Kudos to the National Film Registry!

by Tim Wick

For those of you out there who have never heard of the National Film Registry, let me tell you about it. Every year some people you have never heard of gather in a room nobody knows where and for reasons that can only be considered mysterious select a bunch of films to be preserved for posterity in all their original glory. That's right, no director's cuts. These are the films as they appeared in the theatres. These films are then stored in the Library of Congress to ensure a copy it preserved for all time. Every year they choose 25 films from the history of filmmaking. They are not limited to feature length films either. They have preserved films from "Casablanca" to the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. To date, 275 films have been preserved.

Most of this years choices I have never heard of. That is my fault for being horribly behind on films made prior to 1977 (before that I was a bookworm). Among the films you have probably heard of ( "The Ten Commandments" , "Woman of the Year", "Roman Holiday") and some you probably haven't ( "The Kiss", "Civilization" , "In the land of the Head-hunters") are three films of interest to any science fiction fan.

The first is the classic Warner Brothers cartoon "Duck Amuck". I know it's not really sci-fi, but it is a GREAT cartoon! If you haven't seen it, I don't want to give away too much. The cartoon breaks that fourth wall between the actor and the audience, but in this case, the audience is the animator of the cartoon. Daffy has never been better and aside from the classic trio of Bugs/Daffy/Elmer cartoons ("Duck! Rabbit! Duck!", "Rabbit Seasoning" and a third one I can't remember the name of), this is the best Daffy cartoon out there.

Second is "Night of the Living Dead". Now I am no horror fan and I can't tell you a thing about this movie because I have yet to see a zombie film, but give the registry credit for recognizing a classic of the horror genre!

Third, and most important, is my favorite film - "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Preserved in all its glory prior to the video release in which it has been inexplicably renamed "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark". Now call me crazy, but even though they didn't change one frame of the film, I find the renaming of the film sacrilege. We didn't know who Indy was at the opening of the film, so why tell us his name on the cover of the box? OOOOOOOO! It makes me so mad! I need to stop talking about it now. Point is, this is a great film and well worth preserving. And if I want to see it without that annoying re-packaging, I have to go to the Library of Congress.

Here is the complete list of 25 films added this year (1999):

• "Civilization" (1916)
• "Do the Right Thing" (1989)
• "The Docks of New York" (1928)
• "Duck Amuck" (1953)
• "The Emperor Jones" (1933)
• "Gunga Din" (1939)
• "In the Land of the Head-Hunters" (1914)
• "Jazz on a Summers Day" (1959)
• "King: A filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis" (1970)
• "Kiss me Deadly" (1955)
• "Lambchops" (1929)
• "Laura" (1944)
• "Master Hands" (1936)
• "My Man Godfrey" (1936)
• "Night of the Living Dead" (1968)
• "The Plow that Broke the Plains" (1936)
• "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981)
• "Roman Holiday" (1953)
• "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940)
• "The Ten Commandments"(1956)
• "Trace and Dance in Bali" (1938-9)
• "The Wild Bunch" (1969)
• "Woman of the Year" (1942)
• "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951)
• "The Kiss" (1896)

For more info on this year's selections, check out Harry Knowles in-depth reviews at aint-it-cool-news

And take a look at the full list on the National film registry at http://lcweb.loc.gov/film/filmnfr.html.