The Horse's Head

It’s that time of year again; when the National Film Board Preservation meets to determine this year’s NFR inductees and I post my ballot as a not-so-subtle attempt to sway their votes. Here are my 50 picks for films that deserve to be on the Registry. Movies with an * are movies I’m nominating this year for the first time.

The Five Timers Club (Movies that I have nominated at least five times but have yet to make it): 9 to 5 (1980), Big (1988), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Miracle Worker (1962), Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996), The Sixth Sense (1999)

Personal Favorites: Rope (1948), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Exploratorium (1974), Hardware Wars (1978), Clue (1985), Home Alone (1990), The Birdcage (1996), Best in Show (2000), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

A Favorite that Should at Least Be on the List of Eligible Titles on the NFR’s Website: Original Cast Album: Company (1970)

Animation!: Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906), Feline Follies (1919)*, Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942), Cat Concerto (1947)*, Alice in Wonderland (1951), Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)*, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Space Jam (1996)*, Finding Nemo (2003)

A Whole Buncha ’80s: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Gremlins (1984)*, The Karate Kid (1984), The Color Purple (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Labyrinth (1986), Dirty Dancing (1987), Fatal Attraction (1987), Beetlejuice (1988), Say Anything… (1989)*

Grab Bag: The Wolf Man (1941)*, Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), The Great Escape (1963), Fantastic Voyage (1966)*, The Heartbreak Kid (1972)* Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Cast Away (2000)*, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)*, Moulin Rouge! (2001)*, Borat (2006)*, 300 (2007)*, Bridesmaids (2011)

And finally, the Newly Eligible from 2013: 12 Years a Slave (2013)*, Frozen (2013)*

On average, three of the movies on my nominations ballot make the cut. Which ones will it be? Can I beat my personal best of getting five films on the list in one year? And is anyone on the National Film Preservation Board actually reading this? We’ll find out the answers to all of these questions in December.

Wow, no trailer to be found for this version of “Zenda”, so here’s an introduction to the film by one of those new TCM hosts.

The Plot: Englishman Rudolf Rassendyll (Ronald Colman) takes a vacation in the fictional European country Ruritania in the summer of 1897. He soon discovers that he looks nearly identical to Ruritania’s King Rudolf the V (also Ronald Colman), soon to be coronated and wed to Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll). Amused by their resemblance, King Rudolf invites Rudolf to dine with him on the eve of his coronation, where the king drinks a bottle of wine from his half-brother Michael (Raymond Massey) and is drugged. Worried that Michael will try to overtake the throne while Rudolph V is incapacitated, Colonel Zapt and Captain von Tarlenheim (C. Aubrey Smith and David Niven) convince Rudolf to fill in for the king for the coronation. Shortly afterwards, the real king is kidnapped by Michael’s henchman Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and held prisoner in the nearby village of Zenda. There’s action, romance, and some impressive optical effects in the kind of historical adventure that could only come from 1930s Hollywood.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is mostly a rundown of the film’s plot and production, with the only superlative going to the movie’s “escapist charm”.

But Does It Really?: This is another one of those movies that I think made the NFR a little sooner than it should have. I enjoyed “Zenda” quite a bit as an entertaining example of a Classic Hollywood studio adventure, but this should not be part of the same NFR class as “2001” and “Lawrence of Arabia“. While “Zenda” succeeds at being a charming historical romp, there are just so many other movies of the era that do it better (the Errol Flynn “Robin Hood” came out the next year). Also not helping things is the fact that no one reads or remembers the original novel of “Prisoner of Zenda”, so its cultural footprint isn’t what it was when this film was made. “Zelda” is fun if you’re willing to track it down, but I’d hardly call it a film essential, and I give its NFR designation a hearty “I guess?”

Everybody Gets One: John Cromwell started off as a stage actor, pivoting to directing before heading out to Hollywood as a dialogue director for this new thing called talking pictures. Cromwell pivoted to film director quickly, earning a reputation as an actor’s director. Fun Fact: John Cromwell is the father of the actor James Cromwell. This is also the only NFR appearance for leading lady Madeleine Carroll, whose most iconic film appearance is ineligible for this list: Hitchcock’s original 1935 version of “The 39 Steps”. Carroll retired from acting shortly after the war to focus on humanitarian efforts, and considered “Zenda” her favorite of her own film work.

Seriously, Oscars?: A hit upon release, “The Prisoner of Zenda” received two Oscar nominations. The film lost Art Direction to fellow NFR entry/Ronald Colman vehicle “Lost Horizon“, and Original Score to something called “One Hundred Men and a Girl”.

• Oh, and apparently the crew outfits in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” were inspired by the uniforms in this film. I…got nothing, I’m not a Trekkie. But this is the best excuse I’ve had to play that clip of Shatner shouting “Khaaaaan!”

The Plot: Two guys known only as the Driver and the Mechanic (James Taylor and Dennis Wilson) drive their souped-up 1955 Chevrolet 150 across country, earning quick cash in illegal drag races. In the process they pick up a free-spirited young woman (“The Girl” – Laurie Bird) and have brief, antagonistic encounters with an older man who drives a Pontiac GTO (Warren Oates). While everyone is stopped at a gas station in New Mexico, the Driver and Mechanic challenge GTO to a race to Washington D.C. What follows is either an artsy introspective meditation on isolation in modern America or the most boring race movie ever made.

Why It Matters: The NFR contextualizes the film within “a spate of innovative, low-budget films by young filmmakers influenced by European directors” throughout the early ’70s. An essay by writer Sam Adams is a deep-dive into the film’s subtext.

But Does It Really?: Sometimes this blog teaches me something about myself, and today that something is that I really don’t care for the counterculture film movement of the late ’60s/early ’70s. There are people who love “Two-Lane Blacktop” and compare it favorably to the European art house movies that inspired it; I am not one of those people. What many find profound and insightful, I found just plain uninteresting. I suspect like so many other movies of its time this is another “You had to be there” kind of movie: My 2023 viewpoint just can’t get into what this movie was trying to tell a 1971 audience. “Two-Lane Blacktop” makes the list as an underground cult movie with a strong reputation amongst hardcore cinephiles, and therefore earns its NFR designation, but just barely in my humble opinion.

Everybody Gets One: Monte Hellman’s film career started, as so many others have, under the guidance of Roger Corman. In addition, Roger’s brother Gene Corman produced Hellman’s first movie: 1959’s “Beast from Haunted Cave“. Hellman made a series of low-budget “head” films in the late 1960s that starred the likes of Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates. Hellman met producer Michael Laughlin by chance and agreed to direct “Two-Lane Blacktop” based on a script owned by Laughlin, which was almost entirely thrown out and re-written except for, according to Hellman, “the title and the idea of a race.”

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar love for “Two-Lane Blacktop”, but Warren Oates managed to get a few Supporting Actor nominations from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics.

• James Taylor allegedly hated working on this film and has claimed never to have seen the movie, though he did reunite with the original Chevrolet 150 in a 2018 episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage”. Taylor’s acting career consists mostly of TV appearances as himself, including one of my favorite “Simpsons” guest spots ever. “I’m gonna play, and you’re gonna float there and like it!”

• Journalist Brock Yates cited “Two-Lane Blacktop” as an influence on his annual Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, aka Cannonball Run. Weirdly, the first Cannonball Run was in May 1971, two months before the film hit theaters. Whatever, it’s still as good an excuse as I’ll ever get to reference the “Cannonball Run” movie on this blog.

Listen to This: Dennis Wilson (along with the other Beach Boys) appears on the National Recording Registry via their landmark album “Pet Sounds“. Surprisingly, James Taylor has yet to make it onto the NRR, though he did write one of the songs (“You Can Close Your Eyes“) on Linda Ronstadt’s album “Heart Like a Wheel”, a 2013 NRR inductee.

Sometimes I wonder if after 35 years, any Members of Congress still care about the preservation of American film and/or the National Film Registry they helped create. Thankfully, we’ve got Representative Joaquin Castro carrying the torch over in Texas’s 20^th congressional district. On August 15^th (this year’s deadline for NFR nominations), Rep. Castro wrote an open letter to Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden and the National Film Preservation Board nominating 27 films for NFR consideration, compiled by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. On the heels of his successful campaign to get “Selena” on the list two years ago and “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” last year; Castro is going for the three-peat with his nominations, all of which are either by Latino filmmakers, about the Latino experience, or both. I’m glad Rep. Castro is out there shining his spotlight on the NFR, and particularly films by Latino artists, which make up less than 3% of the films currently on the Registry.

I’m not going to go through every film one by one; you can peruse the list yourself. But I do want to write down some of my initial takeaways about this selection.

• Castro’s list isn’t presented in any particular order, which leads me to believe that Gregory Nava’s 1995 film “My Family” is Castro’s top choice by virtue of being listed first. Nava already has two films on the NFR – “El Norte” and the aforementioned “Selena” – and a third wouldn’t seem out of place. Plus “My Family” has Edward James Olmos, who appears in five movies already on the NFR! If betting on the NFR was legitimate, I’d put some money down on “My Family” joining the class of 2023.

• The 27 films are a good sampling of Latino filmmaking, with comedies, dramas, documentaries, and even a sci-fi film highlighting various Latino experiences in America throughout the years. Among the more recognizable titles are “Frida” (2002), “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1988), “Maria Full of Grace”, “Up in Smoke” (1978), and “A Better Life” (2011). Directors represented include Alfonso Arau, Aurora Guerrero, Patricia Riggen, María Ripoll, Mariano Barroso and…Robert Redford? Oh right, I forgot he directed “The Milagro Beanfield War”.

• It’s interesting to note that of these 27 films, a majority of them were made after 2000. This is no doubt in correlation with the rise of independent filmmaking, which is unfortunately still the only way most filmmakers of color can get their films made and their stories told.
• I’m embarrassed to admit that I have not seen any of these films (though the person in front of me on a plane a few months ago was watching “Frida”, so I got the gist of it). At first I thought I had seen Eugenio Derbez’s “Instructions Not Included”, but then I realized I was thinking of the Aubrey Plaza time-travel movie “Safety Not Guaranteed”. Two very different movies. From this list, 2010’s “La Mission” piques my interest. Not only is it set in San Francisco in the late 2000s (aka my college years), but it was directed by Peter Bratt and starring his brother Benjamin. We love to see more “Law & Order” alumni on the list!

• In addition to appearing in a few of these movies, Edward James Olmos directs two of them: the 1992 crime drama “American Me”, and the 2006 HBO movie “Walkout”. Castro will not rest until every Edward James Olmos movie has made the NFR. Next year: “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”!

• Shoutout to Chris Weitz, whose 2011 Oscar-nominated film “A Better Life” is up for consideration. If it makes the cut, Weitz will be the third generation of his family to make the NFR, after his mother Susan Kohner and her mother Lupita Tovar.

• As much I hate to nitpick, I question the eligibility of Castro’s second pick: Alfonso Arau’s 1992 hit “Like Water for Chocolate”. From what I can gather, this was an entirely Mexican production. Heck, it was Mexico’s official submission for the Oscar’s Foreign Language category. Usually the NFR is willing to look the other way if an international film was at least co-financed by an American company, but all signs point to “Like Water for Chocolate” being ineligible for this list.

• I submitted my own 2023 nominations back in March, so I didn’t get to include any of Castro’s choices on my own ballot. That being said I have previously nominated two of his 27 films: Julie Taymor’s “Frida” and Lou Adler’s “Up in Smoke”. I nominated “Frida” in a push to get more female-directed films on the list, and “Up in Smoke” because…come on, it’s Cheech & Chong! Cheech is already on the list, and who am I to break up the band?

As always, you can nominate films for NFR consideration. We’ve passed the deadline for 2023 (I’ll be posting my nominations post soon), but you can get a head start on 2024. Nominate here, check out their website’s list of films not yet on the list, and check out my own For Your Consideration page.

Note: This post is based on my viewing of the Director’s Cut, which runs about 20 minutes longer than the original theatrical version.

The Plot: In 1823 Vienna, elderly composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) confesses to the murder of his legendary contemporary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). Via flashback to 40 years earlier, Salieri recounts his time as the court composer to Vienna’s Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones), devoting his life to composing in hopes of achieving fame and recognition. Upon meeting Mozart, Salieri is shocked to discover that he is a crude young man, yet with a seemingly God-given talent for composition. Salieri’s jealousy leads him to exact any sort of revenge he can on Mozart, who despite his alcoholism and troubled marriage to Constanze Weber (Elizabeth Berridge), is composing his most famous operas (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute). As Mozart succumbs to his alcoholism, it turns out Salieri’s murder of Mozart wasn’t literal, but rather a metaphorical one through his jealousy. Kind of a letdown after three hours.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises “Amadeus” for being a “deeply absorbing, visually sumptuous film”, highlighting F. Murray Abraham’s performance.

But Does It Really?: I guess. “Amadeus” is iconic enough for eventual NFR induction, though clearly no one was rushing to get it on there (it made the cut 25 years after becoming eligible). Everything about the movie works: the aesthetic, the direction, the overall story, and especially the lead performances by Abraham and Hulce. But ultimately, all I have to say about this movie is that it’s fine. In a way, “Amadeus” has become its own Salieri – or at least this film’s version of him: a highly respected if not spectacular film whose legacy has started to fade in the shadow of its low-brow but more impactful contemporaries like “Ghostbusters“, “The Terminator” and “This Is Spinal Tap“, all films from 1984 that made the NFR before “Amadeus”.

Title Track: Amadeus was, of course, Mozart’s middle name, and is Latin for “love of God”, a major theme of the film.

Seriously, Oscars?: A critical and commercial success upon release, “Amadeus” tied David Lean’s “A Passage to India” for the most Oscar nominations of the year (11), going on to win eight, including Best Picture, Director, Actor for F. Murray Abraham, and a boatload of tech awards. When “Passage to India” composer Maurice Jarre won Best Original Score, he accepted by saying he “was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year.”

• Fun Fact: The F in F. Murray Abraham stands for Fahrid. His birth name is Murray Abraham, and he added the F to his stage name as a tribute to his father, Fahrid Abraham.
• Once again, I struggle to write about registered sex offender/actor Jeffrey Jones, seen here as Emperor Joseph II. He’s very good in this, adding some light comic relief to the proceedings, and I found myself laughing at his performance and then immediately getting mad at myself for doing so. So much for separating the art from the artist. To the best of my knowledge, Jones had not committed any of the things he would later be arrested and charged for when he was making “Amadeus”, so I have that to cling to for my own sanity.

• Man, Tom Hulce is great in this. He makes Mozart a living artist rather than a cardboard historical figure. Plus he did his own piano playing (I mean, it’s dubbed, but the actual playing is accurate). With all due respect to F. Murray Abraham’s great work, I think I would have voted for Hulce if I had an Oscar ballot.

• This movie is a cornucopia of recognizable character actors, including Christine Ebersole, Roy Dotrice, Vincent Schiavelli (a Forman go-to), Simon Callow (the original Mozart on the London stage), Barbara Bryne, Douglas Seale, a 17 year old Cynthia Nixon, and personal MVP Patrick Hines as Kappelmeister Bonno. Plus, the “Don Giovanni” parody performance includes Kenny Baker in his only NFR appearance where he’s not hidden inside a remote-controlled trash can.
• What was the wig budget on this movie?
• Elizabeth Berridge was a last-minute replacement for Meg Tilly, who injured her leg the day before shooting began. No offense to Ms. Berridge, but I wish I could have seen Meg Tilly in the role. On its own the role of Constanze is little more than “the wife”, and you need an actor like Tilly to bring their own unique quality to make the part stand out. Berridge is not helped out by the fact that her main subplot, in which Constanze is seduced by Salieri, was cut from the theatrical release, depriving the character of most of her nuance. Also, is it just me or does Elizabeth Berridge kinda look like Stockard Channing?

• It amuses me that this movie is so high-brow that not even a fart joke can convince me otherwise. Tom Hulce farts for musical punctuation and we still gave this movie eight Oscars.

• Joseph: “My own dear sister Antoinette writes me that she is beginning to be frightened of her own people.” I assume this was originally followed by Joseph saying “Shall we eat cake?” and then winking so hard at the camera it cracked the lens.
• It takes almost two hours, but the guy from the poster finally arrives. Turns out it’s the costume Mozart’s dad wears, later donned by Salieri when he commissions Mozart to write a requiem. I guess it’s a metaphor about death or something.

• In one of his last drunken binges, I think Mozart accidentally invents rock and roll. “Charles! It’s your cousin Marvin von Berry! You know that new sound you’re looking for? Well listen to this!”
• Points deducted from this movie for a severe case of “Volume Up, Volume Down”. Every time I had to crank up the volume to hear the dialogue, I get blasted by a choir belting Requiem. Bad form, “Amadeus”.
• I always watch the full credits on these movies because you never know what gems you’ll find, and “Amadeus” has a real doozy. The special thanks section begins with the producers thanking different groups for “their boundless assistance in our effort to present the physical authenticity and aura you have seen and felt in ‘Amadeus’.” Sheesh. Get over yourselves, it’s just a movie.

• “Amadeus” is one of those films that gets referenced more than parodied, usually brought up in passing as part of Oscar history or the filmography of its stars. Most parodies revolve around the film’s overall concept and/or framing device, and this “Family Guy” parody has always tickled me just right. I think it’s Peter’s deadpan delivery of “Play Peter Griffin.”

• And last, but far from least: In 1985 Austrian musician Johann Hölzel, aka Falco, blessed us with his hit song “Rock Me Amadeus”. I have no idea if it was made in response to the movie or not, but the two are forever linked. I would have given this movie an automatic four stars if it had ended with “Rock Me Amadeus”.