Arts Vanity: The Case for Technicolor

As a classic film fan, watching movies today makes me want to scream. Films that once sparkled with rich and textured color, now fall flat for audiences. Films that once would’ve made audiences gasp because of their color detail, now feel pale and drab. Films that were once bright and vibrant, now are too dark — way too dark to even see what’s happening on screen even in a pitch black theater. Film is in a coloring crisis, where the beautifully colored cinema of old is being replaced with dingy and dark movies that all seem to have the same gray color scheme. How can we fix this process and bring back the vibrant and warm movies that filmgoers were once accustomed to?

In the words of @aishamadedit on X, “Gen z stop becoming influencers, we need film colorists.”

However, in my estimation, there is a further step that is necessary to bring back the beauty of films — bring back technicolor.

What now seems like a relic of Hollywood’s golden age, was really one of the most transformative tools for designing true cinematic beauty. Technicolor wasn’t just about adding color to films, it was about creating a visual language that made stories leap off the screen and made audiences leap into the stories because of their vibrancy. It was art making in its purest form — a way to turn motion pictures into paintings, where every frame is a canvas filled with living richness and warmth.

Take “The Wizard of Oz.” Dorothy’s transition from a sepia-toned Kansas to the explosive colors of Oz wasn’t just a visual gimmick; it symbolized a journey into the extraordinary — a feeling so textured and palpable that it entirely engulfs the viewer into the world of the film. The color in “The Wizard of Oz” almost feels like its own character. It is a living and breathing part of the film that gives it majesty and its lasting power.

While today’s digital color grading is technically advanced, it lacks that soul of Technicolor. The overuse of muted tones and grayscale in the name of realism has homogenized the look of films to the point where it is difficult to visually distinguish one film from the next. The boldness, the artistry, and the storytelling that once occurred through color in blockbuster movies seems to be almost extinct. The film industry seems to have traded creativity for convenience, sacrificing the emotional impact that color can have.

To bring back the true beauty of film, we don’t just need better tools or more skilled colorists, we need to return to the beginning. We need to embrace the spirit of Technicolor and dare to be bold, to experiment, and to use color as not just a backdrop but a living part of a film. Filmmakers should look to this lost art of Technicolor to rediscover the magic of color as a part of storytelling.

Let’s stop settling for the drab and dark. Let’s demand a return to the vivid and the vibrant. Let’s bring back Technicolor — not only as a filmmaking process but as a filmmaking philosophy.

—Outgoing Film Executive Avery M. Britt welcomes all comments on film coloring or anything else film related at avery.britt@thecrimson.com.