Editing Casablanca (film) (section)

== Colorization ==
[[File:Casablanca (colorized).jpg|right|thumb|alt=Two color film screenshots, one stacked on top of the other. The top image shows a man and woman in a car, the man driving. The bottom screenshot has two men, one watching as the other drinks from a glass.|[[Film still|Stills]] from the controversial [[colorized]] version]]
''Casablanca'' was part of the [[film colorization]] controversy of the 1980s,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Krauthammer |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Krauthammer |date=January 12, 1987 |title=Casablanca in Color? |url=https://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963207,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071106004115/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C963207%2C00.html |archive-date=November 6, 2007 |access-date=August 6, 2007 |magazine=Time}}</ref> when a colorized version aired on the television network [[TBS (American TV channel)|WTBS]]. In 1984, [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM/UA]] hired Color Systems Technology to colorize the film for $180,000. When [[Ted Turner]] of [[Turner Broadcasting System]] purchased MGM/UA's film library two years later, he canceled the request, before contracting American Film Technologies (AFT) in 1988. AFT completed the colorization in two months at a cost of $450,000. Turner later reacted to criticism of the colorization, saying, "[''Casablanca''] is one of a handful of films that really doesn't have to be colorized. I did it because I wanted to. All I'm trying to do is protect my investment."<ref name="EdgertonCasa">{{Cite journal |last=Edgerton |first=Gary R. |date=Winter 2000 |title='The Germans Wore Gray, You Wore Blue': Frank Capra, ''Casablanca'', and the Colorization Controversy of the 1980s |journal=[[Journal of Popular Film & Television]] |volume=27 |issue=4 |page=24 |doi=10.1080/01956050009602812 |s2cid=159900256}}</ref>

The [[Library of Congress]] deemed that the color change differed so much from the original film that it gave a new copyright to Turner Entertainment. When the colorized film debuted on WTBS, it was watched by three million viewers, not making the top-ten viewed cable shows for the week. Although Jack Matthews of the ''Los Angeles Times'' called the finished product "state of the art", it was mostly met with negative critical reception. It was briefly available on home video. Gary Edgerton, writing for the ''[[Journal of Popular Film & Television]]'' criticized the colorization, stating that "''Casablanca'' in color ended up being much blander in appearance and, overall, much less visually interesting than its 1942 predecessor."<ref name="EdgertonCasa" /> Bogart's son, Stephen, said, "if you're going to colorize ''Casablanca'', why not put arms on the [[Venus de Milo]]?"<ref name="harmetz342" />