On October 19th, 1990, the National Film Registry unveiled another crop of 25 films selected for preservation, bringing their total up to an even 50. Cut to 33 years later, when yours truly has finished watching all 25. To refresh your memory, here once again is the NFR Class of 1990, accompanied by my thoughts from my original write-ups:
- The Great Train Robbery (1903) [“worth a watch…an important piece of film history”]
- The Freshman (1925) [“funny and endearing…Though I am surprised that ‘The Freshman’ made [the NFR before] the Harold Lloyd film“]
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) [“lost in the shuffle of classic movies, [but] still one of the greats.”]
- Love Me Tonight (1932) [“not the most iconic of early movie musicals, [but] holds up reasonably well”]
- Duck Soup (1933) [“still laugh-out-loud funny”]
- Top Hat (1935) [“one Astaire-Rogers movie for the vault…watch ‘Top Hat’ at least once in your life.”]
- Dodsworth (1936) [“just shy of a minor classic.”]
- Bringing Up Baby (1938) [“quite possibly the definitive film comedy of the early sound era”]
- The River (1938) [ “THE ‘staring at water movie’.”]
- Ninotchka (1939) [ “one of the jewels in the 1939 Classic Hollywood Crown”]
- Fantasia (1940) [ “[a] unique and revolutionary approach to what the animated medium could be”]
- How Green Was My Valley (1941) [ “an engaging piece of film…remembered today as a footnote to other 1941 movies”]
- Sullivan’s Travels (1941) [ “a well-crafted film that still has plenty of laugh out loud moments.”]
- Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) [“I don’t get it, but I’m not supposed to get it.”]
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) [“a great holiday film…a great film, period.”]
- Red River (1948) [ “a memorable movie that has started to get lost in the shuffle”]
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) [“strong performances…but it didn’t wow me the way I had hoped it would.”]
- All About Eve (1950) [“possibly the greatest movie ever made about the theater”]
- Rebel Without a Cause (1955) [ “may not be an untouchable essential, but…continues to be a memorable classic.”]
- Primary (1960) [“a game-changer for documentaries”]
- The Godfather (1972) [“Perfect, engaging, groundbreaking, flawless, and possibly the NFR entry with the widest influence.”]
- A Woman Under the Influence (1974) [“the definitive American independent film”]
- Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) [“an engaging documentary”]
- Killer of Sheep (1978) [“deserving of its NFR status…but it’s just not for me.”]
- Raging Bull (1980) [“Now that’s how you do a biopic.”]
Having gotten the impossible task of compiling the initial 25 films out of the way, the NFR can start having some fun, and the Class of 1990 is a mix of the kind of classics you expect from the list, plus a few welcomed surprises. While most of the 1990 roster reads like a runner-up list (I’m still baffled that “Godfather” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” didn’t make the ’89 cut), we get a large number of recent (by 1990 standards) films, plus the list’s first female directors (congratulations Maya Deren and Barbara Kopple!). The appearance of “Killer of Sheep” once again proves that this list isn’t just the preordained classics, and that people of color will be represented, as well as smaller films waiting to be discovered by movie lovers.
Looking back on my initial posts, I was all over the map with these movies. While most of them I deem iconic and important, there’s quite a few that didn’t hold up for me. I start seeing one of my go-to phrases in these write-ups: “lost in the shuffle”. These are films that were undisputed classics in 1990 that I suspect would have a harder time getting on the NFR if it was starting today. Still, I’m able to justify the importance of each one, never doubting their rightful spot on the list, even if a few of them feel like they cut the line to make the top 50.
Other notes
- When the NFR Class of 1990 was announced, future NFR entries “Goodfellas” and “To Sleep with Anger” were playing in theaters, while “Paris Is Burning” was playing the festival circuit. Also in theaters was “Fantasia” as part of its 50th anniversary re-release, the first evidence in my theory that Disney occasionally sways the NFR to induct one of their movies as a bit of free publicity. And number one at the weekend box office was the Steven Seagal movie “Marked for Death”, which may be the first time I’ve ever mentioned a Steven Seagal movie on this blog.
- The most amazing coincidence of all: The day the Class of 1990 was announced was the exact same day that “Dances with Wolves” held its premiere in Washington D.C. before playing a wide-release the next month. I’m sure nobody at that premiere could have predicted “Wolves” would make the NFR 17 years later…except maybe Costner in a bit of prophetic ego-stroking.
- Among this year’s “double-dippers” are character actors Eric Blore, Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, and Charles Ruggles. Behind the cameras we get director/producer Howard Hawks, producer Darryl F. Zanuck, costume designer Edith Head, and a trio of legendary composers: Alfred Newman, Max Steiner, and Dimitri Tiomkin.
- Thematic double dips: Rivers (be they “Red” or just “The”), coal miners and their hazardous work environments, European escapism, unhappy families in 1970s Los Angeles, Italian lowlifes in 1940s New York, dinosaurs, Disney cartoon characters, unsupportive studio bosses, and Eric Blore’s flawless reactions.
- Favorites of my own subtitles: The New College Try, Say the Secret Word and Democracy Comes Down, Venice Match, Commie Dearest, A Little Mice Music, The Chaos Theory Holiday Special, Rat Baxter, and Angst for Nothing.
- And finally, a special shout-out to Mario Puzo, who wrote in his novel “The Godfather” about the graphic decapitation of a Hollywood mogul’s prized horse. This of course led to the iconic moment in the film adaptation, which in turn gave me the name of the blog. I’m grateful every day that I went with “The Horse’s Head” and not my first idea: “Windmills on Film”. What the hell does that even mean?
The Horse's Head 