in Schindler's list what were the risks of using black and white?

Answer 1

I don't think Spielberg was thinking much of putting off people who did not 'like' black and white movies - he definitely knew they were going to watch his film. Black and White in a way was meant to give the film a documentary look - to fulfil people's expectations of what they were used to when watching actual documentary material from the 'Third Reich' - a black and white 'Third Reich'. The message is - this did actually happen, this is the way people suffered, die, were murdered - I'm not inventing this - this is not just another Hollywood horror movie. The actual documentary part at the end of the film is in colour - the survivors at Schindler's grave - they've escaped a system that called them 'subhumans', they were deprived of their personalities (of which colour may have been a part) - they survived and some of them were able to regain their personality/ (colourful) identity. Then there is the little girl in the red coat - this event can be traced back to a true account of a survivor - in a crowd of people doomed to die his eyes followed his little daughter (I think) in her red coat until he lost sight - she did not survive. This stands as a symbol for the lost colour - for everything people who entered hell in shape of a concentration camp lost, their families, their lives....
+ All the blood that is shed in the movie- to see it in blood red might have made people avert their eyes - thinking they couldn't stand it any longer though it does not even come close to what really happended - Spielberg only shows a fractional amount of the atrocities committed in Auschwitz....
And here comes the real risk - showing the events in black and white takes away an important part of reality the way we identify with it - when it bleeds it's red, gray blood is less cruel, looks less dangerous to us, scars, wounds... - this is also important because we can see more and more colour documentaries from the 'Third Reich' - I've recently seen the SS-Skull division in colour - and it frightened me more than the black and white pictures I was used to.
The reason why I would defend his use of black and white, however, is that no film will ever be able to live up to what really happened in Germany at that time - you can't smell it, can't feel the heat, the cold, you can't even come close to the feelings of the humiliated human beings. Black and white tells us - if you're sffering now, while watching this rather 'harmless' pictures on A SCREEN - try to imagine how the real people in the real camps must have suffered. Spielberg acknowledges the fact that he will never be able to project the horror that took place - all he can do is give an idea and emphasize that it's only an idea - and I think he did succeed.
I wonder if the film IN COLOUR had inhibited a scene I experienced while traveling by train through Germany in the hot summer of 1994: the train stopped on a wide field for hours - vis à vis sat two sweating German teenage girls and one said to her friend: 'Woah, this is like in Schindler's list!' To some the film didn't even give an idea.....

Answer 2

Most people think of black and white movies as being outdated. It's not something they are interested in.

Also, the purpose of a movie such as this being in black and white is it kind of evens things out. It puts everyone on equal footing in some areas. You see the way the jews are dressed, but without color, you can't completely compare their situation to the Nazi's in the film. I think of this as a good thing, but also a risk. It's a good thing because you were more likely to get involved in the emotional struggle than anything else.

Answer 3

Mainly it was in alienating today's modern movie goers.

Primarily, most movie ticket purchasers are looking for special effects of an overwhelming kind (for instance, War of the Worlds). Schindler's List was just the opposite.......by using black and white, rather than color, the effects were very understated, but brought out the tragedy of the situation in a new way.

BTW.........that is my favorite film of ALL TIME!!!!!

Answer 4

The risk is alienating those people that don't want to see black and white movies. It as a prime medium for expression of fear (as in the original "Night Of The Living Dead") or an era when color was not in the mainstream of filmmaking (as in "Paper Moon").

Answer 5

I would think that some people don't particularly care to watch black and white film.

However wasn't it a great cinematic jolt to follow that one red jacket?

Answer 6

loss of picture quality