Have you ever seen The Burton Batman Films in Black&White?

[THE BAT-MAN]

Hey Everyone,

I just recently watched both BATMAN and BATMAN RETURNS in black&white.  That's right!  Black&White and all I can say is, WOW.  It was incredible, despite the films references to the 80's pop culture.  Both films had depicted the early classic 1939/1940's dark style of Film Noir.  From the gothic  German Expressionism sets of Gotham,  too the costume designs set in the late 30's-40's,  too Danny Elfman's dark noirish score, and Tim Burton's dark tone style in filmaking.  These films truly transformed into the essence of Film Noir.  The change from color to black&white allowed me to experience the film in a whole new way.  Tim Burton had said that he feels that his Batman film's are more based on Noir rather than mere fantasy.  He has also expressed that he felt that some of the actors performances were like that of a silent film actor.  Once I watched the films in black&white I was able to see what Tim was talking about.  All the classic homages of the old gangster and horror films became visible.   For example,  When Grissom gets shot by the Joker it looks like a death scene from an old gangster movie.  What I also find interesting is the scene with the News Anchor woman Becky.  When she talks about the death's of the models Candy Walker and Amanda Keeler.  You notice that their pictures are originally in black&white and not in color and now when watching the scene completetly in black&white and you see Becky's terrible death it looks even more disturbing.  I  believe that Batman Returns works a little bit better in black&white than Batman only because there was very little references to the pop culture of the 80's/90's the film mostly felt like it took place in the 1940's.  Anyway, having watched these films in black&white, I am now inspired to start watching other colorized films in black&white.  I believe that this method of watching films only works on movies that have the potential of being made in the film stlye of the 1920's-1940's.  A good example would be Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow it has all the classical aspects of an old horror movie like Dracula and Frankenstein not to mention Johnny Depp has stated that his acting was inspired by the old horror actors of the time.  Later, I will mention other films that can work in black&white, but for right now I await your response.

[Catwoman]

when i was reading the title i thought it was gunna say while drunk or stoned and i was gunna say maaaaaaybeeeeeee....

but no. how can i make it black and white?

[Grissom]

Burton's Bat-films are noir, especially the first one and  it's great you can still enjoy them. The old, classic gangter feel and the very defined good vs. evil storylines are some of the strenghts of these films especially the first. After all these years we still find things to talk about, find nuances in the film and now watching it in black and white.

Man,...these films never get old. 

[THE BAT-MAN]

when i was reading the title i thought it was gunna say while drunk or stoned and i was gunna say maaaaaaybeeeeeee....

but no. how can i make it black and white?

You can watch it in black&white by downloading a vlc media player.  It's easy and free.  here is the link

http://www.vlcmediaplayer.info/download/canadanew.html

0nce you get the player.  You can watch your dvds using this player. when you want to watch it in Black & White.  You go to the player's menu and click on the tools option.  Once your in tools click on effects and filters then click video effects.  Once your in video effects click the image adjust and manually move the saturation cursor all the way to the left.  The movie is now in black&white you also have options to the lighting of the film whether you want it dark or light you also have another option called color fun.  Anyway, I hope that this helped you.

[Tarzan1941]

Hey Everyone,

I just recently watched both BATMAN and BATMAN RETURNS in black&white.  That's right!  Black&White and all I can say is, WOW.  It was incredible, despite the films references to the 80's pop culture.  Both films had depicted the early classic 1939/1940's dark style of Film Noir.  From the gothic  German Expressionism sets of Gotham,  too the costume designs set in the late 30's-40's,  too Danny Elfman's dark noirish score, and Tim Burton's dark tone style in filmaking.  These films truly transformed into the essence of Film Noir.  The change from color to black&white allowed me to experience the film in a whole new way.  Tim Burton had said that he feels that his Batman film's are more based on Noir rather than mere fantasy.  He has also expressed that he felt that some of the actors performances were like that of a silent film actor.  Once I watched the films in black&white I was able to see what Tim was talking about.  All the classic homages of the old gangster and horror films became visible.   For example,  When Grissom gets shot by the Joker it looks like a death scene from an old gangster movie.  What I also find interesting is the scene with the News Anchor woman Becky.  When she talks about the death's of the models Candy Walker and Amanda Keeler.  You notice that their pictures are originally in black&white and not in color and now when watching the scene completetly in black&white and you see Becky's terrible death it looks even more disturbing.  I  believe that Batman Returns works a little bit better in black&white than Batman only because there was very little references to the pop culture of the 80's/90's the film mostly felt like it took place in the 1940's.  Anyway, having watched these films in black&white, I am now inspired to start watching other colorized films in black&white.  I believe that this method of watching films only works on movies that have the potential of being made in the film stlye of the 1920's-1940's.  A good example would be Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow it has all the classical aspects of an old horror movie like Dracula and Frankenstein not to mention Johnny Depp has stated that his acting was inspired by the old horror actors of the time.  Later, I will mention other films that can work in black&white, but for right now I await your response.

I've seen Batman in black and white lots of times.  When I got my VHS for Christmas in 1989 the only VCR in the house was hooked up to a 13 inch black and white TV.  Why do you ask was the VCR hooked up this way?  Let's just say, that it was this way because certain adults in the house at the time had a porn collection that any college freshmen would love to have had.  At least before the internet.

Anywho..... This is indeed a great idea.  I highly recommend it.  If you search on You Tube or some other video outlet, Siskel and Ebert have a great conversation about films in black and white.  This was also around the time Ted Turner began to colorize films.  Remember Miracle on 34th St. and It's A Wonderful Life in their glorious black and white?  Yeah then Ted Turner came along and colorized them.  Ugh! Ugh! UGH!  I view colorized films in the same regard as remakes: WHY EVEN BOTHER?!?!?!  But that is for another subject/thread for another time.  

I have the VLC Player, and I am bored tonight so I just might pop in my DVD and watch it again in black and white!  You all should too!  Heck, maybe we could all do it on the anniversary of the release of the VHS and have a fan commentary.  That would be cool!

[thecolorsblend]

Wouldn't making it b+w simply reduce everything to a muddy looking grayscale?  The obvious solution would be to bump up the contrast for deeper blacks, brighter whites and minimal gray... except doing so would likely completely eradicate the nuances of the production design, small object detail, sight gags and other things.

Not to bash on anybody but it seems to me you'd lose far more than you'd ever gain.

[The Dark Knight]

Not to bash on anybody but it seems to me you'd lose far more than you'd ever gain.

Yep. It would be an interesting experience, nonetheless.

[The Joker]

Never watched any of the Batman films in B&W, but I can see how it would be plausible that it would give the Burton films a different feel/viewing experience.

Perhaps much like the B&W version of 'The Mist'. For those who liked that movie.

[Azrael]

Sounds interesting nonetheless.

I wonder how they might look if yoy rip them as *.avi and then pass them through a slight aging effect, not B&W but more like a faded colour with stronger contrast and with some noise and scratches, like an effect you can do in Nerovision with two clicks!  Never had the time to do it, it would take centuries for my CPU to encode a whole movie!

[GuedesGothamKnight]

Interesting idea... I'll see it!