Author: thehorsesheadblog

December 27^th 2006: The Library of Congress gives the world a belated Christmas/Hanukkah present (or a right on time Kwanzaa present) with 25 more films on the National Film Registry, making it a total of 450 movies. Here now for the 20^th anniversary is the Class of 2006 (with selections from my posts on each film):

Traffic in Souls (1913): “a heavy-handed, oft-confusing film”

Tess of the Storm Country (1914): “I have nothing to say about this film. It happened, I saw it, I can cross it off the list. Moving on.”

The Curse of Quon Gwon (1916/1917): “written and directed by a Chinese woman, a rarity of both ethnicity and gender.”

Flesh and the Devil (1927): “helped launch [Greta] Garbo’s star.”

The Last Command (1928): “a fine showing for [Josef] von Sternberg, but can it stand on its own as a classic?”

Applause (1929): “the film’s usage of its soundtrack…is downright revolutionary by 1929 standards.”

St. Louis Blues (1929): “the only existing footage of Bessie Smith.”

The Big Trail (1930): “a unique enough curio in film history to warrant a spot on the NFR.”

Red Dust (1932): “[Clark] Gable and [Jean] Harlow are irresistible together”

Daughter of Shanghai (1937): “an underrated, largely forgotten film that was vastly ahead of its time.”

Early Abstractions #1-5, 7, 10 (1939-1956 or 1946-1957): “a seven-part collision of art, film, shapes, and music.”

Siege (1940): “an on-the-ground account of [World War II’s] first two weeks.” “lightning in a bottle documentation”.

Notorious (1946): “an excellent example of [Hitchcock’s] signature style.”

In the Street (1948): “a unique collaboration between three people who, as far as I know, had never made a movie prior to this.”

A Time Out of War (1954): “proved there was an audience for [student] films outside of the classroom.”

Think of Me First as a Person (1960-1975): “strikes the right tone with its delicate subject matter”

The T.A.M.I. Show (1964): “the greatest American film ever made, and I will fight you on this one.”

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971-1972): “a sort of film collage…[with] an emotional story at this film’s core.”

Blazing Saddles (1974): “my favorite Mel Brooks movie”, “uproariously funny”.

Rocky (1976): “gave the world something that had been missing from the ‘70s movie scene: Hope.”

Halloween (1978): “an effectively scary movie”, “a fresh 90-minute adrenaline rush”

sex, lies, and videotape (1989): “an erotically charged character study with a well-cast ensemble.”

Uksuum Cauyai: The Drums of Winter (1989): “an engaging glimpse at an oft-ignored culture.”

Groundhog Day (1993): “may in fact be a perfect movie”.

Fargo (1996): “one of [the Coen brothers’] more accessible, twistedly funny films.”

The Plot: Graham Dalton (James Spader) returns to Baton Rouge to visit his college friend John Mullany (Peter Gallagher). While Graham realizes he now has little in common with John, he hits it off with John’s wife Ann (Andie MacDowell), who is unaware that John is having an affair with her sister Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo). As their friendship grows, Ann learns that Graham is impotent, and can only achieve an erection while videotaping women talking about their sexual experiences. Sex is frankly discussed, lies are exposed, and videotape is…taped in the directorial debut of Steven Soderbergh.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up on the movie is two brief sentences; one celebrating the film’s “low-key style”, the other declaring that it “launched an independent film renaissance.”

But Does It Really?: I feel like every decade has a movie that reignited the American independent film scene (“A Woman Under the Influence”, “Pulp Fiction”, etc.), and if “sex, lies, and videotape” happens to be that movie for the ‘80s, so be it. As a film, “sex, lies, and videotape” still works as an erotically charged character study with a well-cast ensemble. As an NFR entry, the film represents its era of independent film, as well as the filmography of Steven Soderbergh, who somehow still only has one film on the Registry. And if nothing else, this movie fully delivers on its title. While it’s not the most excited I’ve ever been about a film’s NFR status, I understand and support the induction of “sex, lies, and videotape” into the Registry.

Shout Outs: We meet the annoying barfly character while he’s doing an impression of Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now”.

Everybody Gets One: Born in Atlanta and raised in Charlottesville and Baton Rouge, Steven Soderbergh became interested in filmmaking in his teen years, and shortly thereafter moved to Los Angeles and became a freelance editor. Soderbergh had been thinking about “sex, lies, and videotape” for a full year before he started penning the screenplay on a road trip from Baton Rouge to Los Angeles (hopefully he wasn’t driving). “sex, lies, and videotape” was Soderbergh’s feature directorial debut, and was filmed in the summer of 1988 in Baton Rouge on a budget of $1.2 million. Oh, and Soderbergh was 25 while he was making the film. Let that sink in.

Wow, That’s Dated: Well obviously a third of the title. Speaking of…

Title Track: “sex, lies, and videotape” was one of several titles Steven Soderbergh considered for his film, though he favored “46:02” (supposedly the length of Ann’s videotape). And yes, the title is all lowercase. 

Seriously, Oscars?: Despite sweeping the Independent Spirit Awards and winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes, “sex, lies, and videotape” only received a single Oscar nomination for Soderbergh’s Original Screenplay. In a stacked category that included “Do the Right Thing” and “When Harry Met Sally…”, they all lost to “Dead Poets Society”, which is a fine film (and somehow not on the NFR), but come on.

• Speaking of San Giacomo’s performance: With her wry line delivery and sex positive attitude, Cynthia is very close to being Roz from “Frasier”.

• As someone with thick eyebrows, I appreciate Peter Gallagher’s lifelong effort to make thick eyebrows sexy (because otherwise all we’ve got is Eugene Levy). Side note about Gallagher’s character: Yes, his name is John Mullany, pronounced the same as but spelled differently from the similarly named comedian. 
• I noticed in the early scenes that the camera is almost always moving. This was deliberate on Soderbergh’s part in an effort to keep the dialogue scenes from being too static. In fact, Soderbergh and cinematographer Walt Lloyd do an overall good job of keeping the film from being a filmed play of four characters talking. Soderbergh also spices things up with the editing, which he did himself before his longtime collaboration with the elusive yet artistically similar Mary Ann Bernard.
• Spader pays $400 rent for a duplex in Baton Rouge, which is a little over $1000 in today’s money. I’ve been saying it for the better part of a decade: We truly suck at inflation. 
• Perhaps the most impressive thing about this film for me: Despite all the talk about sex in this film, we see very little of it. We get a few shots of John and Cyn pre and post “the act”, but there’s no nudity. The film’s surprisingly erotic dialogue more than makes up for this, letting the viewers’ imaginations fill in the blanks.
• Graham’s impotent? Buddy, just give it a few years and Viagra will change your life.
• Either Andie is trying to drop her Southern accent, or Laura is trying to pick it up. The results are in that muddy Leslie Howard gray area.
• I’m guessing the real life version of Graham’s hobby would not nearly be as sexy or appealing to anyone else. Spader crawled so the pervy teen from “American Beauty” could walk.
• One scene I would have liked to see is John, upon confronting Graham about his videotape hobby, asking how to operate the VCR. “Is there an ‘Input’?”, “No, it has to be on Channel 3…”

• Yeah, I had a feeling that rain in the final shot wasn’t planned. According to cinematographer Walt Lloyd, the shoot was occasionally interrupted by “biblical rains”. Having gone through my first summer in the South, I get how those summer storms sneak up on you. Speaking of that final shot: Wait, that’s it?
• The film is dedicated to Ann Dollard, Soderbergh’s agent who died during production.

• Our quartet of actors have all maintained successful careers nearly 40 years after this film’s release. Andie MacDowell parlayed this film’s success into a movie career (though nowadays she considers herself best known as Margaret Qualley’s mother), while Spader, Gallagher, and San Giacomo all found continued stardom on TV. I recall enjoying San Giacomo on the sitcom “Just Shoot Me!”, and Spader’s Emmy-magnet turn on “Boston Legal”. My wife remembers Peter Gallagher as “the hot dad from ‘The O.C.’”

• “sex, lies, and videotape” is one of those movies that still gets referenced every so often, but only for its title. Every TV show has done an episode with a pun-based version of this title. Even an episode of “Goof Troop” got in on the act with “Wrecks, Lies, & Videotape”!

• Soderbergh made “an unofficial sequel of sorts” to this film with 2001’s “Full Frontal”, even though no one can explain to me what exactly the connection between the two films is. Soderbergh has stated in recent years that he wrote a more direct sequel during the COVID pandemic that focuses on Ann and Cynthia 30 years later. MacDowell and San Giacomo have expressed interest, but nothing further than that has happened with the project.

The Plot: In the dystopian future of 2187, humans are under constant surveillance by both man and machine. One human named THX 1138 (Dan Nachtsheim) has escaped, and operators are determined to locate and capture him. That’s about it plot-wise, but behind the camera is the confident hand of a young filmmaker named George Lucas. And now you know the rest of the story!

Why It Matters: The NFR gives a quick rundown on the movie and praises its “technical inventiveness”. An essay by film scholar Matthew Holtmeier follows Lucas’ trajectory from this film to “Star Wars” and Industrial Light and Magic (and of course this film’s subsequent feature adaptation: “THX 1138”).

But Does It Really?: “Electronic Labyrinth” covers two of the NFR’s favorite subgenres: student films and “stepping stone” movies for big directors. Choosing one of Lucas’ student films for NFR inclusion is an inspired choice. In a way, “Electronic Labyrinth” is a peek at both the future and an alternate universe: the future of Lucas’ sci-fi world building skills, and the alternate universe where Lucas isn’t saddled with the crowd-pleasing tropes of the “Star Wars” franchise. As for the film itself, while “Electronic Labyrinth” is bizarre and a bit impenetrable, the production value is so high, and the filmmaking style so impressive, you almost can’t believe this is a student film. A yes for “Electronic Labyrinth” on the NFR for representing George Lucas’ early artistic promise.

Everybody Gets One: Growing up in Modesto, California, George Lucas spent his adolescence reading comic books, watching old adventure serials on TV, and, as he got older, racing cars. A near-fatal car accident at age 18 deterred Lucas from pursuing a racing career, and he eventually ended up at USC as a film major. As a grad student, Lucas taught a cinematography class to U.S. Navy students, and used his students as crew members for a short science fiction film he wanted to make based on an idea he had with classmates Matthew Robbins and Walter Murch. 

Wow, That’s Dated: Good to see that analog technology makes a big comeback in the 2180s. I didn’t realize the nostalgia cycle is 20, 40, and 220 years.

Title Track: THX 1138 is our protagonist, with 4EB his classification: Class 4, Eros Body (whatever that means). The name is allegedly derived from George Lucas’ phone number at the time.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nod for “Electronic Labyrinth”, but it did win first prize at the 1968 National Student Film Festival. This film predates the Student Academy Awards by six years, where it no doubt would have cleaned up. For the record, the 1967 Oscar for Live Action Short went to Christopher Chapman’s “A Place to Stand”, as seen at the Ontario pavilion at Expo 67.

“The Oath of the Sword” can be viewed on the National Film Preservation Foundation website.

The Plot: In a small fishing village in Japan, Masao (Tomi Mori) is betrothed to Hisa (Hisa Numa), but yearns to go to America to study. Masao gets his wish, promising to return and marry Hisa when he graduates. While at UC Berkeley, Masao meets Captain Dean (Actor Unknown) who ends up shipwrecked in Masao’s fishing village and falling for Hisa himself. Will Hisa remember her vow to Masao? Or will she dishonor her dying father Gombei (Kohano Akashi) and the oath of the sword?

Why It Matters: The NFR provides a synopsis and some historical context, and praises the film for “highlight[ing] the significance of independent film productions created by and for Asian American communities.”

But Does It Really?: As a film, “Oath of the Sword” is fine. There’s some solid storytelling, although due to some missing footage the plot gets a little hazy towards the end. But once you learn that the film is the earliest surviving film produced by an Asian American company (and that it recently received a National Film Preservation Board-backed restoration), you start to see how “Oath” found its way onto the NFR. No argument for the film’s NFR inclusion, and if you’ve got 31 minutes to spare, you could do a lot worse than watch this movie.

Everybody Gets One: Most of the cast had achieved some success on stage and screen in Japan, but most noteworthy is Yutaka Abe, seen here as Hisa’s brother. Abe appeared in a number of American films (including NFR entry “The Cheat”) under the screen name Jack Abbe, and returned to Japan in the early 1920s, spending the next four decades as a prolific film director.

Title Track: The actual oath of the sword within the film is: “If thou do sin, by this Sword ye must die.” Yeesh, couldn’t you just make them King of England instead?

The Plot: Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman (Christopher Reeve)! Born on the planet Krypton as Kal-El, Superman is sent to Earth during Krypton’s destruction by his father Jor-El (Marlon Brando). Landing on Earth and raised in Smallville by the Kents (Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter), Kal-El —now known as Clark Kent — becomes aware of his Kryptonian superpowers, which his adopted father insists be used for good. Clark grows up to become a mild-mannered newspaper reporter for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, which he uses as a front while he continues to save Metropolis as Superman. Along the way he woos fellow reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), matches wits with supervillain Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), and fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “[b]eautiful in its sweep, score and special effects”, and declares Reeve “the definitive Man of Steel”. An essay by film critic Chuck Koplinski is a thorough appreciation of the film and its behind-the-scenes struggles.

But Does It Really?: As a movie, “Superman” is slowly paced to the point of frustration, but as a cultural touchstone it can’t be beat. What the film lacks in focus it more than makes up for with Reeve’s central performance (and his chemistry with Kidder), aided by John Williams’ unforgettable score and the film’s overall epic scope and occasionally impressive special effects. “Superman” is not one of the great movies on the Registry, but its iconography has had a lasting impact on pop culture, and its NFR standing as an important American film is undeniable.

Shout Outs: No direct references to other NFR films within “Superman”, but Christopher Reeve stated that he based his performance of Clark Kent on Cary Grant’s work in “Bringing Up Baby”. Also, if “Rock Around the Clock” is playing and Glenn Ford is nearby, does that count as a “Blackboard Jungle” reference?

Everybody Gets One: Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, Christopher Reeve caught the acting bug at a young age, ultimately becoming one of only two students picked for Juilliard’s Advanced Program in 1973 (the other was Robin Williams). Reeve had to drop out of Juilliard after less than two years to fulfill a contractual obligation with the soap opera “Love of Life”, but he always returned to the theater when he could. Reeve was initially not considered to play Superman because the producers wanted an established name such as Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman, or Al Pacino (my favorite potential contender is Muhammad Ali!). Once Brando and Hackman were cast, unknown actors were tested, and Reeve finally won the part after being campaigned for by the film’s casting director Lynn Stalmaster, who had seen his stage work. Reeve’s performance has been repeatedly singled out over the years as the reason “Superman” was so successful.

Wow, That’s Dated: Among the pieces of the Superman mythos that were starting to show their age in the ‘70s: print media and phone booths (though the movie gets a good visual gag out of the latter).

Seriously, Oscars?: One of the biggest hits of 1978, “Superman” received three Oscar nominations for its Score, Sound, and Editing. While it lost these awards to “Midnight Express” and “The Deer Hunter”, the film did receive a Special Achievement Oscar for its Visual Effects.

And now for An Oversimplified History of Superman. Based on the short story “The Reign of the Superman” by Jerry Siegel (with illustrations by Joe Shuster), Superman made his official debut in DC Comics’ Action Comics Issue #1 in April 1938. Superman was an instant success, getting his own comic book series in June 1939, which has continued on and off over the last nine decades. Adaptations of Superman in other media began almost immediately, starting with a radio series starring Bud Collyer, and later a TV show starring George Reeves. Superman’s first film appearance was in a series of animated shorts produced by Fleischer Studios (where he was again voiced by Collyer), followed by two live-action serials with Kirk Alyn. Although Superman prevailed in comics and on TV throughout the 20th century, he would not get another live-action film adaptation until producers Ilya & Alexander Salkind acquired the film rights from DC Comics in 1974. It was agreed that both “Superman” and “Superman II” would be filmed simultaneously, leading to a nineteen month shoot with a budget of $55 million, the most expensive film(s) ever made up to that point.

• Oh right, this movie was made in the ‘70s, therefore its pacing is slower than the glaciers at the Fortress of Solitude. Because “Superman” and its sequel were filmed simultaneously, they were conceived as two parts of a larger story, which explains why a majority of this movie feels like set-up, because it is. This also explains Terence Stamp’s brief appearance as General Zod, which is just there to set him up as the villain in “II”. That’s all well and good, but I ain’t kneeling before Zod anytime soon.
• Even Superman’s adopted hometown of Smallville has an epic scope to it, thanks to some choice on-location shots across rural Canada and gorgeous Rockwell-esque cinematography from Geoffrey Unsworth. We also get Glenn Ford as Pa Kent, in what is probably his second-best NFR performance in my opinion.

• It takes almost an hour for Superman to grow up and become Christopher Reeve, but it’s worth it. The filmmakers really struck gold with Reeve; he is instantly endearing as both Superman and Clark Kent, and matched by Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane. Such actors as Stockard Channing and Anne Archer were in serious contention to play Lois, but Kidder adds an appropriate amount of toughness and playfulness to the character. The natural chemistry between Reeve and Kidder is easily the best part of the movie (the interview scene in particular is fantastic).
• If you thought it took a long time for Christopher Reeve to show up, it takes even longer for Gene Hackman to finally put in an appearance. I thoroughly enjoyed Hackman’s performance as Lex Luthor, primarily because he’s basically doing his own thing, as if he’s starring in a completely different movie, which I found refreshing this far into the proceedings. He also plays well off of Ned Beatty and the recently departed Valerie Perrine as Lex’s less-than-helpful accomplices. 

• This movie has several faults, but the flying scenes aren’t one of them. The special effects team used every trick in the book to make Superman fly, and the results speak for themselves. Just as the poster predicted, I believed a man could fly.

• It amuses me that the filmmakers felt the need to sneak a song into the movie. A collaboration between John Williams and Leslie Bricusse, “Can You Read My Mind” is another in the proud tradition of inner monologue songs on the NFR. However, as far as “falling in love while flying” songs are concerned, it’s no “A Whole New World”.

• Brando is just one of multiple actors with brief turns in this movie that made me wonder “What are you doing here?”. Among them: former “Our Gang” star Jackie Cooper as Perry White, British stalwarts Trevor Howard and Susannah York as Kryptonians, film critic Rex Reed as himself, and Larry Hagman as one horned-up Army major. But the most random to me was the combination of John Ratzenberger and Phil Brown observing the hijacked missile launches. Cliff Clavin and Uncle Owen: together at last.
• Speaking of “What are you doing here?”, yes that is “Godfather” author Mario Puzo credited here as one of the writers. Although the producers gave him a proposal he couldn’t decline ($600,000), Puzo’s drafts were too campy and veered too far from the Superman mythos for the producers’ tastes. Very little of Puzo’s script made the final cut, hence the “Story by” credit.
• The California fault line finale adds a hint of the ‘70s disaster genre to the proceedings. In all fairness, “Superman” is a better earthquake movie than “Earthquake”.

• Someone please explain this movie’s time travel aspect to me. Did the earthquake still happen? Are there two Supermen out there now? Just how wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey does this all get? Whatever, I’m ready for this thing to be over.

• The very end of the movie features text declaring “Next Year ‘Superman II’”: The cinematic equivalent of Babe Ruth’s called shot.

• Superman has endured over the decades in practically every type of media, including multiple TV series (“Lois & Clark”, “Superman: The Animated Series”, “Smallville”, etc.). As of this writing, there have been three attempts to bring Superman back to the big screen, and while they each met with varying degrees of success, all of them have stayed in the shadow of the 1978 movie.

• As soon as “Superman” wrapped, Christopher Reeve spent the remainder of his career playing roles on stage and screen as far removed from The Man of Steel as possible (I love his performance in “Noises Off”). A horse-riding accident in 1995 left Reeve paralyzed from the neck down, but he continued to act and direct, as well as advocate for a number of causes, including disability rights and stem cell research. Christopher Reeve died in 2004 at age 52, his on-screen legacy as Superman matched by his off-screen advocacy and generosity. Reeve was living proof that not all superheroes wear capes.

When I started this blog nine years, I thought there was an outside chance I’d make it to 700 movies, but definitely didn’t believe 800 movies was possible. Thanks for flying along with me all these years. More to come.