Colorized Version VS Black & White

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2007)

I picked up Paramount's double DVD for "It's a Wonderful Life" to upgrade my earlier Republic release. This two disc set comes with both the original B&W edition and a newly colorized version on a separate disc. This is not the first colorization job on this film. Turner attempted it some years back and both James Stewart and director Frank Capra were appalled at the results. They did everything in their power to discourage this practice. Well the technique for colorization has greatly improved since those early attempts and I thought it worth taking another look at the results. It is quite amazing -- yet after watching it for about one hour I changed to the black & white version and have NO desire to watch it in color. Flesh colors are on the orange side and everyone has the exact same tone of color. The beautiful shades found in the b&w version are far more effective. Let's face it -- if a film was originally designed and shot in color then it should be seen that way. It's the same with watching a wide screen film in full screen or a full screen blown up to fill a 16:9 wide screen television set. The film itself remains one of my all time favorites -- and I will continue appreciate it in black and white!