I've seen five silent movies in my life, which is about five more than everyone else my age. I've seen the classics Nosferatu, Metropolis, Mel Brook's ill-fated experiment Silent Movie, and Best Picture Winners Wings (1928) and The Artist (2011). Of these silent films, all in black and white save Silent Movie, The Artist is easily the best, with Metropolis as a close second. There are a lot of people out there who don't think that a silent film is something they want to see, they have become accustomed to hearing the voices of the people on screen, and they don't think a story can be told properly through the medium of film without them. In fact, at several screenings of The Artist, people walked out and demanded their money back, not knowing they had paid to see a silent film. What's even more saddening is that there are people out there, particularly of my generation and younger who think the same way about black and white films, that the simple lack of color some how limits the value of the film. I have to say that through my research, a movie, or more simply a story, can be wonderfully executed without sound or color. In fact, sometimes they can be better for it.
