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National Film Registry Choices For 2007 AnnouncedBy Ed Perkis: 2007-12-27 14:11:11
The Library of Congress added 25 more films, one or two I’ve actually heard of, to the National Film Registry today. The National Film Preservation Act of 1992 created the Registry to preserve films in perpetuity if they are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. The films are chosen in groups of 25, with this year’s batch bringing the grand total to 475.
The films chosen this year included Back to the Future, 12 Angry Men, Oklahoma!, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Bullitt. While one could argue that Bullitt isn’t the most culturally significant movie ever produced, it did have a bitchin’ car chase that my great-great-great grandchildren are now assured of seeing. Compared to some of the other 20 movies chosen, though, it’s Citizen Kane. Glimpse of the Garden, described as a tour of a garden set to a soundtrack of bird, calls was also chosen. No matter how long they preserve that, only about three people will ever want to watch it. Mighty Like a Moose from 1926 starring Charley Chase who is, in the words of the Registry, “underappreciated in the arena of early comedy shorts,” involves a married couple getting plastic surgery because they are so ugly. He’s probably underappreciated because there were about 200 other silent film comedians that did it better than he did. There is also a 16mm home movie showing a Kansas family doing the dishes or something. As happens every year when this list is released, Librarian of Congress James Billington reminds the world of all the movies that have disappeared. He notes that, “up to half the films produced in this country before 1950—and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920—are lost forever. The National Film Registry seeks not only to honor these films, but to ensure that they are preserved for future generations to enjoy.” It sounds terrible that all those pre-1950’s movies are disappearing, but is saving Oklahoma! and Wuthering Heights really going to help? Are those films, rented daily from Netflix and Blockbuster, really in danger of disappearing? Since 1992 they have chosen 475 movies that will be saved, which means Billington’s ratios aren’t going to change a whit. If they are going to preserve movies, start with things people are going to want to see in 100 years that are in danger of being lost and leave movies that no one cares about like Glimpse of the Garden and movies that probably will be preserved without the help of the Library of Congress like Close Encounters of the Third Kind for last. Here’s a complete list of the 25 films chosen the National Film Registry in 2007: Back to the Future (1985) Bullitt (1968) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) Dances With Wolves (1990) Days of Heaven (1978) Glimpse of the Garden (1957) Grand Hotel (1932) The House I Live In (1945) In a Lonely Place (1950) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Mighty Like a Moose (1926) The Naked City (1948) Now, Voyager (1942) Oklahoma! (1955) Our Day (1938) Peege (1972) The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928) The Strong Man (1926) Three Little Pigs (1933) Tol’able David (1921) Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son (1969-71) 12 Angry Men (1957) The Women (1939) Wuthering Heights (1939)
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