The mixed-blessing of Ted Turner's colorization of films...

In a way, I am so thankful for Ted Turner! B/c before he started colorizing b&w films, in the 1980s, people didn’t seem to have a care in the world about film preservation. But, suddenly, here comes this man (who’s intentions were essentially noble but reasoning was flawed) who has these very touchy plans, and suddenly, people cared. Shortly after, the National Film Preservation Act was passed by Congress—-which was AMAZING! In short, this:   led to… This: …which led to This: (a film preservation guide) Now, isn’t that wonderful?!

I certainly hope that the Act includes a clause about the horrid practice of pan and scan (i.e. “this film has been modified to fit your TV) because even though our new wide-screen TVs have made the practice relatively outdated, it doesn’t change the fact that some films can now only be viewed in that butchered condition—-like the highly under-appreciated Perfect (1985), for example.

To me, cutting off up to 40 % of a film’s picture is just as bad if not worse than colorizing! Maybe someone should come along and publicly threaten to do that to all films—-then, you’ll see what you’ve been missing…up to 40% of the picture!

I used to like VHS, but after I discovered that almost all films on home-video have been “modified” I can’t wait to trash my whole collection in favor of the better, “un-cut” DVDs.