These Amazing Shadows Page #2

was always meant to play.

We identified so strongly

with those kids somehow.

Oh, it's just, like, instant tears.

It still gets me, still makes me cry now.

He really portrayed

a father who was just...

so understanding and had such a close

relationship with his kids.

A lot of people...

would love to have a father like that.

I mean, who wouldn't?

I would love to have a father like that.

Many of the characteristics that my dad

portrayed in that film are really him.

Of all the films that he did,

it was a film

that was closest to his true character,

certainly the character he...

he would want to be.

It's a different form of honor than

getting an academy award.

It's a more cumulative

or retrospective kind of honor.

It's saying your film

has stood the test of time.

There's never been a day so sunny

it could not happen twice...

The Academy Awards preserve...

the consensus within

the industry at the time.

Sometimes history proves them right,

but very often,

history proves them wrong.

Most lists exist nowadays

for pop culture reasons.

It's an excuse for a TV special.

It's to sell magazines.

It's to get people arguing,

and that's what lists do.

The congressional language

setting up the registry was done...

by congressional staff back in

1988 and they used...

"culturally, historically

or aesthetically significant,"

which, we love that phrase because

it basically means almost anything.

Whoever came up with it,

I forget the person's name, the staffer,

but I'm forever thankful

because it does allow...

a lot of leverage in terms of

the sort of films we're able to pick

and put onto the registry and preserve.

Because of the 10-year rule,

we look at only films

that are 10 years old,

and that gives us

some space and some time.

And I tell ya what.

From his footprint,

he looks like a big fella.

You see something down there, chief?

No, I just think I'm gonna barf.

Why the 10 years?

Why not 50?

Why not five?

Why not one that just opened?

But I suppose it's to have

a little bit of a distance, which is proper.

Does the film have a lasting benefit?

Does it stand to history?

The idea is that here

is an arm of the U.S. government

saying that,

hey, some films are important.

They're part of the picture.

So you immediately confer upon them

a certain status and dignity.

Each year we do try to fashion

an eclectic list,

one that is also stand-alone

on its own merits.

If we pick 25 famous films one year

or 25 films no one had ever heard of each year,

then the list, to us,

would be a lot less useful.

The way we pick the national film registry

each year is a multi-stage process.

We start off by soliciting

public balloting.

So we take very seriously

what the public recommends.

They often recommend things

that nobody's even heard of.

We tabulate those results...

and send them to the members

of the film preservation board.

Each year a group of people,

representing all areas

of the industry and education

come together and recommend

to the Librarian of Congress

the films of enduring cultural, historical,

aesthetic importance.

People have their personal

campaigns, their pet films,

their pet causes,

and that's as it should be.

Having gone through the obvious choices...

Citizen Kane, Citizen Kane, Citizen Kane.

Rosebud.

Then the less obvious films

come up for discussion,

and that's where

the discussions get interesting.

This was really a good meeting,

and I've been on this board

since its inception.

In the early years, you knew

there were certain kinds of movies...

that were the sprocket-worn classics,

the great films,

they would be on the list,

and then you'd put in a couple more

that you hoped you would expand people's

consciousness about.

It's great to be on the board

because there are so many people

from different aspects of film

and scholarship

and everything related to film,

and they bring up films, you know,

that I always write them down

because I go, "Oh, I haven't seen this.

I'll have to go see it."

I'm a fairly new board member.

In the beginning,

it is overwhelming.

There are hundreds of films

that are talked about.

The discussions can range...

from being

very lighthearted to very serious.

They have people talking

about home movies,

people talking about newsreels,

people talking about

short films of various kinds.

And it's always

one of the most interesting moments

to see what has been chosen.

And as you go through, you think...

"Well, of course that.

I can't believe it wasn't chosen before."

And then you'll come to something

and say... "What?"

'cause this is thriller

thriller night,

and no one's gonna save you...

Now it really is American history.

Michael Jackson's iconic video, Thriller,

was named today...

to the National Film Registry

at the Library of Congress,

the first music video ever

to receive that honor.

Thriller,

thriller...

The nice thing about the list is

it's all over the place. It's democratic.

You're tearing me apart!

I vote for films

that I think are culturally significant,

and sometimes I vote for films

that I think

even films that...

I don't particularly like,

I will vote for it because I think

they have a special place in film history.

I certainly felt,

as a cultural historian myself,

that this was an important part

of American culture

and that it had to be preserved not simply

so that our grandkids could enjoy

the same films that we did,

but also so that they could understand

what America was like at an earlier stage.

Dr. Billington, the Librarian,

said something very profound

a little while ago.

He said that stories unite people.

Theories divide them.

So that in itself is a wonderful reason

to preserve stories.

Stories are profoundly important

to human beings.

500 years from now,

people will look back and they'll say,

"This was the beginning.

This was the first 100 years.

These were the origins.

Why didn't they take better care of them?"

And the "they" they're talking about...

is us.

Film is the art form of the 20th century,

and we have let it go?

The studios stored the films badly

and they deteriorated, they burned.

They didn't think of them as an art form.

Half of the movies made before 1950

no longer exist in any form whatsoever.

Maybe 80% or so of the silent era

is gone.

So much of film history

has already been lost,

but there's still a very great deal

which can be saved if we're willing to do it.

It's really amazing

to pick up a roll of film

and just to see this and realize

the age of this film

and all the people who went into making it

and just to look at the images on it.

All these people who worked on these things

who are all gone now,

but they've left behind

these amazing shadows...

for us to enjoy.

I always keep a little memento

of my beginning here at my desk.

This is a Castle Films...

headline edition, California bound.

It's actually a three-minute clip

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes