Take 575: Watching the National Film Registry

  The Adventures of Robin Hood : Summary and initial thoughts Ah, Errol Flynn. One of Old Hollywood's kings of cool is at the top of his form in this classic swashbuckling adventure film. At least, he is after he changes out of his first costume. I'm not sure why, but Errol Flynn spends the first part of this film clad in lime green and shiny gold medallions. Like a Peter Pan pimp. After he trades that carnival costume for Robin Hood's standard dark green, he's good to go. The story is familiar, and all the classic characters are there: Much the Miller's Son, John the Little, Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian—the whole kit and caboodle. Robin Hood recruits and leads a merry band of outlaws and rebels to protect the Saxons from the Normans, to save the peasants from burdensome taxation by Prince John, the evil brother of the missing King Richard. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Hood makes a lot of enemies for himself in this endeavor, and he finds himself in and out of troub...

  Alien : Summary and initial thoughts So let's just get this settled right up front: The cat lives, okay? I repeat: The cat makes it out alright. Take a deep breath—no cats are harmed in this story. We cool? Okay, let's move on. For a fairly visually disgusting movie (see, e.g., the chestburster scene, which we'll get to in a bit), I really enjoyed Alien . There's a lot to love in this sci-fi/horror classic, even if blood and guts aren't your thing (they're certainly not mine). Alien follows the seven crewmembers of the Nostromo , in addition to Jones the cat, who have been hired for a space mining company's operations (the cat is not expected to do any mining, he is there for moral support). The crew is in stasis (just go with it) when the Nostromo 's computer, Mother, receives what it thinks is a distress call from a nearby planet. The crew get out to explore, finding an abandoned ship and a desiccated alien corpse. One of the crew, Kane, traipses int...

  42nd Street : Summary and initial thoughts This is a fun one. Telling the story of a theatre production during the Great Depression, 42nd Street  at times feels like a cross between Applause  and All About Eve  (minus the melancholy and treachery, respectively). The story follows an ensemble production directed by demanding hitmaker Julian Marsh, whose hardcore dedication to his stressful career has wreaked havoc with this health. Ruined by the stock market crash, he is determined to make this show, Pretty Lady , a financial success upon which he can retire, even if he has to jeopardize his life in the process. Former vaudevillian Dorothy Brock is signed to play the lead and tasked with keeping the major backer of the show, a gullible and artless man named Abner Dillon, happy with her flirtations. This second demand becomes a problem when it is discovered that she is still liaising (and in love) with an old flame from her vaudeville days, Pat Denning. Enter fresh, ...

  Airplane! : Summary and initial thoughts Airplane! isn't always to my taste, but damn is it funny. The story follows ex-fighter-pilot Ted Striker, who suffers from PTSD and is now afraid to fly. Still, when his girlfriend Elaine, a flight attendant, dumps him just before boarding a flight from LA to Chicago, he throws caution to the wind and goes after her. A little while into the flight, however, it is discovered by one of the passengers, a Dr. Rumack, that the food served for dinner on the plane has caused food poisoning in the crew and many of the passengers. While the airplane's built-in autopilot (a blowup doll named Otto) can get the plane safely to Chicago, he is unable to land it.  Elaine convinces Ted to face his fears and land the plane, which he manages to do. It's a relatively straightforward plot, and what makes this film stand out is the comedic interludes between the major events and the sheer hilarity of the dialogue. The film has an almost Mel-Brooks-ian...

  The 7th Voyage of Sinbad : Summary and initial thoughts The 7th Voyage of Sinbad  has a lot of elements of both epic hero stories and classic fairy tales. It tells the story of Sinbad, a sailor and next in line for the Caliph of Baghdad. He is engaged to the lovely Princess Parisa, daughter of the Sultan of Chandra. For some reason, she's on his ship when he lands on Colossa, an island populated by enormous, terrifying monsters. When Sinbad and his crew arrive on Colossa, they manage to save a sorcerer, Sokurah, who is being chased by a cyclops. In the course of the rescue, Sokurah loses his magic, genie-inhabited lamp (you'd think he'd take better care to secure it, wouldn't you?), but Sinbad refuses to return to Colossa so Sokurah can retrieve it. This ship returns to Baghdad, where Sokurah, desperate to return to Colossa to retrieve his lamp, secretly shrinks Parisa down to only a few inches tall. When Sinbad and Parisa's father find her, Sokurah explains that ...