just like your opinion man.

Loved the B&W version of Logan, Raiders and of course the Netflix series, Ripley which is a B&W masterpiece.

I love Black and White

This is a really interesting perspective, mainly because it is different from my own! As a director with a graphic design background, color is extremely important to me, and plays deeply into my creative approach. Color theory is a powerful tool for evoking emotions, and it can be a great opportunity for symbolism (which is where I geek out the most). But black and white is still beautiful. I did my latest short film in black and white for budgetary reasons, and I'm proud of how it looks... but I doubt I'll use b&w filmmaking again just because color is superior to me (when I have the resources to do it properly, that is). To each their own!

You should check out Werewolf by Night, as it was initially released in 2022 as a black and white Marvel Halloween Special. It's a bit more mainstream (and not too "artsy"), and they re-released it in color, but maybe it would be interesting to dissect the difference.

I had an idea years ago, to watch films and movies on black and white, and it was an experience. Some even looked more believable realistic on black and white, like Excalibur, the shadow, the illusionist. And this was before I found out that other people had begun doing this same thing. And it's easy to watch any movie in black and white. Just turn down the color in the menu of the TV.

Additionally, we have more rods than cones & see in higher resolution in greyscale than in color. Facial characteristics are pre-processed by the retina & pre-cortical ganglia, without conscious perception of color.

Berserk panels in a Wolfcrow video - pleasant surprise!

Literally any animated film…….

Black and white seems genre-appropriate for _Schindler’s List_ if only because the films and videos we associate with that topic and period are invariably in black and white. That aside, to me, black and white has, paradoxically, both a spareness and a lushness that color doesn’t. By spareness, I mean we’re obviously cued by the blacks and whites but we’re not distracted by, say, that vivid blue or that bright orange. By lushness, I mean the velvety blacks of _film noir_ or the glistening whites of any snowy scene or maybe the pristine whites of Ingrid Bergman’s various outfits in _Casablanca._ I tend to view black and white as a _plus,_ whereas I’m pretty neutral about color.

I shot a short in Black and White earlier this year. I forgot how much fun it is to light black and white images!

Parasite is a great movie whose criterion release includes a black and white re-master. worth the watch!

Godzilla minus one minus color and Parasite South Korean movie also have B&W version too . I love B&W look

Black and white film is conceptually closer to the magic lantern, and the idea that a film is a shadow cast on the wall. The idea that so much movie magic can be conveyed by a flickering shadow is a fundamental part of its appeal, whether we actively perceive this or not. Thanks, your videos are always a pleasure. Regards

watching Terminator Salvation in black and white. It looks great with all the Terminator metal ect.

The Netflix series Ripley is stunning in BW and the mostly fixed cameras create so much tension…..it just would not have liked as good in colour….every photographer should watch Ripley

Hey, I really enjoy the way you home in on details i didn't spend much time thinking, but most of all, i like the way you tell your stories. I'll go get my color fix on another one, these vids are pretty interesting..

So glad I came across this. I always loved B&W even shooting digital I grade B&W. Got a Canon Cinema camera, started grading B&W and really enjoy working this way. At least this video explains it 😂

B&W is more imagination to me, its more mystic and abstraction. I don’t want realism, I have more than enough realism in my ordinary days. Film is entertainment and more to me.

Manhattan. That section of Dune Part 2. The Man Who Wasn’t There. Any Ealing movie.

Oh, Lord Wolfcrow.... thank you for talking me out of shooting my next film in B & W!

Transforming them to black and white is good as long as each shots are well-lit and contrasty when shot on color. Series like Ozark and movies like live action Little Mermaid will be terrible in B&W since they're murky to begin with.

I can't imagine Casablanca in anything but black and white.

I have noticed that black and white film does not look right on color television screens, perhaps of the limited dynamic range, or the almost imperceptible color pixels along sharp boundaries.

I love B&W films, watched many over the years. I'm sure I wouldn't have watched Sin City, if it was in colour. This film needed its stylized look. For me, B&W has something of a heightened realism, like some animation films have. I can decode the image much faster and concentrate on details. Working with shapes, like manga does, often heightens the connection to the characters and scene. Sadly, I didn't see it, but the B&W version of Godzilla Minus One seems to be great. And you're right, the next Batman would be great in B&W. They could use designs from the old animated show.

12 angry men, its a wonderful life iconic

Of course, so many modern films have their color fucked up beyond repair by the Teal-and-Orange processing applied as liberally and mindlessly as pitch correction in music that it's a relief to watch them in honest black-and-white.

After a short while watching i am no longer aware that its in B+W !

One other thing is that we often don’t get b&w films today because people know there is color. That’s a shame. Films shot in b&w today, need to have an aesthetic reason for it. 1994’s Ed Wood was emulating the period in which it took place (50’s) and was perfect stylistic choice not only because Wood made films in b&w but it also put you in that bizarro world.

Odd how the b+w version of fury road wasn’t mentioned

Im one of those people who turns the saturation to zero on my tv at times.

Will that tripod rotate the shoe 90 degrees?

when channel surfing, if I see a B&W movie, I stop. Because I am more likely to enjoy it.

Black and white really brings out the expressions of actors faces much more realistic than color. Horror movies shot on black and white always look more frightning to the viewer. I support B/W any day. These days colored films tend to have washed out colors,

There are certain films that only work in black and white. Look at ‘Young Frankenstein’?

Why the tiny keyboard ? Driving me nuts.

Young Frankenstein would have been odd in color.

Fury Road in Black & Chrome is one of the new great works of filmic art I've seen in my life so far.

B&W is definitely superior to Color, more artistic. It liberates the movie from being realistic, naturalistic. Cinema is often stupidly mimetic. B&W created a distance between what is shown and reality and in this space, the mind of the spectator has space to wander and be active. There are blockbusters in B&W like Logan B&W edition, or Justice League / Justice Is Gray by Zack Snyder, Godzilla minus One Minus Color, or Mad Max Chrome edition. Even Parasite has a B&W version. But none of these film were originally intended for B&W. The most glorious B&W for me is Macbeth by the Coen brothers and mainly El Conde from Pablo Larrain whose cinematography is just awesome.

Some interesting points were made in the video and I do agree that B&W can achieve a very specific mood which colour simply cannot provide. However, in general I would still strongly disagree: most film (and pictures/comics) profit immensly from well done colour. There is just so much more symbolism and nuance to work with. To give just one very simple but powerful example: The golden hour is considered one of the most amazing lighting conditions for a reason. B&W can NEVER achieve the full beauty of a sunset and there are many more examples like this, especially when we talk about positive emotion. I think the admiration for B&W stems from its natural "heavyness" which is associated with high artistic value. I consider this viewpoint understandable but reductive.

I feel at the basic level. The reason we want to see Films in colour is that when we watch a film, we want to escape into a different reality. We want to become part of the story of the film and in order to relate to that we need it to be in colour soit reflects what we see in every day life black-and-white take us out of that and it’s a constant reminder that this isn’t reality and we have trouble relating to it in the same way colour allows us to become part of the story of the film because that’s how we normally live in colour

Not one frame or mention of Fury Road: Black and Chrome, really? Also going to push back slightly (and semi facetiously) and say color is probably the reason Wes Anderson has a career (The French Dispatch notwithstanding), so not _every_ film.

It's true, I associate "art" movies with boredom. They don't appeal to me. I also disagree with the title.

BATMAN in B&W could be *amazing* and game-changing for a creaky, old, uncool franchise. Like DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE breaking the "R" barrier.

strangelove? seventh seal? oz?

Positive and Negative Space.

Not every film looks better in black and white. black and white film has to be film for black and white.

I can confirm the better reading of emotion. I had a job at a local newspaper for three years. Each year we would put together a "Graduation Tab" that had photos of all the kids graduating from the six local high schools. This tab would be inserted into the paper. I was responsible for putting together the Graduation Tab. Each high school would send us all their photos in Color (naturally) and I would have to not only turn them into Black and White. Not only that but I would have to tone each photo. The ancient printer would print more ink than was necessary. In order to have photos print accurately I had to pull about 30% off of the saturation of the black. This meant that I looked at a whole lot of photos of faces as I judged how much black to back off from. The point: As I did this I eventually realized that I could better read the expressions on the faces of the kids. I am Aspergers. The color information just creates more noise for my brain to filter out. It would be handy to be able to view the world in Black and White.

I am not convinced. I am not sure why.

Is real black and white photography better than b&w converted from color?

But is the average movie goer “OK” with new black and white films?

When you want to know who are cinephiles and who are filmbros, just ask them what bw film they last saw.

I would agree B&W looks good, but I would say something like Avengers would need to be in colour

Most movies now look nasty in digital colour. Tarantino is a master of film colour. Just my little observation

No it doesn't.

I don't mind watching black and white. In fact, I think it can add a lot to a film if it is done right. What makes me furious is those digitally colorized black-and white films they make. It looks absolutely awful.

Not true.. Black and white has its place. For example, Star Wars def looks better with color, since the color science adds to the emotion of the film... but what do I know lol

bro fr fr

Mmm they don't though. B&W films that were shot B&W, sure. But I have yet to see a film shot in color, with a purposeful grade, look better in B&W. The only exception being THE MIST. Like, all of the work that went into the color and stylization of FURY ROAD and weirdo pseudo-intellectuals wanna watch and prefer the Chrome version? REALLY? It doesn't look bad, not at all. And a one-time watch is cool to have a different on the compositions and stuff...but Fury Road is a COLOR film and meant to be viewed as such. Same with Logan, Minus One, etc. The Minus One Minus Color version is pretty good, but some of the VFX shots get too muddy when the color is absent, making for a less visually dynamic film.