These Amazing Shadows

"These Amazing Shadows" Is A Film For Cinephiles And Those Concerned With The History Of Culture. The Film Explores Cinema History And Why Exactly Movies Are As Culturally Significant As They Are. The Movie Features Interviews With Christopher Nolan, Rob Reiner, Tim Roth, John Waters, Leonard Maltin, Julie Dash, John Singleton, And Many More. "These Amazing Shadows" Discusses Films As Diverse As "Blade Runner" And "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" And "Star Wars" And "Citizen Kane". The Film Features An Inside Look At Film Preservation And Delivers A Convincing Case For The Preservation Of Our Greatest Films. "These Amazing Shadows" Tends To Skip From Film To Film Without Ever Gaining Much Depth. The Movie Tries To Cover The Entire History Of Cinema In Just 88 Minutes, But It Feels Rushed And Unsatisfying. Overall, The Film Is A Moving And Passionate Study Of Cinema History And How It Relates To Our Future As A Culture.

I understand the need to preserve great old movies, and the national registry seems like a great thing for doing this. Will help us remember the way people dressed, and their mannerisms... to see old cars, and street views...for that these old movies are priceless...

But then.... this documentary goes into how movies will remind us of our past history... What?.... wrong! Nice try Hollywood, but, anyone with half a brain should understand that movies are movies... Fake, false.... even the ones that say they are based on fact are not factual, or as Hollywood would put it in the credits, "this film was enhanced for dramatic effect".

Then it gets worse... this documentary tries to say that because someone made movies exploiting women, that was the culture of our time. Because someone made a movie that was blatantly racist, that was the culture of our time...it falls to diversification for the sake of diversification. No longer able to base it's own judgment on good vs bad, but more on what's good for specific minority groups.

For example, they have an American Indian man they are interviewing that is appalled at the way Indians were depicted in the movies of the 50's and 60's... Well I have news for him, read your history books, because American Indians were a lot worse than the movies depict. They scalped people... kept the scalps as trophies. You don't hear anything like that today that isn't related to some serial killer. Sorry we took your land, but, check your history books for something in this world called "conquered people". You'll find your weren't the first, and weren't the last either.

If you want to find out what history was like, take a course, read a book, or watch a documentary blessed by a good historian. Don't ever look to Hollywood movies for more than anything but a way to waste a couple hours, you'll never get back.

Documentary on films deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and listed on the National Film Registry (the current list includes 525 titles from every movie genre). The Registry came into being after Ted Turner began colorizing black-and-white films ("My movies," he brags) which he purchased from the MGM/UA library in 1986, sending film directors and actors to Washington, D. C. to fight for the preservation of cinema classics in their original state. The process of selecting films for the Registry is fine (it's also amusing how the Academy Awards do not act as a factor in the decision-making, since "Sometimes the Academy got it right and, at other times, they got it wrong"); however, I feel, judging movies on their so-called "importance" can also lead to bad decisions. One doesn't go to the movies solely on the basis of what is culturally significant. This process leaves out a lot of the opulent junk movie-fans eat up late at night on TCM Underground. So what about the B-movies and co-features and also-rans? Are they to be sacrificed so future generations can only see our significant works? Historic representations, one might add, which have been manufactured for commercial consumption. What is the underlying similarity between "The Maltese Falcon" and "Valley of the Dolls"? Both were produced to appeal to the public of their respective eras--for box-office revenue. It's show business, for goodness sake. ** from ****

For many people, motion pictures are not "just" an entertainment medium. Instead, they are not unlike any other form of artistic expression, filled with the realities (good or bad, perceived or real) of the time period in which they were made. In essence, films can be considered to be kind of a "time capsule" for the human condition, told in the form of scripted tales. As such, many such works of art deserved to be saved, which is exactly what this documentary focuses on.

For a basic plot summary, "These Shadows" describes how certain films (voted on by a panel of motion picture luminaries) are currently being preserved in the Library of Congress (or our "national library") for future posterity. However, problems often exist in restoring the original negatives of even such classic pictures as "Gone With The Wind" or "The Wizard of Oz".

"These Shadows" takes very much of a "big picture" look at film preservation. While it could have spent hours on the fascinating topic of the physical restoration process itself, the filmmakers instead give an overview of the entire Library of Congress process, from its beginning (aka finding the funding) to which movies are selected and finally to how the overall scheme of things will proceed into the future. Any one of these areas could have been focused on in their own documentaries, but here they are condensed into the overall narrative of the project.

Overall, then, this is a fun little documentary that introduces us to the very concept of preserving motion pictures as we would other works of art or historic culture. Anyone who enjoys the film arts will likely agree that its place in our own national culture is very deserving.

I saw this film twice at Sundance in sold out theaters, and the audiences loved it. It has something for everyone who loves movies. It is funny and sad and fascinating with great film clips and interviews. These Amazing Shadows uses the National Film Registry as a platform to show how important films are as a reflection of the our culture and heritage. Twenty-five films are selected each year to the registry for preservation, and we see clips of everything from the music video "Thriller" to "The Rocky Horror Show" to the Zapruder film. I was especially moved by the section on Topaz, the "home movie" about the Japanese internment camps. A movie everyone should see.