# What's with the overwhelming "brown-ness" of early 1970s films? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186 "2015-10-10T18:41:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/21 "2015-10-11T04:29:42Z")
Even the music was brown. Pink Floyd said they were going for a “brown” sound on DSOTM. I think it was a reaction to the technicolor 60’s. There was a lot of brown clothing, along with suntans :p, at Woodstock too. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/22 "2015-10-11T05:02:27Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Even the music was brown. Pink Floyd said they were going for a “brown” sound on DSOTM. I think it was a reaction to the technicolor 60’s. There was a lot of brown clothing, along with suntans :p, at Woodstock too. Woodstock even had “brown acid”, though it was reputedly “not too good.” ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/23 "2015-10-11T05:35:22Z")
What the OP doesn’t realize is that the 70’s were a very strange, weird time. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/24 "2015-10-11T06:26:02Z")
My fever dreams are haunted by brown furniture and avocado appliances. Stepping into the Salvation Army Thrift Store will trigger PTSD. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/25 "2015-10-11T14:05:50Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > What the OP doesn’t realize is that the 70’s were a very strange, weird time. The OP here, I was born in '69, the 1970s were my formative years (which probably goes a long way in explaining the sad, bumbling comedy of my life.) But of course, I remember the later 70s better than the earlier years. I remember lots of bright peppy pastels and lots and lots of lime green. My youthful impressions of living through the 1970s was somewhat akin to the stereotypical idea of an LSD trip - an EXPLOSION of colors and geometric shapes and curvy, wavy lines. That’s part of why the brown-ness stuck out to me. It just struck me as so unlike my recollections of the 70s (which runs more in tune with the Brady Bunch than Harold and Maude.) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/26 "2015-10-11T14:25:57Z")
Movie making had been ‘brown’ for a while. By the 60s almost every movie was being made in color. The real world colors at that time were the ‘roto’ colors that pre-dated the shiny acrylic colors about to burst forward and mark the 60s. Movie making was behind the times though, it was in the late 60s that film began to change, often in weird ways, but a new ultra-realism was also emerging that used bright colors everywhere. The Godfather was noted for the sepia tones used to represent earlier times, an intentional use of brown that may have been dividing line between past and present as represented at the movies. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/27 "2015-10-11T15:35:52Z")
I find an interesting parallel here between the [photorealistic paintings in history thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=771603) and this one. The use of color in movies is not something that merely allows the images to become more “realistic” but has always been an interplay between available technologies and artistic decision making in the context of a history of the art form and of the culture it existed within. Early Technicolor was all about unnatural color: color, hyper-color, was part of the spectacle and popular movies were spectacles. Many of the movies of the 70s were not big spectacles. I think there was a conscious choice by many moviemakers to utilize color in a very restrained manner in service of the story, to some degree in a reaction against the very strong use of color in years past. Take _Harold and Maude_ … the brownness of most of the movie tone allows for the bright yellow of Maude’s daisies and her accessories (yellow umbrella, raincoat, scarves) to stand out. Her accessories change to orange and red near the end. We are supposed to notice that because color is used relatively sparingly. Note that the movies you included in your list were most dark themed or looking for a feeling of realism. It’s a trope by now that “[Real is Brown](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealIsBrown).” Take another major representative of the 70s: _Annie Hall_. Woody Allen’s character often was surrounded by browns but Annie was usually in blacks and whites and with bright accessories. _American Graffiti_, another major movie of the period, is OTOH, not very brown at all. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/28 "2015-10-11T15:48:01Z")
Heck looking through a list of major movies of the 70s … Jaws, Star Wars, Alien, Rocky, Grease, Apocalypse Now, Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters, MASH, Holy Grail, Animal House, Saturday Night Fever, Halloween, Willie Wonka, Fiddler on the Roof, Shampoo, Superman … Not so sure that overwhelming brown really characterizes more than a subgroup of the decades movies. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/29 "2015-10-11T16:20:46Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Heck looking through a list of major movies of the 70s … Jaws, Star Wars, Alien, Rocky, Grease, Apocalypse Now, Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters, MASH, Holy Grail, Animal House, Saturday Night Fever, Halloween, Willie Wonka, Fiddler on the Roof, Shampoo, Superman … > > Not so sure that overwhelming brown really characterizes more than a subgroup of the decades movies. All those films were big studio productions. Even the few that were smaller (_Holy Grail, Shampoo, Halloween_ etc.) were deliberately not going for a dull, ‘brown’ look. Check out JJ Abrams retro film _Super 8_ which is set in the mid-seventies. All the indoor scenes are distinctly ‘brown’ (and the outdoor daytime scenes are a dull, dying-grass green/brown color). ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/30 "2015-10-11T16:38:03Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I have sort of a skewed image of the 70s because I wasn’t really old enough to remember it directly, but I cannot forget a photograph of my grandparents from the 70s. They both had brown hair. He wore a medium-brown leather jacket with a tan shirt and dark brown slacks. She wore a dress patterned in orange, tan and dark brown. They were standing on a dark brown shag carpet, next to a brown leather couch. He even had a pair of sunglasses with brown frames and brown-tinted lenses. At least the walls were white. > > Even though it wasn’t in the picture, my brain always throws their Cadillac into the equation, which was brown paint, brown leather, brown carpet. > > At least the 70s had some avocado-green appliances to leaven the brown-ness of everything else. 🙂 Hahaha. I was born in 1975 and the image you describe perfectly resembles what my mind pictures as the 1970’s. It’s funny to see TV shows from the 70’s and note how many brown cars there were. I can’t remember when I saw a new brown car. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/31 "2015-10-11T17:00:34Z")
The Godfather was designed to look “brown” on purpose, having to do with Coppolas idea about the feel of the material, like in Don Corleones study etc. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/32 "2015-10-11T17:19:11Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Heck looking through a list of major movies of the 70s … Jaws, Star Wars, Alien, Rocky, Grease, Apocalypse Now, Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters, MASH, Holy Grail, Animal House, Saturday Night Fever, Halloween, Willie Wonka, Fiddler on the Roof, Shampoo, Superman … > > Not so sure that overwhelming brown really characterizes more than a subgroup of the decades movies. To be clear, I specified that it was an EARLY 1970s trend, with the acme being 1971. Of the 17 films you cite, only five are from before 1975, and only is from 1971. And that one is by Stanley Kubrick who has a definite trait of bucking any current trend that might be prevalent whenever he made a film. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/33 "2015-10-11T18:30:29Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > All those films were big studio productions. Even the few that were smaller (_Holy Grail, Shampoo, Halloween_ etc.) were deliberately not going for a dull, ‘brown’ look. … Um … exactly? The brown look with more very selected use of brighter colors was popular in certain sorts of movies and used as a visual shorthand of sorts of several sorts. Many other movies, especially the big studio productions, used color in different ways, some skillfully and some not. _Super 8_ apparently was[going for](https://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/July2011/Super8/page1.php) a _Close Encounters_ schema. But it does seem to me like some of the browns as a trope for nostalgia and times past comes through as well. **Don Draper** : _MASH_ 1970. _Fiddler, Clockwork Orange, Willy Wonka_ … all 1971. _American Grafitti_ 1973. _Jaws_ and _Holy Grail_ 1975. Also top in 1971 but not mentioned was _Diamonds are Forever, Carnal Knowledge, Bananas, Shaft_ … and making the point about the reaction to the earlier _over-use_ of color, _The Last Picture Show_. Oh there were movies that focused on the brown palate - _Dirty Harry_ for example. I am not saying that they did not exist but they were not the bulk of the movies of the period or even the year. If browns were played heavily it was usually for a specific reason … to signal grittier/“realistic”, to seem sadder, to signify “of the past”, to highlight the other colors used and their meaning, or just to react against past use of color trends. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/34 "2015-10-11T20:36:07Z")
Another thing to consider is that most film and photography from that era seems to lose its sharp color after a decade or so, like there was some specific chemical used in film and photo processing that was only used from, say, 1969-78, and its defining characteristic is that it muddies up as the decades roll by. I really don’t know much about photography, but if this turned out to be the case, I would not be surprised. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/35 "2015-10-11T21:59:05Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > [No joke.](http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html) Yeah, teal and orange has been driving me crazy for almost a decade now. I understand why to use those colors and the first few films I saw with that color grading, it looked kind of cool, but it seemed that for awhile every other film was using it and once you notice it, it’s hard not to be distracted by it. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/36 "2015-10-12T01:12:42Z")
The brown color scheme that prevailed in the DC metro until recently was a relic of '70s design. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/37 "2015-10-12T02:25:36Z")
I find '70s brown tones very soothing. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/38 "2015-10-12T05:37:36Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > _Harold and Maude_ was shot in Technicolor, which means its negatives can’t fade. Technicolor is (was?) a process in which red, green and blue are separated onto three black-and-white negatives. This is not correct wrt _Harold and Maude_. [The three-strip Technicolor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor#Three-strip_Technicolor) process you refer to was only used until 1955. Once the single-strip Eastmancolor film and process were developed for 35mm in 1950, the three-strip system was way too expensive and cumbersome to survive. Films branded as Technicolor after that point were shot with single-strip color film (although I’m not clear whether it was Kodak film or some proprietary system Technicolor developed itself.) > [@DSeid](#): > > Early Technicolor was all about unnatural color: color, hyper-color, was part of the spectacle and popular movies were spectacle. I would disagree with you if you were suggesting that the Technicolor process itself was inherently unfaithful. Although the fidelity of color films has obviously improved since the 1930s, IMHO three-strip Technicolor was remarkably accurate, especially relative to its predecessors. But I assume by “unnatural” you are referring to the work of the production designers, who used spectacularly bright costumes and sets to “wow” viewers who were used to B&W. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/39 "2015-10-12T06:42:04Z")
After our house fire in 1976, we built a brand new house with brand new furnishings and decor in the style of the era. Most of it was brown: The carpet, the lounge suite, the wallpaper, the wood trim, the linoleum floor. Our curtains in each room were: brown, orange, lime green, yellow, and blue. The kitchen cabinets were orange. We even had yellow bubble-glass windows, [thus](http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/joyner/other-antiques-art-collectables/2-vintage-amber-bottle-glass-window-panes-circles-retro-coloured/1089330008). Our plates had brown trim (in garish patterns), and drinking glasses all had a brown tint. By the early 80s we had redecorated, and though it also was of its time, it was a lot less repulsive. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186/40 "2015-10-12T11:06:27Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > … But I assume by “unnatural” you are referring to the work of the production designers, who used spectacularly bright costumes and sets to “wow” viewers who were used to B&W. Yes. Remember also that in the early days [Technicolor required](http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Academy-Awards-Crime-Films/Color-THREE-STRIP-TECHNICOLOR.html) that the film company have one of their color consultants on set to make color decisions. > [@](#): > > Technicolor’s investment in motion pictures was literally the startling and enriched color effect it could contribute to the process, luring audiences to see something they could not see anywhere else. > > The film historian Tino Balio notes that to guarantee this effect, because Kalmus refused to trust studio cameramen and lab facilities, the company’s contract with producers stipulated that they rent camera equipment as well as film stock from Technicolor, arrange all processing through the company, and use a company-approved cinematographer. A special color consultant had to be on set at all times, to consult with, and advise, the director and the cinematographer as to lighting, set design, costuming, and makeup so as to achieve the best possible color effects. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-overwhelming-brown-ness-of-early-1970s-films/734186.md?page=3)