Seems like a reasonable statement to me. The registry is seemingly some sort of political pork-barrel based on compromise and groupthink rather than individual expertise. Someone might write an interesting paper on its history and activities to determine the relation between political and aesthetic factors in its operation. It was a bad idea to get the government to establish canonical works in the first place, but the film industry has lobbyists in Washington who need to do something. Actually I believe it is a leftover from the colorization controversy started by Ted Turner -- anyone remember that? -- which was more or less a publicity stunt for his acquisition of the MGM film library (Turner's TCM shows original black and white films). Where are colorized films being shown these days? ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama.