New movies go old school...

In a recently-posted IGN.com article, they explored ten modern black and white DVD's that - to quote them - you must own.

The first of them is one that's close to my heart - Clerks - that wasn't made in black and white for any artistic reasons but rather because Kevin Smith was funding the project out of his own pocket - hocking his whole comic book collection, maxing out his credit cards, borrowing money from his parents - and making a full-length movie for a tiny $25,000 budget by begging, borrowing, and stealing equipment and film stock. It has to be the best investment any filmmaker has made in a long time, and it's one of my favorite films.

The next film is Pi was another self-financed first film by a director, and it's another one that I think's a great film and woefully underrecognized by most people. I remember seeing this in the theater (down at the wonderful Esquire Theater) and being absolutely blown away with the constantly tense story. It's a weird one, and one that I'm guessing not everybody will get, but I'd recommend it.

numbers eight through six - Broadway Danny Rose, Down by Law, and The Elephant Man - I haven't seen, but I'll admit that the description of Down by Law really intrigues me.

Sin City comes in at number five, and is a great movie. Wonderful use of splashes of color amidst the prevelent black and white. The movie is made of a series of vignettes with slightly overlapping storylines. It's a very violent film, admittedly, but the use of black and white makes the blood look like white paint thrown all over things. It's a lot less bothersome than most bloody films.

Again, a couple of films that I haven't seen show up - Man Bites Dog and Ed Wood - at numbers four and three, respectively.

Number two is Schindler's List, another film that uses just a splash of color - much less than does Sin City. This is one of the best films of the nineties and one that most everybody should see. I know that the first time I saw it, I balled like a baby at the very end, so be warned.

The best modern black and white film is one of the best films of the eighties, the best sports films, and simply one of the best films: Raging Bull. The story of Jake LaMotta as played expertly by Robert DeNiro is a pwerful film. Wonderfully filmed boxing scenes, almost frightening changes from DeNiro as he gained sixty pounds of flab to portray the later-in-life boxer.

All in all, a pretty impressive list, and one I can't really argue with. If anybody can think of other black and white films that are reasonably modern and should've made the list, throw out some ideas. I'd be curious...