Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I don't know why, exactly, I love hearing what the Library of Congress preserves each year. There's an AFI List type quality to the announcement, comparing your own film taste to someone(s) that purveys all film, seemingly, of all time. There's that. And then there's the post-apocalyptic zombie world fantasy that most dyed in the wool geeks have had. What if the world was overrun and you're one of the survivors. Where would you go? What would you do if you had the run of the world?
I can't help but imagine digging through the rubble and finding this stash of cinema history and it fascinates me to no end to see what films the Library of Congress deems important enough to preserve for all time.
This year we have a few geeky additions, most notably the Thriller Music Video, directed by John Landis. And why not? The Thriller Dance has become a world-wide phenomenon, from Filipino prisoners to regular people gathering en masse to break Thriller Dance world records. There was even a crazy French dude who recorded the whole song (instrumentals, sound effects, everything) using only his voice.
Zombie/Werewolf/Awesome '80s Michael Jackson will be joined by Jim Henson and Co's first feature length muppet movie titled, appropriately enough, The Muppet Movie, which deserves to be saved forever for Rainbow Connection itself, one of the most beautiful, heart-warming songs ever sung... and it's done by a green felt frog. Goddamnit, now I want to watch The Muppet Movie. Again.
Also on the list is Sidney Lumet's awesome DOG DAY AFTERNOON. If you have missed this one somehow make sure to correct that immediately... Top of the New Year's Resolutions list, I'm tellin' ya'. ATTICA!!! ATTICA!
1957's THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN was also added, a film that balances cheesiness and awe pretty well. The effects work in the movie is still what makes it stand out to me. Love the forced perspective and giant props.
Also in the batch is William Wyler's Bette Davis starrer Jezebel. I haven't seen it, but own it on DVD... It's a Movie A Day leftover that might be getting some screentime very soon.
MRS. MINIVER is another one I'm not familiar with by William Wyler. I've heard of it, of course, but haven't watched it yet. The film swept the Oscars in 1943, winning best screenplay, director, cinematography, Actress (Greer Larson), Actress in a supporting role (Teresa Wright) and Picture.
UNDER WESTERN STARS is notable for being the film that made Roy Rogers a star. I know to our generation Roy Rogers isn't very ingrained, but to our grandfathers there was no bigger star. Singing Cowboys don't really exist anymore, but there's something lovely about watching these old flicks.
Tyrone Powers and Basil Rathbone in THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940) will be saved! Check out the brutal climactic fight between Powers and Rathbone here (spoilers)... and marvel at just has vicious it is.
I love Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum... and war films, so I'm ashamed at having not seen William Wellman's THE STORY OF GI JOE. Maybe in my youth I associated the movie with the old 12 Inch GI Joe action figures and never gave it a closer look. This hole will be plugged soon. Here's the opening of the flick:
Doris Day and Rock Hudson's romantic comedies of the '50s are sweet and simple, but they put a smile on my face. Now aliens who won't have any idea that Rock Hudson was famously closeted will find 1959's PILLOW TALK when we're all gone and appreciate Hudson, Day, Themla Ritter and Tony Randall.
And, possibly the best thing on this list, one of the most amazing westerns ever put to film by the great Sergio Leone: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Next to THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, this is the best Leone/Morricone collaboration and one of the best Westerns... no, one of the best films ever made. Henry Fonda as a heavy? Those eyes are cold and brutal, Charles Bronson is a badass that'd give The Man With No Name a run for his money, Woody Strode at his coolest, Jason Robards at his toughest and Claudia Cardinale at her sexiest. An incredible film.
And then there are a lot of short film work, silents and experimental films including Helen Hill's student film Scratch and Crow (1995), a series of Pancho Villa reenactments from 1930-1936 called THE REVENGE OF PANCHO VILLA, Janie Geiser's experimental animated film THE RED BOOK, another animated piece from 1975 called QUASI AT THE QUACKADERO by Sally Cruikshank who did a lot of the Sesame Street animation, Chuck Workman's compilations of movie clips PRECIOUS IMAGES, the 1911 animated adaptation of LITTLE NEMO that inspired Walt Disney, avant-garde filmmaker Sidney Peterson's 1949 flick THE LEAD SHOES, a film put together by underprivileged kids called THE JUNGLE, Martin Brest's 1972 NYU student film starring a then unknown Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman HOT DOGS FOR GAUGUIN, Mabel Normand's 1914 silent comedy MABEL'S BLUNDER, 1961 Native American doc THE EXILES, Karl Brown's 1927 Great Smokey Mountain-filmed amateur film STARK LOVE and the Red Cross 1920 film looking at the aftermath of WW1 HEROES ALL.
I didn't intend for this to be a big rundown of the list, but once I started pulling trailers I couldn't help myself. I'll be damned if I don't want to watch all those movies right now. Click here to visit the Library of Congress' official site!
Happy New Year, squirts!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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