Winner July '02

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Your Top 10 B&W movies since 1970 are..?

Posted by: Daniel (DANIELH41)

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A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to looking at the extras on my DVD of The Man Who Wasn’t There. While watching the interviews with the filmmakers and with the cinematographer, I realized what a lost art black and white filmmaking has become. The fact that studios are extremely reluctant to finance black and white films has made them even rarer. And yet, some of my favorite films from the last 25 to 30 years have been black and white. I began thinking about these modern-day black and white films, and I decided to come up with a list of the best “new” black and white films.

Of course, color has been around in films since the very beginning. Films were hand stenciled as early as 1903. The Technicolor Motion Picture Company produced a two-strip Technicolor feature called The Toll of the Sea in 1922 (This film is included on the four disc set Treasures from American Film Archives, a set I highly recommend, if anyone is interested.). The first full three-strip Technicolor feature was called Becky Sharp and was released in 1935. Throughout the ‘30s and ‘40s, there were scatterings of Technicolor features, The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938 and 1939’s Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz are some of the notable early Technicolor films. But Technicolor was expensive, and the public was, for the most part, used to seeing black and white films. So color never gained a foothold among the movie studios until the advent of television. The motion picture industry needed something to draw people away from their living room television sets and into the theater, and color was one of the things they used. The number of black and white films slowly decreased year by year.

In building this list, I didn’t want to call it “Best Black and White Films Made after Color Was Available,” because, as I just explained, color was always available. So I simply decided to call it “Best Black and White Movies since 1970.” This seemed as good a year as any. I almost decided to start after 1966, since that was when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stopped awarding separate awards for black and white cinematography and color cinematography. But black and white was still relatively common throughout the decade of the 1960s (1967’s In Cold Blood and 1968’s Night of the Living Dead immediately come to mind), and 1970 just seemed like a nice round number.

For consideration for this list, the films need to have at least been 95% black and white. Therefore, even though Schindler’s List and Raging Bull have color sequences, they were still eligible. Films which use black and white merely as a plot device, like Memento, or as a special effect, like Pleasantville, were not eligible. And to be considered for this list, I had to have at least seen the film once. I will admit that, as an American, the overwhelming majority of films I see are American films. I would certainly welcome any comments about this list, or suggestions for other films that fit the criteria for consideration.

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1. Schindler’s List (1993) – This is an obvious choice for number one. Spielberg created a masterpiece with this devastating look at the holocaust. At its core, this film is the story of two men, both of them very flawed. One of them, in spite of his questionable morals, stands up to evil and achieves at least a small measure of success. The other uses the situation to feed his sociopathic, murderous desires. Liam Neeson is excellent as Oskar Schindler, and Ralph Fiennes gives a truly chilling performance as the insane Amon Goeth. The black and white is used to great effect in this film, making the audience feel that some things are just too horrible to show in color. It also adds to the period feel of the movie. Five stars.

2. The Elephant Man (1980) – Directed by David Lynch, this is a personal favorite of mine, and I almost placed it at number one. This film is about loneliness, kindness, compassion, and acceptance. The black and white cinematography is the best I’ve ever seen. It adds greatly to the Victorian atmosphere and makes the face of John Merrick, the Elephant Man, much more interesting than color would have. By the way, the executive producer of this film was none other than Mel Brooks. But he left his name off the credits so that people wouldn’t misconstrue this film as a comedy. John Hurt gives an amazing performance underneath all that makeup, but it is the work of Anthony Hopkins which really gives heart to the movie. John Gielgud’s presence also adds enormously to the film. Five stars.

3. Raging Bull (1980) – Rough, brutal tale of real-life boxer Jake LaMotta is sometimes difficult to watch, yet hypnotic. The black and white is perfect for the setting, and Robert DeNiro gives one of the greatest performances in film history. The boxing scenes are incredible to watch. One of Martin Scorsese’s best films. Four and a half stars.

4. Young Frankenstein (1974) – This is a family favorite around our house (there’s even a family member who is referred to as Frau Blucher, but only when she’s not around). This is one of the funniest films ever made and certainly one of Mel Brooks’ best. Superb cast includes Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Peter Boyle, and Cloris Leachman (with a cameo by Gene Hackman as the blind man). Four stars.

5. The Last Picture Show (1971) – Engaging drama about youths in a small Texas town. Ben Johnson plays the town patriarch, and the rest of the cast features several very young actors: Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Cybil Shepard, and Randy Quaid. The fact that the film is shot in black and white just adds to the bleakness of the setting (a rural Texas town not far from Wichita Falls). Four stars.

6. Ed Wood (1994) – Tim Burton directed this very funny film about “the worst director of all time,” Ed Wood. Johnny Depp gives a fantastic performance as the title character, and Martin Landau deservedly won an Oscar for his portrayal of an aged Bela Lugosi. And Vincent D’Onofrio appears in one scene looking and sounding uncannily like Orson Welles. Three and a half stars.

7. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) - The Coen Brothers film noir that inspired this list. Billy Bob Thornton gives a wonderfully low-key performance. I enjoyed the slow, deliberate pace as I watched Ed Crane’s character fall victim to the events that transpired because of action he instigated, but I was disappointed in the ending. Tony Shalhoub gives a standout performance as the lawyer Freddy Riedenschneider. Three and a half stars.

8. Lenny (1974) – Bob Fosse’s biopic about the late comic Lenny Bruce, his struggles with the censors, and his relationship with his stripper wife, played by Valerie Perrine. Dustin Hoffman is good as the title character, although I must confess that I haven’t seen much footage of the real Lenny Bruce on stage. Three stars.

9. Manhattan (1979) - I must confess that I don’t like Woody Allen. But I rented and watched Manhattan for the sole purpose of considering it for this list. I will admit that I did like this film more than I liked Annie Hall. And there were certain things that made me laugh out loud (like when, at one point, Allen mentions something about a castrating Zionist). However, Allen’s on-screen persona still gets on my nerves most of the time. But I liked the black and white cinematography (this is one of the few modern black and white films set in contemporary time), and I absolutely loved the George Gershwin music throughout the film. The opening montage of Manhattan skyline and street scenes is a beautiful piece of filmmaking. Three stars.

10. Clerks (1994) – Ultra-low-budget independent film which launched the career of Kevin Smith, the director of Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Clerks is a crude comedy about a convenience store clerk, Dante, and Randal, the clerk at the next door video store. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t want either of these guys working for me if I owned any kind of retail business. In spite of the fact that this was a film made by amateurs for next-to-nothing, there are some flashes of talent on the part of the filmmaker. Two and a half stars.

- Dan Hawkins

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