your nominations -- DVDs which you think all public libraries should have?

[Lisa]

So last year, my local public library decided to start a DVD collection. Because they are (like most libraries) chronically underfunded, they've been very open to accepting donations -- especially with 8, and now possibly 9, branches to supply. Especially in the new suburbs and around the military base, there are plenty of households whose budgets are so tight that even renting videos is a stretch, so the new collection has been very popular and there are waiting lists for everything.

After being approached by a librarian friend, I started bringing in my old DVDs a few months ago -- also began pestering family and friends -- and together we've scraped together better than a hundred items, which the librarians were thrilled to receive. I check out the garage sales and secondhand stores regularly (one storekeeper, a "Democrats Abroad" activist, has been setting stuff aside for me), and also I've been scoring half-priced used Blockbuster DVDs when they trim their lists 3 or 4 weeks after initial releases. It's become quite the hobby. I consider it a success when I stroll by the DVD shelf and I don't see any "familiar" titles up there, because they're out!

I've been aiming to include movies that'll appeal to a wide range of people, from "G" to "R" -- animation, musicals, comedy, horror, action, documentaries -- Oscar-winners and low-budget cult flicks -- re-released 1920s silent classics to the new "Starsky and Hutch". And if I've been a bit more likely to include flicks like "The Fog of War", "Good Morning Vietnam", "The Shawshank Redemption", "The Life of Brian", and "The Stepford Wives" than, say, the "Left Behind" series -- nobody's complained about it. (The batch I'm taking in next week includes "Birth of a Nation" and "The Tuskegee Airmen", if you can imagine ...)

So, could I have some suggestions for "must-haves" to put on my list? Even out-of-print stuff won't be a problem, thanks to eBay and friends' basements.

[Guy Fawkes]

1. "Brotherhood of the Wolf"

[WoodrowFan]

2. for silents

how about "Phantom of the Opera", "The General", "The Gold Rush", "The Kid", "Intolerance" and "20,000 leagues Under the Sea."

[Lisa]

5. amazing! "Intolerance" was in the batch submitted earlier this week!

You're reading my mind!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Much Ado About Nothing-1972

just out on DVD. Also Glass Menagerie with Katherine Hepburn and Sam Waterston.

[DemWitch]

4. a few from my library

Dogma, Braveheart, The Patriot, The Contender, Memphis Belle, Pearl Harbor, Titanic, Witches of Eastwick, Moonstruck, Practical Magic, Steel Magnolias.

[LibLabUK]

6. Hmm..

My suggestions:
Ghandi
Chariots of Fire
The Ladykillers (the Richard Attenborough version)
The Man in the White Suit
The Dambusters
The Godfather
The Great Escape
The African Queen
The Graduate
Stalag 17
All Quiet on the Western Front
Once Upon a Time in America

[Deja Q]

7. Anything that requires a brain...

Nothing less. :-)

[TheDebbieDee]

8. Soylent Green................................

That should scare everyone into keeping the environment healthy.

[MrScorpio]

9. "Showgirls"

It show go in the "Careers" section

[LanternWaste]

10. Some of my choices off the top of my head...

Some I think most people should see (whether because they're so damn entertaining or simply seminal moments of film)...

The Lady Vanishes (dir.- Alfred Hitchcock)

The Awful Truth (starring Cary Grant and the diaphanous Irene Dunne) My favorite comedy of all time...

Carousel (same as above, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne) My favorite hanky movie of all time....

HBO mini-series Band of Brothers

Schindler's List (dir.- Steven Spielberg)

Strange Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (bizarre but creepy silent film from Germany)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Dark City... my opinion is that these are the two best science fiction films ever made.

The A&E mini-series, Horatio Hornblower starring Ioan Griffoud (a really great series based on the E.M. Forrester books that the piece of tripe movie Master and Commander failed miserably to recreate)

The Wave (an ABC after school special from the seventies... really stuck with me after all these years. Can't remember the author or the director off hand... try IMDB.com to find relevant info)

The Boy Who Could Fly (starring Lucy Deakins and Bonnie Bedelia) A great film for the family to watch. Stresses tolerance and grieving within a family

The Best Years of Our Lives... considered the best movie dealing with vets returning home and trying to fit in after WWII

The Insider and All The President's Men... two film's that can show you local neighbors that it's not only patriotic, but a duty to question those in power.

The above are some of my favorite films for good reason,-- made well, acted well and written and directed well.

Sounds like your having more fun than you should be doing this... wish I could join you! :P

On edit... the Kenneth Brannagh Shakespeare collection! How could I forget.... Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Love's Labor's Lost. These will certainly flame an interest in Shakespeare!

[TlalocW]

11. The Tin Drum

Just because in Oklahoma, it got a bunch of right-wing pukes' panties in a bunch because it supposedly featured child-pornography. It got to the point that some OKC cops went to the house of a guy fighting against the banning of it because he rented it to see what all the hubbub was about. It hadn't even been banned (and never was), but the cops went and leaned on the video store clerk to see who had it then went to the guys home.

I saw the movie in Theater Appreciation in college. It is so incredibly dull, plodding, and mind-numblingly, teeth-gnashingly boring that no "self-respecting" child-pornographer would bother with it to get to the so-called "juicy" bits, which brought more laughter than any protests when my class watched it.

What was funny was that I had a librarian friend in Tulsa who told me that during all the hubbub in OKC, there was a waiting list a mile long at the Tulsa library to check it out to see what the big deal was - this was after years of it languishing on the shelves/in the bin.

TlalocW

[Lisa]

12. thanks everyone! Keep 'em coming!

I'll swing by Lyle's (the best used DVD place in town) on the way home, because I'm pretty sure I saw "Brotherhood of the Wolf" in there when I was looking for "Battleship Potemkin" last week.

I probably AM having way more fun than I should be -- I was inordinately pleased when I found a barely-played copy of "Elephant" (the 2003 Cannes winner) in the discount bin for 50% off original release price.

[kariatari]

13. my recs...

The Princess Bride
Bowling for Columbine
Field of Dreams
To Kill A Mockingbird
Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet
The Lion King
HBO's And The Band Played On
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Forrest Gump
E.T.
Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan

[salvorhardin]

14. A couple of nonfiction choices

• James Burke's Connections (the original one from 1977 or so)
  
• James Burke's The Day The Universe Changed
  
• The Machine That Changed The World (dated, but still a good overview of the history of computing)
  
• Cosmos
  
• The Western Tradition
  

[Archae]

15. One my library has on VHS so far.

The best anti-war documentary I can think of, "Hearts And Minds."

[Bozita]

16. "Johnny Got His Gun" -- Dalton Trumbo masterpiece