Posted on 12/28/2011 5:36:23 AM PST by iowamark
Every year the Library of Congress selects 25 films of “enduring significance to American culture” for preservation as part of the National Film Registry. 550 films have joined the Registry since it was first started by congressional order in 1989, and yesterday 25 new titles were added to their prestigious ranks. They are, in alphabetical order:
“Allures” (1961), directed by Jordan Belson
“Bambi” (1942), directed by David D. Hand
“The Big Heat” (1953), directed by Fritz Lang
“A Computer Animated Hand” (1973), directed by Ed Catmull
“Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment” (1963), directed by Robert Drew
“The Cry of the Children” (1912), directed by George Nichols
“A Cure for Pokeritis” (1912), directed by Laurence Trimble
“El Mariachi” (1992), directed by Robert Rodriguez
“Faces” (1968), directed by John Cassavetes
“Fake Fruit Factory” (1986), directed by Chick Strand
“Forrest Gump” (1994), directed by Robert Zemeckis
“Growing Up Female” (1971), directed by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein
“Hester Street” (1975), directed by Joan Micklin Silver
“I, An Actress” (1977), directed by George Kuchar
“The Iron Horse” (1924), directed by John Ford
“The Kid” (1921), directed by Charles Chaplin
“The Lost Weekend” (1945), directed by Billy Wilder
“The Negro Soldier” (1944), directed by Stuart Heisler
“Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies” (1930s-40s)
“Norma Rae” (1979), directed by Martin Ritt
“Porgy and Bess” (1959), directed by Otto Preminger
“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), directed by Jonathan Demme
“Stand and Deliver” (1988), directed by Ramon Menendez
“Twentieth Century” (1934), directed by Howard Hawks
“The War of the Worlds” (1953), directed by Byron Haskin
As is usually the case, the Registry selected an eclectic mix of films this year: mainstream and avant-garde, silent and sound, a century old and relatively contemporary. The earliest films, a pair of silents called “The Cry of the Children” and “A Case of Pokeritis,” were made one hundred years ago. The most recent is 1994′s “Forrest Gump.” Now we can all rest easy knowing that future generations of Americans will be able to learn about life through the metaphor of a chocolate box.
You might even say that the National Film Registry is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. According to an article in The Washington Post, the selections are made by just one man: Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who makes his choices based on the recommendations of an advisory board and regular movie fans (got a movie you want on the Registry? Submit it here). Artistic merit is good but cultural merit is better. Hence “Airplane!,” which helped inspire an entire genre of spoof comedies, made the cut last year while “The Naked Gun,” an even funnier but less influential film from the same directors, remains cruelly overlooked. Some day, Enrico Palazzo, your time will come.
According to the Post, films selected by the Registry “are preserved at the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, or through collaborations with archives, studios and independent filmmakers” and “most of the films named to the National Registry can be viewed by reservation at the Library of Congress’s reading room on Capitol Hill.” So if you live in the DC area, and you don’t feel like paying $3 to rent “Night of the Living Dead,” you can always try there.
Also: am I crazy, or is Librarian of Congress kind of the sickest job title on the planet? “What do you do?” “Oh, I’m a Librarian…OF CONGRESS.”
“El Mariachi = mucho hot Chiquita’s.”
Is that the prequel to “Desperado”?
El mariachi is LEVELS better than Desperado.
El Mariachi was shot when Rodgriguez had just finished at Univ of Texas at Austin (I was there at the school same time as he was).
It remains a GREAT movie. The music is great, camera work is great and the storyline is great. You can see it is an indie flick made with very little money and it is BETTER and more REALISTIC due to the shortage of funds.
It feels real. Desperado, on the other hand, has no soul. It is big fights, big explosions, big tits but no emotional soul to it. It feels like a big hollywood production
So, kudos to El Mariachi and all those kids who dream of making a movie. May all your first full length movies be as good as El Mariachi
Yes, El Mariachi was the original independent film that started the ‘Mexico’ series.
It was followed by the bigger budget ‘Desperado’ and the huge budget ‘Once Upon a Time in Mexico’.
Intersting note: Once Upon a Time was one of the first films shot completely in HD.
“The Silence of the Lambs” is a male-bashing pile of crap.
I have never seen that film, and I have no desire to see it. Sounds disgusting.
Also, I have always had a hunch that it was intended to make cannibalism seem a little less out of the mainstream, to help usher in other notions that are anathema to Western thinking.
Today’s movies, IMO, are usually made with an eye toward further weakening Judeo-Christian values, which is why I take in an average of 1 new film every 3 years.
I hated “Silence of the Lambs” too, and could never figure out why it is considered by so many to be a great movie. It just seemed phony all the way around.
If you want to see a great movie, I recommend “War Horse”-it’s the best movie I’ve seen in years. Excellent story, script, acting,— just wonderful, classic, storytelling.
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