palette. Due to the heat of the projector, there would be so-called cupping of the film, making it difficult to keep the film in focus during projection. (Technicolor later perfected its process, so that two-color films required only a single strip of film.) A limitation of the process was that hues on film shot indoors under artificial light differed from that shot outdoors in sunlight, so two sets of costumes with slightly different colors for each character were required to get matching colors in the final film. Legacy Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance maintains that “The Black Pirate was the most carefully prepared and controlled work of Fairbanks’s entire career” and “the most important feature-length silent film designed entirely for color cinematography.” Vance believes the limitations imposed by early Technicolor forced him to remove the "pageantry and visual effects" of his earlier swashbuckler and produce a straightforward action adventure. "The result was a refreshing return to form and a dazzling new showcase for the actor-producer’s favorite production value: himself. Fairbanks is resplendent as the bold buccaneer and buoyed by a production brimming with rip-roaring adventure and spiced with exceptional stunts and swordplay, including the celebrated ‘sliding down the sails’ sequence, arguably the most famous set piece of the entire Fairbanks treasure chest.” A two-year-long restoration of The Black Pirate was begun in 1970 by the British National Film Archive at the request of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. One original release print and two incomplete negatives were used to restore the film. In addition to the surviving color film, some black and white outtakes and test footage have been found and included in the Blu-ray release of the film, with narration by Rudy Behlmer. The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: 2001: AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains: “The Black Pirate” – Nominated Hero In popular culture The sail-sliding scene was replicated in other pirate-themed media, including Against All Flags, Rage of the Buccaneers, The Goonies and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW comic Turtles in Time #3 (August 2014). The Marx Bros 1935 movie A Night at the Opera ends with a scene of chaos during an operatic performance. Drops and flies appear as would-it-be painted sails of Fairbanks' pirate ship as Harpo swings on ropes