Color Coded Wonders In The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad

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I contribute to a local newspaper with short articles on new films. I have a strong interest in the history of cinema, particularly in regards to horror films. In this short paper I wish to explain how colors interact with the idea of what horror is, and what monsters are. I will do this through the film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

Color Coded Wonders in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

In the history of horror films, monsters are often strongly associated with specific colors. Count Dracula will always live in the mind of viewers with bloody red cape much in the same way that Godzilla's green skin will terrify audiences for years to come (Landis, 2011). Fatimah Rony’s claim that monstrosity is “essentially visual” (1996) is one definition of teratology …show more content…

The warm, bright tones of red and yellow are typically ascribed to the morally good, whereas the monstrous is most frequently depicted in colder colors, particularly blue and green. This becomes apparent even in the opening credits. A drawing of Sinbad and his men, wearing brown and red clothes, sailing in a dark blue sea where a green monster hides is one of the opening stills. Sinbad’s name is written in orange, marking him as a positive character from the start. Another example which provides an illustration to the complexity of color can be found looking at Sokurah’s robes. The first encounter with the magician in on Colosa and he is wearing a black robe. He uses the magic genie lamp to to ward off the cyclops but after losing the lamp, his obsession to find it, which would mean returning to a very dangerous place, warrants Sinbad’s hesitation and mistrust. At this point, the magician reads as an ambiguous character - he has saved the ship’s crew from the cyclops, yet his desire to recover the lamp could place the sailors in the face of even more peril. The next time we see Sokurah is in the palace in Baghdad. He is wearing a violet robe, a color between red and blue, which visually marks the uncertainty about his character and intentions. As the film progresses and Sinbad and Sokurah travel back to Colosa, the magician is once more seen wearing a dark robe. However, as the exploration of the island goes on, the color of Sokurah’s robe becomes a little lighter, it acquires a dirtier, muddier tone which comes off as natural given the mountain climbing and passing of rough terrain. Nevertheless, this visual shift from a black robe to a black robe with green hues parallels the more information audiences acquire about the magician. He is ultimately shown wearing a blue robe in his castle, and he is painted as completely

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