Anyone here never seen a black and white movie?

I was chatting with a friend’s 21-year-old son and he casually mentioned that the only B&W movie he’s ever seen is To Kill a Mockingbird. He had to watch it in school. He has not seen others because they’re, you know, not in color.

So who here has seen zero (or just one) B&W movie? Or know of someone?

Follow-up question: Aren’t you the least bit curious as to whether you are missing out on something awesome?
mmm

Not even Citizen Kane? I’m sure there are other famous ones around. Adding the premise of a black and white film* in a theatre* I was trying to think if I even had. I must have, as a kid, but I don’t remember any. But then I remembered A Hard Day’s Night.

I’ve seen plenty of black and white movies. On television. I don’t think I’ve seen any in the theaters. I’m 58 and when I was growing up, color films were routinely shown in theaters and new black and white ones were rare. That said, I’ve seen the classic movies such as Casablanca and Citizen Kane and I won’t avoid watching a good film just because it’s not in color.

It would be a bit surprising because it’s not just older movies that were B&W but several more recent classics that were widely viewed were too…
Young Frankenstein,
Doctor Strangelove,
Raging Bull, etc.

The Big Blue started off B&W, then switched to color when the scenes went from historic to recent.

I guess it’s possible a 21 year old hasn’t seen Schindler’s List,. I’ll assume it isn’t shown in many high schools. I would have thought they would have shown All Quiet on the Western Front or Julius Caesar in high school, however.

I’m in my mid-forties and I haven’t seen a black and white movie (unless you count the first part of The Wizard of Oz, which is also the worst part, for that reason). I dislike old movies for many reasons; the fact that they’re black and white is just one of them.

I’ve seen a lot of them. One of the best films ever made is Raging Bull, done in B&W in 1980. It has a few brief color scenes. I’ve seen plenty of color movies in B&W when I was kid and we didn’t have a color TV. But I understand the younger crowd who have never watched anything in B&W, very few of the B&W movies made used the medium in an artistic way.

Colour films were routine when I was growing up (you have a couple of years on me) but I certainly saw the odd B&W in theatres. IIRC I saw “Five on a Treasure Island” serialised in B&W.

Footnote: That I did. But it was already at least eight years old when I saw it.

I’m only a year older than you, but I wouldn’t have called black and white movies “rare” when I was growing up. They were still releasing black and white movies NOT deliberately made that way for artistic reasons into the mid-1960s. Here are a few I recall seeing in the theaters:

**The Shaggy Dog
The Absent-Minded Professor
Son of Flubber
The Bedford Incident
The Train
Sink the Bismark!
**

I also know the King Rat (1965) and Lord of the Flies (1963) were black and white films.

And the first three were Disney movies – Walt “Wonderful World of Color” Disney. It was more cost-effective, apparently, to still release films in black and white back then (even though he was filming some episodes of his Disneyland TV series in color in the 1950s). When these films were re-released in recent years on DVD (and earlier on VHS), they colorized them, apparently because the kids wouldn’t watch them otherwise.

I’ve seen a few. I don’t like most of them, though. They (most of them) are from an era where only white men were the leads, and women and minorities were really not important. The values and the morals don’t align with my own.

Plus I think they are frankly, ugly. Color is beautiful. My whole world is filled with color. Why would I want to watch B&W?

That being said I don’t know anyone who’s never seen even one. I guess I do now, MoonMoon!

Never saw Raisin in the Sun or The Defiant Ones or ** Lilies of the Field**, I take it?

She did say “most”… and I have to admit, most movies at the time (including the color ones) reflected that culture.

Growing up I was stuck with B/W TV at home until the early 70s, so it does not look “wrong” to me and I can enjoy many of the films mentioned so far.

Most of the movies I saw in theaters as a youngster were black & white. All of the movies I saw in TV for many years were black and white. There wasn’t anything else at the time.

Actually, I’m struck by the way so many circa 1960 black and white films are so socially aware – in addition to the above, consider To Kill a Mockingbird. Sidney Poitier also appeared in a non-subservient role in the black and white Bedford Incident already cited. Og knows there are plenty of outrageously racist black and white flicks, but they were made earlier.
On the other hand, I saw The Alamo the other night, and was appalled at the subservient black role.

Of course, that movie was made in color…

It isn’t necessarily that those movies are racist or sexist. It’s just that there is no other option but White Male. The leads are white male, most of the “cool guys” are white male, the women do kind of dumb shit so the men can rescue them, etc.

Every year I get older I have a harder and harder time with this. I understand things are changing, but it is still depressing sometimes. For example, a simple little movie like Kung Fu Panda. Why does the leading role, a panda in Asia, have to be played by a fat white man (Jack Black)? Are there no male Asian actors?

Why can’t Spiderman be played by an Asian man without people collectively losing their shit? Personally I think Spiderman is the perfect role for a young Asian man; considering what Spiderman is and his background, an Asian man who is a bit of a misfit sounds like he would fit perfectly. Why does Santa always have to be white unless we are making a statement? Why is there only one female Avenger? Why are all of the Avengers other than her played by white men? Etc.

To Kill a Mockingbird is about race and class and culture, so it damn well better be open minded. And it’s a great movie. But don’t forget that the lead, the “hero”, is a white man still. And sure there’s plenty of racism and classism in colored (ha!) movies. All I have to do is point to Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I adore Audrey Hepburn to pieces but I can’t stand the racist Japanese guy played by Mickey Rooney. That is how you see Asians portrayed in too many of those old movies: either not depicted at all or horribly horribly racist.

I have watched a fair amount of old movies, even if not black and white, and there is just a different feel to them. In those movies, all too often the white POV is the default POV.

I hate to sound like I never enjoy these movies or am prejudiced against them or something. I love the Avengers films, am looking forward to the new one, adore Downey. I just wish I could see a little more diversity.

I don’t think I am explaining myself very well. I think I’m just going to be quiet. :slight_smile:

I’m trying to think of my life without ever seeing the original King Kong

The Artist came out in 2011, was in black and white and silent. I’d imagine a lot of people have seen that, even if they hadn’t seen other b&W movies.

I saw lots of b&W movies as a kid because one of our TVs was b&W, everything on it was black and white.

I’m 63 and saw a lot of black and white films in the theater as a youngster and as a teen. In addition to the films CalMeacham listed,

The Shaggy Dog
The Absent-Minded Professor
Son of Flubber
The Bedford Incident
The Train
Sink the Bismark!
“Psycho,” “The Longest Day,” “Mirage,” Mister Buddwing," “36 Hours,” “Seven Days in May,” “The Hustler,” “Hud,” “Dr. Stangelove,” “The Fortune Cookie,” and “Lolita” all come to mind as memorable B&W titles that I saw in a theater on first release.

Older films that I didn’t see in a theater for the first time, but saw on TV in B&W: “The Apartment,” “Some Like It Hot,” and “From Here to Eternity” could have been made in color, but weren’t.

We didn’t get a color TV until 1970, and I didn’t have a color TV of my own until 1977. I saw an awful lot of movies that were shot in color on B&W TV and it didn’t sour me on the movie, but I’m old!

And for the folks who say they just don’t like black and white, have you ever watched “The Twilight Zone?” Does the fact that the episodes were in B&W put you off?

Dozens. One the big screen, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and Clerks at least. Clerks was the only one in original run.

Yep. Kurosawa was all about the white men. That’s one of the great things about Hulu. They have the movies that weren’t made in Hollywood.