Doctor Gonzo

Bambi, Forrest Gump and Hannibal Lecter have at least one thing in common: Their cinematic adventures were chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the world's largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings.
"The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), a harrowing psychological thriller about the cannibalistic serial killer Lecter, and "Forrest Gump" (1994), starring Tom Hanks as the guileless hero who thinks "life is like a box of chocolates," were critical and commercial successes that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The animated Disney classic "Bambi" is among the most beloved movies ever made.
A majority of the 25 titles chosen this year for inclusion in the National Film Registry are lesser-known — including silent films, documentaries, avant-garde cinema and even home movies. The Library of Congress announced the selections Tuesday.
The registry began in 1989 under an act of Congress and now includes 575 films. Its aim is not to identify the best movies ever made but to preserve films with artistic, cultural or historical significance. Previous titles chosen range from "The Birth of a Nation" to "National Lampoon's Animal House."
"Forrest Gump" has its critical detractors but was praised for its technical achievements, including the seamless incorporation of the title character into historical footage.
More than 2,200 films were nominated for the registry this year. The National Film Preservation Board pares them down before Librarian of Congress James H. Billington makes the final selections.
"Each year, we do try to pick one of the titles that the public nominated the most, and 'Forrest Gump' was way up there on that list," said Stephen Leggett, program coordinator for the National Film Preservation Board. "Everything on the list is subject to dissenting opinion."
Staffers at the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., work to ensure that each title is preserved for future generations, packing away original negatives or unreleased prints into the facility's massive vault and collaborating with other preservationists, movie studios and independent filmmakers.
"These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture," Billington said in a statement. "Our film heritage must be protected because these cinematic treasures document our history and culture and reflect our hopes and dreams."
Leggett said he was pleased by the inclusion of "The Negro Soldier," a 1944 documentary produced by Frank Capra that was groundbreaking for its realistic and positive depiction of African-Americans. It became mandatory viewing for soldiers entering the army in the latter stages of the war and was shown in commercial theaters.
"It was kind of ironic because the official Army policy at the time was still segregation. You had a film which was implicitly if not explicitly promoting integration," he said.
Films must be at least 10 years old to be considered for the registry.
The oldest movies selected this year are both from 1912. "The Cry of the Children" is about the pre-World War I child labor reform movement, and "A Cure for Pokeritis" stars John Bunny, regarded as the American film industry's earliest comic superstar.
"A lot of people would argue that the humor is kind of dated," Leggett said of Bunny's films — mostly short domestic comedies in which he played a henpecked husband. "He really was a major figure at the time. It doesn't help your reputation when people like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton come after you."
Chaplin's first feature, "The Kid" (1921), was also chosen for the registry.
It was a big year for actress Sally Field, who co-starred in "Forrest Gump." ''Norma Rae" (1979), featuring her Oscar-winning performance as a single mother who fought to unionize a Southern textile mill, also made this year's list.
Among the other titles chosen: "The Big Heat," a 1953 film noir starring Glenn Ford; "The Lost Weekend," Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning alcoholism drama; "Porgy and Bess," starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge; "Stand and Deliver," starring Edward James Olmos as an inspiring East Los Angeles math teacher; and John Ford's epic 1924 Western "The Iron Horse."
Among the lesser-known titles chosen this year, "A Computer Animated Hand" (1972) by Pixar Animation Studios co-founder Ed Catmull was one of the earliest examples of 3D computer-generated imagery. The one-minute film shows a hand turning, opening and closing.
Documentaries picked for the registry include "Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment," which focuses on Gov. George Wallace's attempt to prevent two African-American students from enrolling in the University of Alabama and the response of President John F. Kennedy. "Growing Up Female" from 1971 was one of the first films to document the women's liberation movement.

Link to descriptions of selected titles: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2011/11-240.html

Films Selected to the 2011 National Film Registry

Allures (1961)
Bambi (1942)
The Big Heat (1953)
A Computer Animated Hand (1972)
Crisis: Behind A Presidential Commitment (1963)
The Cry of the Children (1912)
A Cure for Pokeritis (1912)
El Mariachi (1992)
Faces (1968)
Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Growing Up Female (1971)
Hester Street (1975)
I, an Actress (1977)
The Iron Horse (1924)
The Kid (1921)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Negro Soldier (1944)
Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies (1930s-40s)
Norma Rae (1979)
Porgy and Bess (1959)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Stand and Deliver (1988)
Twentieth Century (1934)
War of the Worlds (1953)

Norm de Plume

Stand and Deliver (1988)

PopcornTreeCt

That's what they pick from 1994? Really?

Supermallet

Forrest Gump

CloverClover

Isn’t the idea of the national film registry totally obsolete by now?
What use is there storing 35mm prints (which studios themselves are throwing away).
We can keep every film ever made on a thumb drive and have them last a thousand years.

TomOpus

Huh? They don't pick a year and choose a film. They choose a film based on public nominations and significance to American culture. Their goal is not to pick the "best" films of all time.

Dr Mabuse

I don't see any big issue with 'Forrest Gump'. As a film to capture cultural aspects of the society and a time and place in American film making it's a fine choice. It was a very popular, award winning, critically acclaimed film.

I like seeing 'El Mariachi' and 'Faces' on the list.

My WTF out of this batch would be 'Silence of the Lambs' if I had to pick one. As far as films that reflects an era of film making and the culture, there are much better choices.

Dragon Tattoo

Wow, you have no problem with Forrest Gump but have qualms with them picking Silence of The Lambs.

Am I in a Bizarro Universe?

Supermallet

Well, it is also a best picture Oscar winner and was one of the few films to win the "big five" Oscars. Given the stock people put in such things as a cultural indicator, it's significant on that level.

More than that, it's a great film that holds up over time and is certainly a cultural touchstone.

Nick Danger

It's an archive. The Library of Congress also has wax cylinder recordings, acetate disks, and 78 RPM records. That's despite the fact that MP3 is the currently popular technology.

Studios have a long history of throwing away movies. Film buffs don't consider that a good trait.

Ash Ketchum

An original film print on safety stock from the pre-Eastmancolor era can last a thousand years. Let's see how long your thumb drive lasts--or the technology needed to read it.

PopcornTreeCt

Okay, I originally thought they worked their way from the back all the way to the front and that they just got to 1994 this year but that is not the case. My mistake.

Mabuse

Considering that every single police procedural show on television that has been made since 1991 apes SOTL certainly points to its influence. X-Files, CSI: Everywhere, Bones, etc.

Kory

When did it become so cool to hate "Forrest Gump"? That movie is fucking awesome.

islandclaws

That first paragraph should be bolded & spaced, or removed entirely. It makes my eyes hurt.

Nice job on selecting "War of the Worlds".

Jason

Well, I for one am glad that Fake Fruit Factory is finally getting the recognition it deserves. The National Film Registry was basically one big joke for ignoring this for so long.

Norm de Plume

I know, right? And A Cure for Pokeritis. That has been a long time coming.

filmerp

There's a doc on Netflix called "These Amazing Shadows", which goes into the reasons for creating the National Film Registry, including the fight to get film considered as art worthy of preservation, especially when Ted Turner made it his hobby to colorize B/W films.

http://www.theseamazingshadows.com/

bluetoast

Thanks for that info, I'll definitely be checking that doc out.

Rockmjd23

I remember it being divisive when it came out, despite the awards.

William Fuld

CloverClover

maybe ten years ago, but every year storage is getting smaller/faster/larger. this 'archive' is soon worthless. It's already borderline worthless

We'll have storage of every film ever made that can fit on something the size of a coin, probably 20 yrs from now. no one's leaving film history behind

Assuming the current tech is the end of progress...I sure could make data last 1,000 years, just make back-ups every few yrs.

Anyway, the national archive-as long as theyre digitizing the data they can feed these prints to the elephants. I think youve all taken Hugo a bit too seriously.

Sondheim

Nah. This was an important issue long before Hugo came out. Heck, it's been an important issue since the beginning of film.I do agree that we should have high-quality digital copies of all of the films (and I'm guessing that they already do that) - however, it's ridiculous and shortsighted to suggest that the film prints become obsolete or unnecessary as soon as we have those digital copies.

-

We do realize that film and digital are two separate things, right? Digital can be an acceptable substitute for film, but it's not really the same thing, especially regarding movies made before the home video era. I'm not one of those purists (like Jonathan Rosenbaum, up until a few years ago) who says that you haven't even really seen a movie if you haven't seen it projected through a film projector - but there are most certainly significant differences between film and digital, and I do believe it's always preferable to see a decent quality film print of a movie versus a digital projection of it. The fact of the matter is that old movies were made to be shown on film, in theaters, and even a high quality digital print of, say, "The Wizard of Oz" looks markedly inferior to an even halfway decent quality film print of the same film (and I can say that as someone who has seen "The Wizard of Oz" projected theatrically both digitally and on film.) It doesn't even really matter how compressed or uncompressed the digital file is - our brains react differently to film, and that's why some more intrinsically "filmic" (that is, ones that were made by manipulating the film itself) experimental movies, like those by Brakhage and Deren, lose much of their impact when watched on DVD or Blu-ray at home. No matter how uncompressed the digital replicates are, you can't really replicate the impact of light shining through film. In other words, for many movies, archival film prints will never be obsolete.

Also, I'm guessing that a digital file that even approaches the quality of film would have to be extremely large (significantly larger than the data on a Blu-ray disc.) Digital storage capacities are increasing rapidly, but you're drastically underestimating the time it will take for us to be able to store one hundred years of cinema (that's more than 100,000 films,) in uncompressed files, on a single hard drive.

FRwL

Good the silent era is coming back in vogue!

Ash Ketchum

You're pretty optimistic about your longevity, aren't you?

Provided you don't last that long, who's gonna take responsibility for making back-ups of every film for a thousand years? There are digital films from a few years ago that are virtually lost now.