Seeing B/W movies in the era of multiverse

 Witness of the prosecution & The Great Escape

The charm of seeing an old black and white movie. In last 1 year after Amazon Prime bought MGM movie right - there has been a deluge of classic MGM movie who was one of the BIG movie studio in US. I have grown up seeing the roaring lion within a circle scene which introduces the MGM banner. But Prime is playing some cat and mouse game of showing a few and then making it paid and then making it free. I had watchlisted many movies which were free to watch and then when I came back after a few weeks they were made paid. I think there is some algorithm playing in the backend which based on what I see opens up a few movies. Then, it makes it available for a few weeks.

Witness of Prosecution luckily was there for some time and I managed to see it last week. It is probably one of the best court room drama I have ever seen. Made in 19 57 and in B/W, the twisted and turns are only conveyed through dialogues, expressions and settings - camera movement. In fact when I was part of a movie club where we would scree movies and analyse a few - these were the key. Look at any Alfred Hitchcock movies. The ending was a completely unexpected double twist. So much so that after the movie is over the announcer requests the audience “not to divulge the ending”. 

The main character/lawyer Charles Laughton is pot bellied, old, retired as a barrister has had an heart attack - someone whom anyone can imagine to be a lead. But he just vowed me with his performance, dialogue and his acting comic - sharp but kind of bungling genius. The movie got nominated for 6 Oscars and 5 Golden Globe. And, later I found out  that it’s based on a Agatha Christie book.

The Great Escape is a fictionalised version of a true incident which happened during WW II where commonwealth prisoners were kept  in a new camp. The camp was a new prison specially made where all the jail-breakers or people had long record of trying to escape the prison were kept in one place. And how they planned to break through by digging 3 tunnels - Tom, Dick and Harry. 

It was interesting to know that there was cell in British Army whose role was draw attention of the army away from the real fight by doing these escape attempts or doing other small diversion activities. Much like the terrorists are doing now a day by infiltrating different countries. 

The plan was to help 200 people escape but only 75 did out of which only 3 finally escaped & 50 were shot dead. Like todays encounter everyone was told that they were trying to escape and were shot dead. The amount of physical labour which the actors went through in making the movie was amazing. Also the planning and execution - creating the camp, distance of the tunnel, depth etc.

With Iran, Ukraine, Gaza war going on I keep reading about the impact of the war on people, families, emotional well being, PTSD etc. In both these movies war is in the background. While in The Great Escape it is during the war, in Witness of prosecution one of the character was posted in Germany and then marries a German and gets her to UK, so she could escape Germany. The whole backdrop of army folks travelling across the world with limited supplies, technology, knowledge about the country. Drafted and moved to a country to represent their country or as an Allied Force. And this shaped their life.

It had some innocence and romanticism in representing your company, force (air force or army or navy) and  your regiment. There was some kind of pride and honour in doing what they were doing. And they did it physically with their hands, brains and limited armoury they had. But now it’s all done by pressing a button. A drone goes and bombs places or kills people with a sharp precision or an unmanned plane doing a raconteur of a country and place to find the air bases. Technology has now taken over and is being used to create a devastation at  much larger scale.

Movies has this beautiful way of taking us back in time and reflecting on the current. 

Has anything changed really ? After so much development and cutting technology we have become worse of in destroying the world, its biodiversity and increase the hatred amongst countries. I can go on but it’s the only question of time - when DUNE becomes a reality. Again the science fiction books and the the creative visualisation of directors were path breaking in showing how the future will look like.