MovieChat Forums > Dirty Harry (1971) Discussion > Red paint for blood?

Red paint for blood?

posted 14 years ago by Leviathan2
12 replies | jump to latest

Hello, upon watching this film again recently I have a question regarding the blood colour on screen.

Does anyone know why the blood has that typical red paint/crayon type look?. Could this be a colour timing or grading issue done deliberately to appease the film censors?.

This blood colour seemed to be quite common during the late 1950s, 60s and 70s, perhaps due to the Technicolor film process?. I say this because a lot (if not all) the Hammer Films have that look too.

I remember when I first saw Dirty Harry on TV. Being a young lad, I thought that the blood spatter on Harry's leg after the bank shoot-out was actually tomato ketchup that had dripped from his hot dog he was munching on as he went after the bad guys!. Kids eh?.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated, thanks.

[–] billy51482 14 years ago

Yeah, that bright paint look for blood was pretty common during the 70's. You also see it in The Godfather I & II. I think Hollywood was just getting used to showing more graphic violence in movies, and some make-up artists hadn't perfected a fake blood mix yet that looked real enough. Tom Savini was always embarassed by how fake the blood looked in Dawn of the Dead. It had that same bright red look. I think they perfected the mix by the early 80's, and it has since become the industry standard recipe for fake movie blood. If you look at Savini's work a few years after Dawn in Friday the 13th, Creepshow, Day of the Dead the blood looks darker, more like real blood.

[–] Leviathan2 14 years ago

Hi, yes thanks for that. I have always been curious about that bright red blood look in film of that time and wondered if it was the make-up effects, or the film stock used up to the 1980s?.

Speaking of Tom Savini, I always thought that his work on Maniac was pretty gruesome, although I haven't seen that film for a while.

[–] postm 13 years ago

I always also remember the M.A.S.H. TV series for its red paint blood. At least when you see it on the green uniforms out in the field.

And about the blood on Harry's pants... I alsmost expected a witty comment from him in that scene where he would blame the robbers for staining his pants with ketchup. :D

PM

[–] davlghry 13 years ago

During that era, filmmakers were required to use somewhat unrealistic-looking blood so their movies wouldn't look too graphic. More realistic blood might have taken them out of an R rating into the dreaded X.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] captlupin 11 years ago

In a lot of current movies blood is so dark it's black.

[–] CptHowdy87 13 years ago

Cut yourself shaving and look at the blood. Does it look more like dark chocolate syrup or bright red paint?

When I cut myself shaving I see bright red blood straight away that I mop up with cotton buds and the blood turns dark straight away, almost brown.

As a kid I cut myself alot and bled onto my clothing and it never looked like bright red paint sticking to the outside of my clothes, it rather looked like a red/brown stain.

Moving on, this is one of my favourite movies that I just recently had the pleasure of watching for the first time on blu-ray and it looked marvelous all except for the bright red paint blood which stood out even more in the lucious HD quality. I really hope on a future release that they can digitally insert real looking blood into the movie.

[–] ferris209 13 years ago

Something else the effects artists had to consider was that by the time these movies made it the theaters, the film was a not as bright and clear as it is on todays HD televisions. As a matter of fact, it was pretty much wash out and somewhat faded on most of the thousands of old projectors in that era. I imagine the bright red helped to off-set that issue of the time.

[–] Sonatine97 13 years ago

I can't recall exactly from my old biology days at school way back when, but the colour of human blood varies depending on whether it is coming from a vein or an artery.

I think (and I stand corrected here), arterial blood is fresh blood from the heart and is rich in oxygen, and thus gives it a rather traditional bright red colour; blood from a vein carries fewer oxygenated cells (capillaries?) as it heads back towards the heart, and is therefore darker.

Therefore depending on where the bullet hole or knife cut occurs on the body, if the blood is red, it means an artery could have been cut; or if the blood is dark, then it would be a vein.

But again I can't be 100% sure on this: is there a doctor in the house? :)

And I looked & I beheld a pale horse & the name that sat on him was Death & Hell followed with him.

[–] violet_yoshi 13 years ago

This type of fake blood, has been referred to jokingly as "ketchup blood".

[–] ayf_1983 13 years ago

It's funny that I just saw this again recently, and when Scorpio shot the girl in the pool, at first I didn't even think it was an actual gunshot. Instead I thought he shot her with a paintball pellet to scare her . But I imagine during the early 70's the "paintball" was as state-of-the-art as it got to showing gunshots on the screen .

[–] 11 years ago

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