Hypocrisy Wears Flannel
Today, Aug. 10, 2004, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released a pair of Three Stooges DVDs containing both the original black-and-white sketches and new digitally colored versions. This decision confuses me: no one took too kindly to Ted Turner's decision to colorize all the old films he scooped up several years ago, so the Stooges should be no exception. And indeed, one Hollywood mogul has spoken out against the perversion of the art's original form for the sake of commercialization.
George Lucas told the Associated Press that the only way to truly appreciate what the Stooges were doing is to see the original films in black-and-white, that when colorized they lose their natural context and power. "It's not fair to the artist," Lucas said. And I agree.
But what if it's the artist doing the changing? Is that still an aesthetic crime? Or simply the now-better-developed abilities of the artist brought to bear on a previously acclaimed work?
Lucas' own original Star Wars trilogy will see DVD release in September, but the films might feel a little different to purists and boomers: the discs will not contain the original films but the "special editions" Lucas released in theaters in the late '90s, full of computer-generated characters, polishes and updates Lucas has said he always wanted but could not until now put into the films. Additionally, Video Store Magazine reported earlier this year that the faces of at least two characters in the original trilogy will be digitally enhanced (what does that even mean?) in order to make them gibe with versions in the recent films. The set of films will supposedly be presented "as George Lucas sees them today," said Steve Sansweet, head of fan relations for LucasFilm.
Suddenly Lucas' diatribe against the technological updating of older films seems less like a qualified argument and more the one-sided ramblings of a formerly great, now frighteningly wealthy and eccentric, storyteller and filmmaker.
I still think that colorization of films is bad, but so is the constant revision and refinement of a film released during the Carter administration. I advise everyone who genuinely cares about films to hang on to ther VHS copies of Lucas' only significant contribution to American cinema. Otherwise he'll just keep releasing newer, "better" versions on DVD every few years, never stopping to wonder if maybe he didn't get it right the first time.
