by Nathaniel R
Grease is the 9th film from 1978 to be selected by the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has announced their annual 25 new additions to the National Film Registry. Works are selected for their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance. The list is now 800 titles long. Each year we think. 'Oh, we should do a series on the inductees' but then another year rolls around and the list grows ever more duanting. Here we are again. See anything you love on this list?
2020 INDUCTEES
- The Battle of the Century (1927) A classic Laurel and Hardy silent comedy short
- The Blues Brothers (1980) Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi star with musical cameos by legends like Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin.
- Bread (1918) a silent from Ida May Park
- Buena Vista Social Club (1999) Wim Wenders documentary
- Cabin in the Sky (1943) All black film musical and the directing debut of the legendary versatile director Vincente Minnelli
- A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick's controversial dystopian adaptation
- The Dark Knight (2008) The superhero blockbuster
- The Devil Never Sleeps (1994) which they call "a key film by a Latina filmmaker"
- Freedom Riders (2010) a documentary about civil rights protesters against segregration in 1961
- Grease (1978) The beloved 50s-nostalgia musical
- The Ground (1993-2001) films by Robert Beavers
- The Hurt Locker (2008) The Oscar winning war drama by Kathryn Bigelow
- Illusions (1982) This was Julie Dash's MFA thesis short
- The Joy Luck Club (1993) Wayne Wang's historic Asian-American drama
- Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) the debut of Charlie Chaplin's "tramp"
- Lilies of the Field (1963) Sidney Poitier's Best Actor winning drama
- Losing Ground (1982) one of the first films directed by an African American woman. Her name was Kathleen Collins
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) Drug addiction drama with Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak
- Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege (2006) a documentary about a dormant volcano in Hawaii
- Outrage (1950) Ida Lupino directs this movie about the post traumatic effects of a rape
- Shrek (2001) Dreamwork's animated blockbuster and the first winner of the Oscar to Best Animated Feature
- Suspense (1913) Lois Weber, an early silent pioneer, directed this one
- Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) Melvin Van Peebles's influential classic
- Wattsax (1973) often referred to as 'the Black Woodstock' it's about the 1972 LA Memorial Coliseum concert
- With Car and Camera Around the World (1929) a documentary about the first woman to travel the world by car. She did it in a caravan of Ford Model T's in dozens of countries.
For fun because Grease, Shrek, and The Dark Knight are the biggest blockbusters on this list, let's look at how those film years are represented in the National Film Registry and the order in which they wre inducted.
1978
- The Deer Hunter
- Powers of Ten
- Animal House
- Halloween
- Days of Heaven
- Superman
- Girlfriends
- The Last Waltz
- Grease
OTHER FAMOUS AMERICAN FILMS FROM 1978 THAT ARE NOT ON THEIR LIST: Hal Ashby's Best Picture vietnam war era nominee Coming Home, the Best Picture nominated feminist drama An Unmarried Woman, Woody Allen's Bergman homage Interiors, All black musical The Wiz, Child prostitute drama Pretty Baby with Susan Sarandon and Brooke Shields, Ralph Bakshi's animated take on The Lord of the Rings, the animated adaptation of Watership Down, Cheech & Chong's stoner comedy Up in Smoke, the Clint Eastwood and orangutan buddy comedy Every Which Way But Loose, the all-star whodunnit Death on the Nile, the remakes Heaven Can Wait and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars, cult flick Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, the Oscar winning prison documentary Scared Straight!, and horror films Dawn of the Dead and I Spit On Your Grave. We assume Best Picture nominee Midnight Express is too British for the list but we might be wrong.
If you had to make a guess what do you think they'll select next from 1978? To be honest I'm surprised that Coming Home, The Wiz, and An Unmarried Woman aren't already on the list. Obviously a strong case could be made for many of those titles listed above. It's about historic importance, cultural impact, and aesthetic value and you don't have to have all three to be chosen.
2001 and 2008
Oops. Those years were empty in the Registry until just now. Yes, Shrek is the first and only film from 2001 elected by the Library of Congress for this list. We were going to vomit that they didn't choose Moulin Rouge! first until talking ourselves down that perhaps they considered it an Australian picture first and foremost? Other 2001 pictures will surely follow but they're clearly not in a hurry with that film year. Pity though that the ugly fad Shrek was honored before, say, Mulholland Drive or Hedwig and the Angry Inch or The Royal Tenenbaums.
2008's absence in the list (but with two titles this year) is very understandable since films have to be at least 10 years old to be selected so it's only been eligible for two cycles now.
What would you select next from 2001 and 2008?