25 More Films Added To U.S. National Film Registry

That actually looks a lot like what I said on his Wikipedia page.

Is that how you roll, Gunny? Dislike the guy, read one line on Wikipedia, think it sounds good and post it?

Negative. These are all common facts about Malcom X. You're hardly the first person to ever say or think that. He was a disgusting person.

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If I may interject real quick.

Lee's movie touches on this a bit, (though not enough in my opinion), but there are really two periods of Malcolm X's life. The quote-unquote "Firebrand" period of his life in which he openly admitted that "white death" would be a "beautiful thing". However, that said, he did go to Mecca and changed his views much to the point where they were akin to Dr. King's. He became much more peaceful and tolerant of people, and I think that's ultimately the most important part of his life. The idea that a man can reform to be tolerant of life from all different races, creeds, sexes and orientations... this truly is the greatest, and I think most powerful period of his life. Here was a man who was bitter at white society, (when he should have been), and then later advocated through tolerance that society should not be divided, but together... just before his most unfortunate and untimely death. I honestly think Malcolm could have been a bridge builder, more so than Dr. King, because he had been on the otherside of hatred, came back, and promoted ideals of peace to black and white Americans. Today I find it very unfortunate that people seem to propel his "Firebrand" years, when his later life, to me, was so much more important, the ideals of reform... it as almost as if he ascended to Mt. Sinai only to come down to a world which would kill him for enlightenment. I guess I'm trying to say it's hard to label him so black and white, when the man and his career were so very much a shade of gray. He was like lightning in a jar, he lived at a time when black Americans needed him most.

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-Stan Brakhage

It's easy to say that when you read generalizations and never take the time to actually think about it. Dog Star says it better than I would, and less threatening

Hey DSM! That was touching. Don't know much about the guy myself.

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It certainly wasn't the originator of the spoof genre. it was done a lot in the silent era in comedy shorts and in the feature length movie The Three Must Get Theirs. It wasn't done so much in the sound era until Mel Brooks did Blazing Saddles and especially the next one, Young Frankenstein. Airplane created a specific style the has been imitated since (but not so much lately).

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As for Malcolm X changing his views he did, but...he remained an Anti Semite. Alex Haley his collaborator on the autobiography edited out the comments.

Not according to this.

This is from Wikipedia:

In late 1963, Haley was particularly worried about what he viewed as Malcolm X's anti-Semitism. He therefore rewrote material to eliminate a number of negative statements about Jews in the book manuscript

A couple things:

1) This is interesting because I'm searching that verbatim quote on Wikipedia and coming up empty on both Malcolm X's and Alex Haley's page. So to me it represents a flawed source, and I can't accept it unless I can read it for myself.

2) Wikipedia is not a reliable source for sourcing. The point of Wikipedia is to read the articles provided in notation. Not the article on the page itself since it has an open edit policy.

3) Malcolm's trip to Mecca was in 1964. It's entirely understandable about Haley's concern during his time, (in 1963 that is), with him prior to this trip. But as I illustrated before. Malcolm reforms at Mecca and comes back with a different enlightened, and tamed, demeanor than what his previous convictions had conceived.

Actually it's more interesting to look at his life in four stages. When he was known as Malcolm Little, Detroit Red, Malcolm X, and el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.

Personally, I loved this movie. One of my all time favorites.

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"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."- Groucho Marx

The source wikipedia cites is Malcolm X in Our Own Image by Joe Wood. There was a lot more. I just took one line.

It is from wikipedia's Malcolm X Autobiography, not the entry on his life.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aut...y_of_Malcolm_X

Apparently I have another book to read with Joe Woods Malcolm X: In Our Own Image. Though I'd hate to quote Wikipedia on the grounds of reliability, I will quote it anyway if we are to make points:

"[T]he autobiography iconizes Malcolm twice, not once. Its second Malcolm—the El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz finale—is a mask with no distinct ideology, it is not particularly Islamic, not particularly nationalist, not particularly humanist. Like any well crafted icon or story, the mask is evidence of its subject's humanity, of Malcolm's strong human spirit. But both masks hide as much character as they show. The first mask served a nationalism Malcolm had rejected before the book was finished; the second is mostly empty and available."

I would say this autobiography is masking Malcolm to a large extent, but the book was being written at another turning and transitional point in Malcolm's life. Maybe I'm reading into this, but I don't think I am since his actions at Wayne State seem to verify my point, the transition after Mecca came gradual, and his demeanor had changed, yet yielding. Still, his actions and words during this time reflect something that his ghostwriter had not written down, as most of the book reflects a agenda which was more concrete prior to Mecca, and fissured thereafter. Thus his assassination leaves the book, in my eyes, rather incomplete.

The Birth of a Nation has been on the registry for almost twenty years. Just saying.

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Why do we even have a film registry? As long as the internet stays around, we'll have EVERY movie. Plus, there was movies over 100 years ago and no one cares about those...

It's just extra storage. Trying to make it seem like we're doing something to preserve the country.

It certainly "deserves" to be, but somehow I don't believe this to be your point...

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My IMDb page

His point was it is controversial because it is racist, just as Malcolm X is controversial, which has been added to the Registry. The comment was a response to Gunny's comments.

No Duh.

This comment of yours seems very short sighted and ill-conceived. A few things:

1) Older films, (especially silent films), were filmed on Nitrate stock and many studios, along with historians among others, have been moving these films into the registry at the library of congress to preserve them and keep them from further deterioration, or worse, burning.

2) The library is digitizing most of these films so they can be further preserved and live on into next generations.

3) As the quote said above, "100+ year films" provide a useful look into film history, practice, and theory that a person who "doesn't watch them anyway" would not obtain. I own many of these silent films that were selected for the registry's special task of keeping them restored. An example is a Kino box set I have of Edison films from the 1880's to about 1910's. All of these films were in dire need of restoration and they, along with the MoMA, did a marvelous job of keeping these films from perishing completely. A truly fascinating cinematic piece is the "Dickson Experimental Sound Film" which illustrates a number of things to film historians and allows them to reevaluate their opinions on the silent era. Much like an archeologist find after an extensive dig...

Try to imagine yourself in the Silent Era. You get your first look at this "silent film" as you enter a film school. It moves like very primitively, flickering, the shots staying relatively stagnant. And you keep still because you think that maybe it's visual aesthetics is based on movement like T-Rex - you'll lose it if it doesn't move. But no, not silent film. You stare at it, and it just stares right back. And that's when the surprise comes. Not from the so much from the mise-en-scene, but from the edit, from the other two montages you didn't even know were coming. Because silent film's a trend setter, you see, it uses coordinated mise-en-scene and editing patterns and it's aesthetics are still used today. And he shoots you with this... a Lumiere Cinematographe, it works like a camera, but also functions as a projector. It doesn't bother to bombard your senses like a Star Wars film, or perhaps Avatar... no no. It surprises your initial conceptions of current film here... or here... or maybe across the eye, opening your minds eyes to previous unknown conceptions. The point is... you are alive when they start to surprise you. So you know... try to show a little respect...

Airplane, The Empire Strikes Back & maybe All The President's Men are the only ones I'm glad about seeing on this new entry list.

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