As you might have heard, President Obama was rather badly shown up when he gave British prime minister Gordon Brown 25 DVDs and the prime minister gave him a pen holder made from timber of the HMS Gannet, a 1878 British warship that took part in the UK’s antislavery campaign. So what were the 25 DVDs the president gave Brown?
(1) Citizen Kane / (2) The Godfather / (3) Casablanca / (4) Raging Bull / (5) Singin’ in the Rain / (6) Gone With the Wind / (7) Lawrence of Arabia / (8) Schindler’s List / (9) Vertigo / (10) The Wizard of Oz / (11) City Lights / (12) The Searchers / (13) Star Wars / (14) Psycho / (15) 2001: A Space Odyssey / (16) Sunset Boulevard / (17) The Graduate / (18) The General / (19) On the Waterfront / (20) It’s a Wonderful Life / (21) Chinatown / (22) Some Like it Hot / (23) The Grapes of Wrath / (24) E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial / (25) To Kill a Mockingbird.
The choices make the gift even more embarrassing, not because they aren’t all exceptional they’re unexceptional films but because they suggest no personality at all—they seem to have been pulled randomly off the American Film Intitute list. The best zing I’ve heard comes from a commenter on the Daily Mail‘s story:
“Re-gifter! I sent those DVD’s to Obama three weeks ago!”