From movie critic John Beifuss' blog thebloodshoteye.com.
The Library of Congress today announced its 2009 selections for the National Film Registry, adding another 25 motion pictures "that will be preserved as cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures for generations to come."
As always, the list was both scholarly and populist, with famous hits ( "Dog Day Afternoon," "The Incredible Shrinking Man," "Jezebel" with Bette Davis) grouped alongside experimental works, avant-garde efforts and pop-culture milestones (Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, directed by John Landis, and "The Muppet Movie").
Keeping with the Muppet/Sesame Street theme, in a game of "One of These Things Is Not Like the Others," I'd pick Sergio Leone's masterpiece, the apotheosis of the Italian "Spaghetti Western," "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968), which may be a work of "enduring importance to American culture" but is more international than national. Some precedent was established by the Library of Congress with its past selection of British-American films by David Lean and Stanley Kubrick (movies also designated as "American" by their placement in various American Film Institute lists), but if "Once Upon a Time in the West" qualifies (look up the movie on IMDb.com, and the title that pops up is "C'era una volta il West"), doesn't that open up the doors for just about any international film with American participation?
To read the rest of this post, go to thebloodshoteye.com.
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