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Highway 61 wrote:

Bill Thompson wrote:What's WTF about Gump? It's a best picture winner, it was critically well received, made a ton of money, and most importantly it's a very American movie.

I think it's inclusion is inexplicable because the movie is less than twenty years old and is a big, profitable catalogue title for Paramount, so it's hardly crying out for preservation, unlike thousands of other titles. I feel the same way about past inclusions like Alien or Beauty and the Beast. Porgy and Bess, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of movie a film preservation program should be pursuing.

I think that the NFR is as much about celebrating american film as it is about preservation. They starting out saving the classics and popular films, and can't really stop just because everybody does film preservation now. They've been inducting way more obsucre and forgotten works than recent popular films though.

I'm just relieved that in the future I won't have to worry about seeing any deterioration when I watch Decasia.

Ashirg wrote:What exactly does preservation mean for National Film Registry? Detour (1945) was named in 1992. Does it mean Library of Congress holds the best film elements for it?

It means nothing. Literally, nothing, in terms of any sort of direct material result. I know a couple of folks who have gotten films on the list. The LoC didn't ask for anything; it doesn't store elements unless you want to ship them there; no money came in to guarantee preservation, nothing. It can help with fundraising, and draws attention to some little known films. But it is mainly just a list of films.

The NFR film Fox Movietone News: Jenkins Orphanage Band (1928) has finally been made available online/public - previously only a 1-2 min clip could be viewed as the rest was in the University of South Carolina archive - now you can see the full 11 mins (prepare to hear that same song for the entire 11 mins).

2014 additions

13 Lakes (2004)
Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Down Argentine Way (1940)
The Dragon Painter (1919)
Felicia (1965
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
The Gang’s All Here (1943)
House of Wax (1953)
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000)
Little Big Man (1970)
Luxo Jr. (1986)
Moon Breath Beat (1980)
Please Don’t Bury Me Alive! (1976)
The Power and the Glory (1933)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Shoes (1916)
State Fair (1933)
Unmasked (1917)
V-E + 1 (1945)
The Way of Peace (1947)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

How have I never heard of Please Don't Bury Me Alive? Anyone seen it?

Psyched to see Little Big Man and 13 Lakes -- is that the first Benning they've chosen? A good film, but it certainly wouldn't be mine.

I can't believe The Big Lebowski got in.

Two Carmen Miranda movies in one year and still no Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I wonder if someone has it out for that movie the way it was reported they did for Pulp Fiction.

2015 additions.

Being There (1979)
Black and Tan (1929)
Dracula (Spanish language version) (1931)
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975)
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
A Fool There Was (1915)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
Humoresque (1920)
Imitation of Life (1959)
The Inner World of Aphasia (1968)
John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
The Old Mill (1937)
Our Daily Bread (1934)
Portrait of Jason (1967)
Seconds (1966)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Sink or Swim (1990)
The Story of Menstruation (1946)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
Top Gun (1986)
Winchester ’73 (1950)

GHOSTBUSTERS. Whatever.

TOP GUN?!?!

It never ceases to amaze how about half the list is "well, duh, I'd have assumed it's been in there for decades" and the other half is "what on Earth are they thinking this shouldn't be on a list of the most notable films of that year".

Nice to see Thom Andersen finally have a work selected by the NFR. GHOSTBUSTERS deserves it, but I agree that TOP GUN is bullshit. A series of pretty images with a pleasant soundtrack and loaded with right-wing nonsense.

Would've loved to have seen a work by Penelope Spheeris, Hal Hartley, Christine Choy or animator Dennis Pies/Sky David be selected.

beamish13 wrote:TOP GUN is bullshit. A series of pretty images with a pleasant soundtrack and loaded with right-wing nonsense.

So, a perfect encapsulation of the mainstream culture of the mid-1980s, worth preserving for future generations to study. I'm sorry to break it to you, but nobody's going to give a shit about Hal Hartley 100 years from now. Even most film critics/scholars/fans barely care about him now.

It seems the Library of Congress is fully aware of what films they've neglected to name to the list and have made a separate list of them!

Werewolf by Night wrote:

beamish13 wrote:TOP GUN is bullshit. A series of pretty images with a pleasant soundtrack and loaded with right-wing nonsense.

So, a perfect encapsulation of the mainstream culture of the mid-1980s, worth preserving for future generations to study. I'm sorry to break it to you, but nobody's going to give a shit about Hal Hartley 100 years from now. Even most film critics/scholars/fans barely care about him now.

It seems the Library of Congress is fully aware of what films they've neglected to name to the list and have made a separate list of them!

There are a ton of better films they could've selected from the 1980's-what about Housekeeping, Parting Glances, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Kiss of the Spider Woman or A Dry White Season? How about more music videos, or even Tony Scott's brother Ridley's Apple 1984 commercial?

I've seen that list, and it has some nice suggestions-I like YOUR THREE MINUTES ARE UP (1973) and the Tim Burton films.

beamish13 wrote:There are a ton of better films they could've selected from the 1980's-what about Housekeeping, Parting Glances, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Kiss of the Spider Woman or A Dry White Season? How about more music videos, or even Tony Scott's brother Ridley's Apple 1984 commercial?

We could go on all day about films that "should" be inducted, but that doesn't make for a reason why Top Gun shouldn't. Maybe Top Gun shouldn't have been chosen in 2015 over how many other films but it has a fitting place on the list all the same.

Studios have a terrible historic track record of asset preservation which is one of the big impetus in creating the NFR in the first place.

Film is a big umbrella, and the NFR does a good job of inclusion. Some say they should pursue a more exclusionary approach, I disagree.

The archetypical Reagan movie fantasy. You need something in there to represent that shitty time known as the '80s.

Yeah, short of a Rambo sequel nothing encapsulates the political and machismo ethos of the '80s better while being a reasonably high profile film. As a representation of an important social aspect of American cinema it definitely ranks higher then most films which are artistically better.

knives wrote:Yeah, short of a Rambo sequel nothing encapsulates the political and machismo ethos of the '80s better while being a reasonably high profile film. As a representation of an important social aspect of American cinema it definitely ranks higher then most films which are artistically better.

What about Red Dawn or Invasion, U.S.A., which both seem to have influenced the current crop of GOP presidential nominees? Or, for a smarter action film without a reactionary message, Runaway Train?

Of the three you mentioned pretty much only Red Dawn has the cultural cache to be in serious consideration I would think with the additional cultural importance of the PG-13. Probably just a case of personal preference there.

1 Borzage plus 1 King Vidor. Nice.
I agree, Top Gun is bullshit.

2016 additions

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
Ball of Fire (1941)
The Beau Brummels (1928)
The Birds (1963)
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
East of Eden (1955)
Funny Girl (1968)
Life of an American Fireman (1903)
The Lion King (1994)
Lost Horizon (1937)
Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
Paris Is Burning (1990)
Point Blank (1967)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Putney Swope (1969)
Rushmore (1998)
Solomon Sir Jones films (1924-28)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Suzanne, Suzanne (1982)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
A Walk in the Sun (1945)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Interesting that Roger Rabbit is the sole film representing the animation world this year. A solid, if somewhat unremarkable list, but I'm very happy to finally see Penelope Spheeris get recognized.

Muskateers of Pig Alley is available to stream on the MOMA site. Looks great!