Should The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night Be Colorized for a New Generation To Enjoy?

If your Windows settings are correct, the keystrokes of "Ctrl+Windows+C" will turn your computer screen to black & white. Same keystrokes return it to color.

CASABLANCA was actually officially colorized by Ted Turner's machine back in the 80s, and it aired at least once that way on TBS. I recall videotaping it at the time - I may even still have the tape somewhere. Turner was hell-bent on colorizing his entire catalog of black & white films but ran into a lot of pushback from critics and filmmakers. He was famously quoted as saying "I might just colorize CITIZEN KANE to piss some people off." But I don't think he ever did colorize it - at least not for public consumption.

 

Man, I love that line.

I'm still happy that I paraphrased it when I reviewed the live action 1990s "Flintstones" movie!

 

You keep saying how great the colorization technology is now... but it ain't.

The Peter Jackson WWI colorization looked phony, as did the color in "Eight Days a Week".

Does colorization look better than 30 years ago? Sure, but it's still unconvincing.

And utterly, totally unnecessary.

 

I guess you gave up on your argument that "ugly colorization is cool because not all movies have natural colors", so I'll take that as progress...

 

Just to back up a moment and address your original question for this thread:

1. You asked about colorizing for a new generation to enjoy. I don’t believe colorizing it would accomplish that, as I don’t think it being in black and white is stopping any new generations from enjoying it. If a colorized release pushes the film into the zeitgeist again because it would likely be promoted on streaming platforms, sure, that would get some more eyes on it. But I doubt at this point very many people are thinking “Boy, I like the Beatles, and I would love to watch this movie, but it’s in black and white, so I’m out…”

2. I just don’t think it would look good. This is not the “ruin the artistic vision” or “as the artist intended” or whatever argument, it’s just a recognition of the fact the composition and filming was optimized for black and white, and artificially coloring it in can only be a downgrade.

 

I have no desire to see Humphrey Bogart in color. Some things are of a time, and that is part of the appeal.

 

I haven't given up on anything but unlike you, I have more important things to think about, less still a desire to become borderline insulting about something as trivial as this. Enjoy your progress.

 

The African Queen wants a word

 

I’ve yet to watch it. I actually own a copy, as part of a Blu-Ray set, and I should watch it. But, regardless of whether The African Queen is a great film, I think Bogart belongs in black and white.

 

Ahead of his time, he was!
A LOT of people do things now, just to piss people off!

 

I was waiting for someone to mention that one. I love that movie.

 

All of Turner's colorized movies from back in the day looked awful.

 

But also worth noting it was shot in Technicolor, not later colorized from black and white.

 

B&W films are fine as they are. Colorization of B&W films is a solution in search of a problem.

 

They certainly did but the process has now been refined to such an extent it gives people the option to see these films in excellent colour - should they wish to do so.

 

his silliness extended to all kinds of areas he had no clue about, baseball being one that was unintentionally amusing

 

young people should be sent to gulag until understand glory of b&w.

 

I think ' A HARD DAY'S NIGHT ' Is a brilliant & classic film. I believe Director Dick Lester's idea of creating some additional ambience & cinema verite feeling by shooting in black & white, was a little stroke of genius. I also know it was considerably less expensive to shoot a film in black & white in 1964. I also know Walter Shenson, the films producer, was tight with a buck when it came to financing a film.

The father of my childhood neighbors, was a writer from the 40's & 50's. Specializing in hard boiled detective stories, he wrote many radio scripts, novels, tv shows & film scripts in that Humphrey Bogart or Rsymond Chandler type of style, era & mindset. So long story short, shooting in black & white, kept the cost down, & that was a big part of getting the film financed & sorted out quickly. Lester knew what he was doing.

Having said all that i'd love to see & own a copy of a high quality, colorized version of the film. As a companion to my terrific original black & white version !

Here are my three questions about a colorized version. First can it be done in high quality ? Second is the cost acceptable ? ( what I mean by reasonable cost is ) with "smaller" films & marquee actors costing say $25 million &
So called blockbuster ( major studio ) films costing $100 milion & up. Can you do a first class-state of the art colorization for one or two million ? If the cost is say hypothetically -$10-20 million, can they assure themselves of getting their money back from a Hulu or Hbo in cable or streaming fees or in cinema ticket sales ? On a 57 year old movie ? 3rd can they get a high quality team , with the skill level of the Peter Jackson World War One movie ?


I have suggested the idea, because so many of us love the Beatles, & so many of us would love a "new" Beatles product, beyond just a remix. I've been told , with all the new technology the cost has come way down for some types of realistic animation & effects. What about a Beatles album that was never involved with a film. Either an earlier album like Beatles For Sale or Rubber Soul. Or a later album like the White Album or Abbey Road. Get writers to do a script as they did fir Hard Days Night & Help. Dialogue for the 4 Beatles & supporting characters, storyline & plot, hire good voice actors, perhaps use software to make the dialogue sound exactly like them. Get a team of skilled animation people to create ultra realistic looking.visuals and mske a great animated film !!! If it works the building blocks are already in place for 1 or 2 sequels
.
Can this realistically be done ? Who do we call, write, or petition ? Long live Beatles

 

Yes, and I would be at least curious about what the best technology available today can make the film look like in color, as long as it isn't intended to replace the original.
If it's a spinoff, I'm fine with it.

 

Keeping this movie in black and white only because a bunch of people who will soon be dead saw it that way when they were children isn't going to happen. The original audience for this movie are all in their 70's now. There is no way the movie will not be colorized at some point, in an attempt to sell it to the latest consumers in the marketplace. What the people who saw it when it came out want will not matter as they will not be the audience it will be marketed to. You cannot dictate to other people how they enjoy their leisure activities, so people who think they can decree that no one colourize Casablanca or a Beatles film are going to have to understand that they don't have any say in the matter. This will happen. And it won't destroy your enjoyment of the time you saw it in black and white. What will happen is more people will see these films and they will live on in the culture.

 

This is not too bad, but I think the process can be done with a much more realistic quality now.

 

If there’s a market for it. I just don’t think there is a substantial market for colorized releases of these films. I wouldn’t be offended by such a thing being done; I just don’t think there’s any point.

 

This.

 

Its probably true that the market for a A Hard Day's Night is niche and getting smaller every year.

 

they'd censor out the smoking and drinking and anything else that passes for dialogue in 2021