The Road Home

One element that is very unique about the road home is the use of colors. Especially making a distinction between the past and present.

The use of black and white for the present and the color for the past is a very distinct difference between how many people perceive the past and how the director decided to portray the past. Since in the present the main characters husband has just died and it is a love story, the black and white represents the sorrow, emptiness and despair the main character feels. Most obviously during the funeral precession or "the road home" the dark feeling of death has been given an extra feeling of sadness because of this cinematographic effect. Although this has been done in other movies, it has been most effectively used in this movie.

The transition from traditional black and white to modern color is a well made one because to the average viewer it could be seen as slight or not even noticed. Also the use of blowing trees and yellow effects used to show a memory.

Overall the effect of what I would call the "reverse black and white scheme" I found very creative and distinct because it makes the film so far different from many other movies that use color and black and white transitions and effects. It was clearly a strong way to get across different transitions in time.