“A
GOOD STARTING POINT—PART TWOâ€
By
Raymond Benson
With
the publication of Jeremy Arnold’s new lavishly illustrated and intelligently
written TCM (Turner Classic Movies) coffee-table paperback, The Essentials,
Volume 2: 52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, I find myself going
back to my review of the original Volume 1 of The Essentials and am
tempted to repeat much of what was said there.
“The
Essentials†is a weekly Saturday night event on TCM in which a guest host
introduces a picture he or she believes is an Essential, i.e., a title “film
lovers need to know,†as film historian Ben Mankiewicz explains in the forward.
The number 52 is used because there are 52 weeks in a year. Unlike in Volume
One, the new book contains an Appendix listing all the Essentials that
TCM has aired, indicating the ones chosen for both Volumes 1 and 2 (and there
are still plenty left over, leaving open the possibility of a Volume 3 and 4!).
It must be stated that TCM’s choice of movies depend entirely on what is
available to the network to broadcast. For example, The Godfather,
surely an “Essential,†is not on the list because TCM has never had the rights
to show it. The Wizard of Oz is not there, either. Therefore, TCM’s list
of Essentials, while containing all fabulous, important, and indeed must-see
titles, does unfortunately omit some obvious pictures, albeit through no
fault of their own.
That
said, the new Volume 2 handsomely complements Volume 1 design-wise and sits
neatly on the shelf beside its older brother. Author Jeremy Arnold does a
superb job presenting the reasons why a particular film matters and provides
interesting sidebar trivia for each entry. The book is gorgeously illustrated
with many stills, both color and black-and-white.
The
new tome includes such classics as Sunrise, Freaks, Top Hat,
Stagecoach, Sullivan’s Travels, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Notorious,
Rashomon, High Noon, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The
Apartment, Psycho, The Producers, Hannah and Her Sisters,
and I was particularly pleased to see 2001: A Space Odyssey (an omission
I noted from Volume 1!).
It
is always too easy when judging a book of “bests†to complain about what’s
missing. That won’t happen here except to say that it’s unfortunate that TCM
does not incorporate more foreign-language titles that are indeed must-see
“essentialsâ€â€”for example, there’s not a single film by Ingmar Bergman, Federico
Fellini, or Francois Truffaut on the full list. While there are a few, such as
Godard’s Breathless (included in Volume 1) and Ray’s Pather Panchali
(here in Volume 2), so many are missing. One must conclude that this is because
TCM concentrates more on purely American/Hollywood fare.
But
this is quibbling. All told, like Volume 1 before it, The Essentials Volume
2 is another good starting point “bucket list†of must-see movies, especially
for younger aficionados who might want to get a jump start on their film
history class.
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