Half-Masked

Wanna hear something weird?

Lately, for the big-end, high-def, volumetric light-bloom pixel-buffering flibbity-flabbity-floo games that have come out in the last couple of years, I’ve developed a strange habit in playing them. Namely, I turn the colour on my television all the way down, so that I’m playing a Black and White game. I’ve also started doing this for movies.

And I absolutely love it.

I first got the idea from an old I-Mockery.com article on John Carpenter’s The Thing. For horror movies, I can confirm this works wonders. Even for modern movies this brings a whole new dimension to a given work. I think everyone should see The Dark Knight in black and white at least once, if only to bring it closer to the film-noir aspects it wisely embodies and pays tribute to.

But is this right? Does this undermine the filmmaker’s vision? We are essentially talking about the opposite of Colorization, of which many have cried out against as dragging our boots on hallowed ground. Is this respectful to how these craftsmen intended these movies to be seen, and felt? Maybe not. Is it -better- than films in colour? That greatly depends on your own thoughts on the subject. With Black and White, you lose some things, but you definitely gain others. The shadows swallow the world of these places and situations, and every scrap of light is all the more poignant.

Compare. Yes, the top picture is certainly pretty in some aspects. But doesn't it look a little too "inviting" for a zombie game? It gives a feeling of safety and assurance that perhaps should not be an aspect of flesh-crazed zombie hordes.

For an example of this, I have a difficult time playing Left 4 Dead in colour for an extended period of time because of this practice. It just doesn’t do it for me. Colour is comforting. That’s not what I want to feel in a game about being completely isolated from rescue in a barren, monster-infested husk of the civilized world. Resident Evil 5 is another example of a game surrounding you with the rape of the familiar. Both games certainly make impressive use of the rainbow, but I find they are more without that to rely on. Even a lumbering dimwit of a game like Halo 3 almost seems dignified this way.

Not that I discard colour entirely. Now and then, I’ll turn the colour back on, and find everything comes to life. Because I’ve seen only monochrome, I appreciate the spectrum of reds, blues, greens and yellows and such all the more. An ideal setup with Left 4 Dead is to play a Campaign in black and white, then initiate the last stand or “Finale” section with colour.

Why am I saying all of this? Well, I find there is perhaps more than a passing coincidence since attempting this simple technique prior to watching or playing something, and a new-found curiosity in black and white films of decades past. I still love colour in art and entertainment, but now I’ve found a whole new side of the coin. And I like it here. Perhaps if more of my generation gave this ritual a shot, they too might develop a wonderlust for the ancient media that captivated our forefathers.

If nothing else, it can make The Shining about 4 times more pants-crapping. I don’t even want to think of what this would do for The Exorcist.

END OF LINE

~A.H.