The Real National Treasure (History Channel/A&E DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Main Program: B-
Not to be confused with the silly, noisy Nicolas
Cage/Jerry Bruckheimer films of nearly the same name, The Real National Treasure is an hour-long program made around the
time of the first Cage film that shows the vastness and greatness of the U.S.
Library of Congress, which is ever-growing, a vital, priceless archive and all
the content that is available to us all to see.
You can’t take anything out of it, but it has a website and millions of
items found no where else in the world.
In addition, they have a huge staff and is also one of the
best archives in the world when it comes to preservation ands restoration. If anything, this could be a mini-series and
maybe one should be considered in the future, but the U.S. Library of Congress
is one of the crowning achievements of reference and library sciences. It s existence predates the information age
by quite a few decades and it will remain important in it forever. This show is a must see at least once.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image has some aliasing errors,
but looks good considering the older presentation approach with good color and
good editing overall. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo is a recent recording and plays back just fine. The only extra is a brief piece called The
Library Of Congress Experience.
- Nicholas Sheffo
