With the spring thaw impending, we may now imagine scenarios too sublime to be interrupted by a trip to the library. Let us imagine that we are all worthy of instant gratification. And let us visualize a device—phone, tablet, desktop—capable of connecting to the Internet, along with our library card number and PIN. Now, why aren’t we watching streaming video?
Knox County Public Library offers hundreds of titles—classics, new releases, foreign films, thrillers, mysteries, rom-coms, docs and more—available for instant streaming. Any patron may stream up to 10 titles per month, and keep each title for up to five days. You can browse by title, genre, or release date. (The streaming video collection is currently being added to the library catalog, which will add lots of search functionality.) You can put popular titles on hold. You need not concern yourself with the menial task of returning an object to a library location, or the fines associated with failing to do so. Neither you nor your friendly library staff will ever need to clean or repair these videos. What’s not to love?
As I type this, I’m streaming the beginning of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. While the credits roll I peruse KCPL’s list of videos available to stream, alert to films that we don’t currently have on our DVD shelves. Here are a handful worth dialing up:
Gorky Park (1983)
This is a terrific time capsule for readers who came of age after the Cold War, based on the novel of the same name by Martin Cruz Smith. William Hurt still has his hair as he goes up against Lee Marvin in one of his final feature film roles. There is illegal traffic in religious icons, furs, and possibly humans. And there are some terrific glimpses of decadent privilege among the Moscow elite.
Rollerball (1975)
If you are the least bit into the Hard Knox Rollergirls—or any part of the roller-derby revival—you need to see this. Add motorcycles with spiked wheels and killer pinballs loosed upon the track at high speed, with incentives to actually maim and kill. This may not be James Caan’s favorite resume bullet, but it’s a silly hoot.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
This may have been our introduction to the mature Clint Eastwood—a real actor who could inhabit a character and deliver lines rather than spit, shoot, and blow cigar smoke on cue. It’s also likely that he was rising to the occasion of being cast opposite young Jeff Bridges, who was born to act. (Bridges was nearly born acting; you may know that he earned his first credits as an infant.) This is a much-above-average heist/buddy flick. If you have endured a dislocated shoulder, there is a scene you may wish to skip.
Billy Bathgate (1991)
Tom Stoppard faithfully adapted E.L. Doctorow’s novel about Dutch Schultz and his eager young protégé. If you’ve seen it, you know that synopsis is easy to remember because Schultz’s moll (played by Nicole Kidman) nearly meets her end after correcting the Dutchman when he misuses the word “prodigy.” The spot-on art direction and wardrobe make this a great period piece set in Depression-era rural New York state.
Chris Barrett's Shelf Life alerts readers to new arrivals at the Lawson McGhee Library's stellar Sights and Sounds collection, along with recommendations and reminders of staples worthy of revisiting. He is a former Metro Pulse staff writer who’s now a senior assistant at the Knox County Public Library.
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