[THESE AMAZING SHADOWS airs on most PBS stations on Thursday December 29th at 10:00 pm (check local listings to be sure).]
Review by Bob Ignizio
It's appalling how much of America's film history has been lost to the ravages of time, especially from the silent era. Then in the eighties, media mogul Ted Turner wound up owning a huge library of older films, and decided that it would be a good idea to add color to the black and white ones. It was at this point that a movement began to preserve classic films and prevent them from being tampered with. The movement resulted in the National Film Registry, which each year picks up to 25 films that it considers of cultural and/or artistic merit, helping to insure that they will be preserved for future generations.
THESE AMAZING SHADOWS documents the birth of the National Film Registry and its work to date, mainly through interviews with filmmakers and other celebrities who talk about favorite films that have been added to the list. Many of the titles discussed here are expected (THE WIZARD OF OZ, THE GODFATHER), but not every film chosen is a Hollywood classic. In fact, some of the most interesting films we see discussed here are strange little artifacts like the “Let's all go to the lobby” advertisement that ran between features back in the days when movie theaters routinely showed double features, or the odd blend of advertisement and propaganda in which keeping your house painted is shown to make it safe from nuclear attack. On a more serious note, there's also the home movies taken by a resident of a Japanese internment camp which help document one of the more shameful chapters in American history.
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