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Those people lack culture.

I havent seen a lot of b&w movies, but I have seen a lot of great b&w shows. To name a few: Mike Hammer, Peter Gunn, The Outer Limits. All greats!

I do think new school film makers should use old school cameras and other old school film techniques, to do b&w movies any real good. That b&w feel cant be re-captured by modern equipment.

I wasn't aware there was a bias against black and white movies. I watch them regularly and would prefer an Abbott and Costello movie to Dumb and Dumber any day of the week.

Simple: It removes people too far from the real world. Where film is mostly an act of escapism, that's much harder to do when you're disconnected.

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when you watch a black and white movie, you know you're watching a movi

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but superheroes, explosions every 5 seconds and aliens does not make people know they are watching a movie? I think it is basically what they are used to, plus there is always backlash against the "old" in pop culture.

not every

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black and white film

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is a

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silent film

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I love B & W. In fact, most of my favorite movies are B & W

Philadelphia Story
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
It's a Wonderful Life
In Harms Way
Casablanca
Sands of Iwo Jima
They were Expendable
Fort Apache
Stagecoach
Dr. Strangelove
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

all great!

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It's a bastardization of our normal lives. We see color everywhere. Clothing, TV, advertisements, nature, etc. Our world is filled with vibrant colors that get our attention. Watching a movie with no color just almost feels...substandard. Idk, I don't really feel that way, just giving reasons to answer your question. Probably the same reason some people don't like foreign movies with subtitles, it's against the norm and it's not as "easy" to digest as a regular film.

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This is a pretty good answer, but it fails to explain the popularity of other media that are equally substandard in comparison to reality. Watching a football game on a laptop or an iPhone isn't even remotely comparable to seeing the same game in person, but people don't refuse to watch on those devices because it's a bastardization of reality. For that matter, just 10-12 years ago movies on TV were in the form of a fuzzy low-resoultion 4x3 box, and no one seemed to reject it because it didn't look as good as it did on a big screen in a theater.

I think it's more of an acquired bias from youth. The reason many people think b&w films = boring is because they were probably exposed to a b&w film as a kid that didn't move fast enough to keep their attention, so they associated their boredom with the lack of color on the screen.

I've always loved classic b&w films, and we watched tons of them with our kids as they grew up (now 19 and 16). They can quote old Cary Grant and Marx Brothers films line by line, and love big band music they heard on Abbot & Costello and Thin Man movies. And silent movies too - I remember my then-6-year-old elder daughter crying real tears while watching Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid" and thinking, damn, 80 years later it still has the capacity to generate real emotion.

That's the power of a good story told well. If you can look past the technical limitations of the media, that's all that matters in the end.

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Philadelphia Story
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
It's a Wonderful Life
In Harms Way
Casablanca
Sands of Iwo Jima
They were Expendable
Fort Apache
Stagecoach
Dr. Strangelove
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

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I will add:

Kind Hearts and Coronets
Seventh Seal
Rashomon
Treasure of Sierra Madre
Seven Samurai
12 Angry Men

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I hate silent films

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Damn son.

TCM is my jam.