President Obama gives the gift of DVDs
Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 5:36 PM Central
by John Couture
There are a few topics that we avoid like the plague on this site. Religion and politics are two that immediately come to mind. But there's always extreme cases that we can't help but comment on.
You may have heard recently that President Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown exchanged presents after their first official visit together. The Prime Minister gave the President a pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet, the sister ship of the HMS Resolute, which film buffs will remember as having a pivotal role in National Treasure 2.
A desk made from the remains of the HMS Resolute sits in the Oval Office and was a one-time hiding place of the "Book of Secrets," according to the movie. And now, a pen holder from its sister ship will sit on top of it.
And what did President Obama bestow upon his esteemed guest? A collection of 25 top American movies. According to the Daily Mail President Obama called out to the folks at the American Film Institute (AFI) to help create the package of movies.
Here's the list of movies in the collection:
Citizen Kane
The Godfather
Casablanca
Raging Bull
Singin’ in the Rain
Gone with the Wind
Lawrence of Arabia
Schindler’s List
Vertigo
The Wizard of Oz
City Lights
The Searchers
Star Wars: Episode IV
Psycho
2001: A Space Odyssey
Sunset Boulevard
The Graduate
The General
On the Waterfront
It’s a Wonderful Life
Chinatown
Some Like It Hot
The Grapes of Wrath
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
To Kill a Mockingbird
If the list looks familiar, it should. It's an exact copy the top 25 of AFI's 2007 revision of their top 100 American Movies list. And no, not even the leader of free world is able to secure a copy of The African Queen on DVD.
It's certainly not my place to judge the apparent disparity between the two gifts or question the motives behind giving what amounts to a shopping spree through a video store as a gift. But, I would give anything to see the look on the Prime Minister's face when he opens up his Region 1 copy of The Godfather and tries to play it on his Region 2, PAL DVD player.
In the immortal words of Homer (Simpson): D'oh!