Rating: 
Summary: This is a Shell of a "Set"
Review: How does this set represent film history? I wasted my money. I want my money back.
Rating: 
Summary: Dude, where's my mom?
Review: I bought this for my mother for mother's day. She loved it. My mommy wouldn't get off the couch for a several nights. I saw bits and pieces of the films too, and they WERE beautifully remastered, and were also very interesting. The soundtracks were also very well done. This movie set leaves me asking, "Where's my mommy?" whenever she watches it, because she seems quite intrigued with it.
Rating:
Summary: martin marks is a genius
Review: i don't actually own this dvd. but i would like to point out that the true hero of this set is martin marks, a professor of mine at the massachusetts institute of technology, who has assembled the music for this collection. it is truly a marvel that no one has mentioned this. i applaud him for his amazing work.
Rating:
Summary: Essential viewing (and reading) for film lovers
Review: I had high hopes for this set, and it actually surpassed my expectations. I worked in a film archive for 10 years and have seen a lot of movies, but quite a few of the items in this set were new to me; others were old favorites that have never been widely available before now, like Joseph Cornell's beautiful and goofy Rose Hobart. Sometimes the attempt to represent the enormous range of material preserved in American archives starts to feel a little strained, but the remarkable freshness of so many of these films--especially the more ephemeral shorts--overcomes any sense of historical tokenism. The accompanying book is far superior to the average DVD liner notes, providing scholarly and informative program notes by Scott Simmon along with background information on the preservation of each film & explanations of the musical accompaniment for the silent titles. Overall I found this set not only praiseworthy but highly entertaining--only the "about the archives" essays narrated by Laurence Fishburne are tinged with institutional dullness. Buy the set now--if it goes out of print (and I fear this is just the kind of "specialty" item that won't stay in print very long), you'll regret not owning it.
Rating:
Summary: Get out your credit card.
Review: I have never added my opinion to Amazon before, but I feel moved to do so after watching this DVD set, which is worth every penny you'll pay for it (and some of which goes to support film preservation). Other contributors have already praised the set as it deserves, so what can I add? First, that you needn't be a hardcore film buff to appreciate much of this stuff; my parents are certainly not buffs and have showed no special interest in silent movies, yet they were spellbound by many of these 50 films no less than I was. Second, a good handful of these titles are on the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, but this will probably be your only chance to see them. My particular favorites include: the graceful one-minute Edison kinetoscopes, especially "Luis Martinetti, Contortionist" and "Caicedo, King of the Slack Wire," which transcend mere photography of a vaudeville act to become breathless visual haikus; the exciting and suspenseful "Confederate Ironclad" and "Lonedale Operator," still wonderfully manipulative one-reelers; "White Fawn's Devotion," one of more than 100 "Indian dramas" written & directed by James Young Deer, neatly proving that not only white people made westerns and that other viewpoints were seen in early cinema; the hypnotic, experimental "Fall of the House of Usher," a lovely display of technique; the equally lovely early color of "The Toll of the Sea" starring Anna May Wong in her debut; "Interior New York Subway," a hypnotic (I know I'm repeating myself) formal experiment; the stunning moment of Marian Anderson singing "America" in front of the Lincoln Memorial; and the most astonishing entry, the original and unpredictable "Land Beyond the Sunset" which does things you will NOT believe. You will be showing some of this stuff to your amazed friends.
Rating:
Summary: DVDs of the century!
Review: In my opinion, this is the single greatest group of items ever restored and made available to the American public. For years many companies, such as Kino, Milestone, and Zeitgeist, have been restoring and making some of the greatest features and shorts available to new generations of film viewers. This new collection spans the galaxy, covering all kinds of films which have been impossible to see on video - or in any other way. Hollywood has always been mined for its masterpieces, especially since cable tv exploded. Now, traveling the entire vast country, gems from little known collections such as the Minnesota Historical Society and West Virginia's Archives and History collection will be made available to millions of people who never knew they existed. As a film exhibitor, librarian, restorer, critic, etc. for almost 30 years, I would give this collection SIX STARS as the single greatest gift ever from America's film archives to its citizens.
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Summary: "Treasures" set is NOT region encoded
Review: Just to correct the misimpression in Christoph Berner's review below: The "Treasures from American Film Archives" DVD set is NOT region encoded. That was just an Amazon error. It can be played in all "regions." (I'm the curator of the set, so pardon the "5 stars," which I'd award to the 18 collaborating archives.)
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Summary: rob giampietro is an italian god
Review: such distractions from the multifarious stereo cacophony in my mind cannot be ingnored or ignobled. films, yes. but even more was the packaging and design by a young upstart who goes by the name GIAMPIETRO. a fiery beast of a kitten, his clean lines and carefully considered forms shake and move with the fluidity of success. Bravo!
Rating: 
Summary: A real treasure.
Review: The "Nation Film Preservation" was founded back in 1997 and consists of 18 film archives from all around the US. This box set of 4 DVDs contains no less than 50 preserved films, most of them silent, but also rare documentaries, like a film about the "Hindenburg" (which let us take a peek into the airship's dining room and the cockpit, and we also learn that the "Hindenburg" needed 59 hrs. for an average flight from Frankfurt to New Jersey !). There is a lot of of curious stuff like Groucho Marx's Home Movies (!) for example, or a very early version of "Snow White from 1916 complete with green (!!) dwarfes, or an awafully dated William S.Hart western called "Hell's Hinges" (which was co-directed by its star !). But its not all like that. "Treasures" also contains some utterly important films, like Scott Bartlett's pioneering avantgarde film "OffOn", and a short documentary called "The Wall" (about the building of the Berlin wall), which was never before seen in the US, or Joseph Cornell's wonderful, but also very rarely shown "Rose Hobart" (the great, great grandfather of the video clip !). This set comes along with a 150 page booklet, in which you can research all the informations you need about the preserved films (you can also switch to the DVD menue for a narrated presentation of each one of the film archives.). It contains also notes about film preservation itself, as well as information about the musical accompaniments. And there we have the only flaw of the entire set: the muscial accompaniments of the silent pictures !
They are consisting only of piano music, which is, by any means, not very varied and at times terribly boring.
But that's just really one little weak spot in an almost perfect and tremendous project. "Treasures from American Film Archives" is a great collection of forgotten silver and recommended mainly to those who are interested in film history. So appreciate it, buy it and love it !
Rating:
Summary: A form of time travel for lovers of film and history
Review: The majority of this deluxe boxed set is devoted to early silent films. I do not consider myself a particular fan of silent films, and yet most of these I found to be wonderful. While the four feature films were fine, I especially enjoyed the shorts, which commonly consider everyday life at the turn of the century. These silents have a spirit of joy and excitement, and a genuine sincerity, that I've never seen in film before. With only a few exceptions, these silents are in an excellent state of preservation, often offering an amazingly clear window on the past. The main exception is an early version of "Snow White," the one that inspired the famous Disney version. All copies were once believed lost; however, a below-average quality but still quite watchable print was found only a few years ago. The musical accompaniment, custom produced for these DVDs, adds immeasurably to the experience. These silents are highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of film or history in general. I am unaware of any other source of silent shorts on DVD, certainly not of this quality or extent. Besides the silents, the set also offers several other categories of films, including those produced for the government, commercial and promotional films, home movies, and art shorts. These are generally oldish but not antique, none more recent than 1985. The offerings in the last three categories are generally weak. The art shorts, especially, with their emphasis on the abstract and modern, had little appeal for me. Even though many of them are relatively recent, they have been rarely shown, and with good reason. The big surprise is the quality of the government films, especially "The Battle of San Pietro," directed by John Huston, a true work of art, and one of the finest pieces in the set. Even "We Work Again," with its tiresome script intended to convince blacks of the benefits of government assistance during the depression, features beautiful cinematography, unfortunately uncredited, and ends with four minutes from a famous Orson Welle's adaptation of a Shakespeare play, of which no other footage exists. Each disc is arranged in roughly chronological order, taking viewers on four trips through time, from the 1890's to the modern age. The set includes a 130 page booklet describing each film; these descriptions also appear on the DVDs themselves. The menus on the DVDs are professional, attractive, and easy-to-navigate. The transfers to DVD are excellent, with no digital artifacts that I could see. This set could easily have been dry and academic. Instead, at its best, it's extremely moving, entertaining, and expressive of the past. The commentary could have condemned the past in light of today's viewpoints and ideologies; instead, with unexpectedly rare exceptions, its fair and informative. This set should have broad appeal for those willing to adjust to the limitations of early film technology. Overall, I cannot recommend this set highly enough.
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