The Drink Tank 237 (2010).pdf

The Drink Tank

While the symbiote was trying to leap out of the back of my skull this holiday season,

one of my favorite events happened. The National Film Registry announced its 25 new

additions. Every year, 25 more ilms are added, and while I was sleepless, dealing with the

lump back there, I missed writing about the Registry.

So now, I am doing it.

The big deal on this list, for me at least, is Thriller. The irst real music video to be

added to the list and I’ve had it on my nomination list for several years now. My guess is

that Jackson’s death, along with a number of folks putting it on their list (though I still

think I had a little something to do with it!) got it onto the Registry. The role of music

videos needed to be acknowledged. There are only two concert ilms that I know of on the

list: The T.A.M.I Show and Marion Anderson’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial. They really

need to put Gimme Shelter, Cocksucker Blues, and especially, Talking Heads’ Stop Making

Sense. They still need to add a couple of music videos (My recs: Minnie the Moocher from

Cab Calloway and His Orchestra as well as Sabotage by The Beastie Boys and Michael

Jackson’s Black or White for the innovative use of morphing).

This year’s list is a strong one which I believe was in response to a lot of criticism

about missing areas of ilm on the Registry. I think it’s a great list, and I think you’ll agree.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Sidney Lumet directed this heist ilm where the heist goes

sideways. There’s so much behind it, about how the robbery was

to pay for sexual reassignment surgery and all the wonderful

little details of an actual robbery that took place in 1972. The

funny thing is that this was the ilm with perhaps the greatest

cast of the time. Charles Durning, Chris Sarrandon (who is one

of the great underrated ilm actors of the last forty years), Lance

Henriksen, and the late, great John Cazale. I’ve seen this ilm

about three times, never on a big screen, but I have to say it’s one

of the great ilms of the 1970s. It really helped cement Pacino’s

standing as one of the great actors of his generation and it also

featured a great performance from Cazale. The funny thing about

Cazale, who was largely a stage actor, is that he did about ive

ilms, all of them nominated for Best Picture.

The Exiles (1961)

Director Kent MacKenzie made a ilm about Native American twenty-somethings that

left the reservation and settled in a run-down portion of Los Angeles. I heard of this one

when I was in elementary school. Since I did the monthly Indian Education programme,

being 1/8 Ohlone, our teacher had seen it and when I mentioned that I loved movies, she

asked if I had ever seen any movies with positive Native American themes. I was 12, so I

couldn’t come up with any, but she mentioned The Exiles and a couple of others. It never

found a distributor, but it was revived in 2008 at the Berlin Film Festival, and I believe

that’s what got it on the list. I’ve still never seen it.

Heroes All (1920)

A good documentary that I’ve never seen whole, but I’ve seen not one, but THREE

experimental ilms which used snippets from the ilm to drive home their point. The original

documentary made by the Red Cross showed the treatment of World War I soldiers at

Walter Reed Hospital. The three that were made recently used the images and contrasted it

with modern coverage. I’m going to go out of my way to get a look at the whole thing.

Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972)

Quite possibly the most famous student ilm of all-time. Martin Brest, who would

go on to direct ilms like Beverly Hills Cop and Scent of A Woman, directed Danny DeVito

and Rhea Perlman in a funny little movie where a photographer decides he wants to record

magic with his camera…so he plans to blow-up the Statue of Liberty. I saw this one when

I was at Emerson and thought it was a lot of fun. I’m not 100% sure, but this might be the

irst student ilm on the Registry.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson provides the basis for this one that

spawned at least two reworkings (the Incredible Shrinking Women with Lily Tomlin being

one of my faves. I have no idea how many times I’ve seen this one. At least ten times over

the years. It’s really not that great a picture. I mean, it’s full of fun tricks, but it’s a light

and luffy 1950s science iction picture. That’s not to say that there weren’t great SF licks

in the 50s, Forbidden Planet comes to mind right off, but this was the lavor of vanilla as

far as I’m concerned.

Jezebel (1928)

William Wyler. There is no director in history who had a better eye. Bette Davis is,

without question, the greatest actress in the history of American Cinema. I’ll say that the

three women in her league, Kathryn Hepburn, Joan Crawford and Meryl Streep, are great,

but none of them touch her. This was her third best ilm, and the only one which really

allowed her to shine with Henry Fonda. Fonda brought out the best in her. I’ve seen this

one on the big screen a couple of times.

The Jungle (1967)

This is another student-type ilm. Temple University professor Harold Haskins sent

his students out to make a ilm about gangs. That’s as much as I know about the actual

ilm. I know in a series at UCLA on Gangs and the Inner City they used The Jungle along

with Colors and a couple of other ilms. I’m going ot have to ind this one.

The Lead Shoes (1949)

This is an interesting pick, and one that I knew would be in eventually once I saw

it. It’s Sidney Peterson, one of the great Avant-Garde directors of the 20 th Century. He

founded Workshop 20 at the California School of Fine Arts and made some of the most

signiicant Surrealist ilms of the 1940s and 50s. This one uses a series of distorting lenses,

which adds to the sense of what is projected being of The Other. It’s a ilm that disturbs

somewhat. Peterson was one of the great Bay Area ilmmakers.

Little Nemo (1911)

I’ve neer seen this one, but it is Winsor McCay’s irst piece of animation. It’s an 11

minute ilm with two minutes of animation based on McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland

comic strip. McCay’s best-known work is Gertie The Dinosaur, which is already on the

Registry. I’m fairly certain in the next ten years or so we’ll see The Sinking of the Lusitania,

McCay’s animated documentary, on the Registry.

Mabel’s Blunder (1914)

Mabel Normand’s career was ruined in part by the murder of William Desmond

Taylor (and if you want to know more about that, check out http://www.taylorology.com/ )

and in part by her massive drug habit and tuberculosis. She was a helluva comedienne. I’ve

never seen this one, though I’ve seen other ilms with her in them. It was directed by Mack

Sennet, who was Normand’s lover at the time.

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

The deinitive Zorro ilm. Tyrone Power, Basil Rathbone, Linda

Darnell, this ilm had every element right. I watched this for the irst

time as a kid on Dialing for Dollars (with Pat McCormick!) and then

again in High School when I went on my irst big silent ilm kick. It

buckles some serious swash and is an absolute blast. Oddly, the

1920 version with Douglas Fairbanks is not on the Registry, which

makes this the irst remake to make it onto the registry before

the original. No wait, that’s not true. Snow White and the Seven

Dwarves did it irst.

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Another Wyler ilm, and this one might be his masterpiece in that he didn’t have

nearly as much to work with as he did in Jezebel. Greer Garson was no Bette Davis, and

Walter Pidgeon is no Henry Fonda, but Wyler got great performances out of both of them. I

know, there are people who loved Greer Garson, and she did some good stuff, but she never

managed to rise above the material the way the greats manage to. That’s why Christopher

Lee is the greatest actor of all-time. He’s been amazing in some true clunkers. The ilm is

lovely and I had thought it was on the list a long time ago.

The Muppet Movie (1979)

This is an awesome choice, and one I never saw coming. Jim Henson’s contribution

to ilm and television is seldom given its fair shake. He introduced puppets as characters in

the world in a way no other puppeteer had done. The Muppet Show is one of the greatest

variety shows of all-time, and there is no doubt that the Muppet Movie was the peak of

Henson’s creative prowess. From brilliant guest stars (including Orson Welles as a Studio

Head, which is a delicious piece of irony!) to wonderful songs to magniicent dialogue

between Muppets and humans. The ultimate road movie for the 6 to 10 year old set, with a

ine bit for those of us just a little bit older.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

The story to Once Upon a Time in the West was conceived by an interesting trio:

Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci and director Sergio Leone. It starred Henry Fonda,

Jason Robards, Claudia Cardinale and Charles Bronson, with Woody Strode and Jack

Elam in supporting roles. In many ways, it is the most powerful western I’ve ever seen. The

ending is depressing, with Robards doing some of his best work. This is a western you’ve

got to see. The peak of the Spaghetti Westerns.

Pillow Talk (1959)

Rock Hudson and Doris Day. You can’t argue with those two. Towards the end of

Hudson’s life, there was an interview with Day and Hudson on Entertainment Tonight.

Rock asked Doris which was her favorite of their ilms and she said, without hesitation,

Pillow talk. It’s also the ilm that’s most responsible for one of my favorite ilms of the last

decade, Down With Love. Thelma Ritter is great, and Tony Randall is fantastic. Hudson and

Day are great as a pair. If you haven’t seen this one, go out and rent it.

Precious Images (1986)

This one is amazing. Precious Images is a compilation of 12 frames from 470 ilms.

It’s amazing that someone could put together such an overview of ilm from the very

beginning through 1985. There was an updated version done around 1996. It’s an amazing

piece and I remember seeing it on the Oscar telecast back in the day. A great choice.

Quasi at the Quackadero (1975)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH7LcVNusQE . That’s the YouTube of the

cartoon. It’s seriously trippy. It’s the story of two ducks and a robot at a bizarre nightclub

cum amusement park. When I think of the response to the mainstream of animation in the

1970s, this is what I come up with. You can see the inluence this sort of thing had on folks

like Bill Plympton and Don Hertzfeldt. It’s funky and the inluence of 1960s and 70s comics

is evident too.

The Red Book (1994)

One of the few ilms from the 1990s on the Registry,

The Red Book is another of the ilms on the Registry I’ve

never seen. I know a little bit about its creator, Janie Geiser.

She’s an illustrator and does amazing stuff that utilizes

the emotional impact of inanimate objects. She does some

remarkable stuff, and the theory that I’ve seen written about

it all tends to give it many of the same qualities I love about

Louise Nevelsen. I’m going ot try and ind this one on DVD

because it sounds like something I would enjoy.

The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1930-1936)

OK, this one’s another entry to the Registry that was

designed to settle some missing aspect, in this case the

lack of Mexican American ilm from the 1930s. These were

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