Essay: Casablanca In Color? I'm Shocked, Shocked!

From all the fuss, you would have thought it was a theft of the Elgin Marbles or the rape of the Sabine women. "Criminal mutilation," says Woody Allen. "Artistic desecration," says the Directors Guild of America. "Cultural vandalism," says the Western branch of the Writers Guild of America. Not since Ingrid Bergman was run out of town on a morals charge has Hollywood been & in such a pious fit. Directors, actors, critics, even the odd editorialist, have risen as one to denounce the depredations of -- colorization.

Colorization is the gimmick by which a computer and an "art director" team...