National Film Registry Adds Fargo, Rocky, Others to Preservation List December 28, 2006
Library of Congress - Many Americans typically spend the holiday season flocking to movie theaters nationwide. But even as they enjoy the latest releases, vast portions of the nation’s movie heritage are vanishing.
It is estimated that 50 percent of the films produced before 1950, and 80 to 90 percent made before 1920, have disappeared forever. The Library of Congress is working to stanch those losses by recognizing, and working with many organizations to preserve, films that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today added 25 motion pictures to the National Film Registry (see list below) to be preserved for all time, bringing the total number of films on the registry to 450.
In making the announcement, Billington said: "The annual selection of films to the National Film Registry involves far more than the simple naming of cherished and important films to a prestigious list. The Registry should not be seen as ‘The Kennedy Center Honors,’ ‘The Academy Awards,’ or even ‘America’s Most Beloved Films.’ Rather, it is an invaluable means to advance public awareness of the richness, creativity and variety of American film heritage, and to dramatize the need for its preservation.
Despite preservation efforts by various organizations, "This key component of American cultural history is an endangered species," Billington said. He pointed out that more and more films are lost each year to nitrate deterioration, color fading and the recently discovered "vinegar syndrome," which threatens the acetate-based "safety film" stock on which the vast majority of motion pictures have been reproduced.
The 2006 selections span the years 1913 to 1996 and encompass films ranging from Hollywood classics to lesser-known but still vital works. Billington chose this year’s selections after evaluating nearly 1,000 titles nominated by the public and conducting intensive discussions with the Library’s Motion Picture division staff and the distinguished members and alternates of his advisory group, the National Film Preservation Board. The board also advises the Librarian on national film preservation policy.
For each title named to the registry, the Library of Congress works to ensure that the film is preserved for future generations, either through the Library’s massive motion picture preservation program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion picture studios and independent filmmakers.
The full list of 2006 inductees is as follows:
"Applause" (1929)
"The Big Trail" (1930)
"Blazing Saddles" (1974)
"The Curse of Quon Gwon" (1916-17)
"Daughter of Shanghai" (1937)
"Drums of Winter" (1988)
"Early Abstractions #1-5,7,10" (1939-56)
"Fargo" (1996)
"Flesh and the Devil" (1927)
"Groundhog Day" (1993)
"Halloween" (1978)
"In the Street" (1948/52)
"The Last Command" (1928)
"Notorious" (1946)
"Red Dust" (1932)
"Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania" (1971-72)
"Rocky" (1976)
"Sex, Lies and Videotape" (1989)
"Siege" (1940)
"St. Louis Blues" (1929)
"The T.A.M.I. Show" (1964)
"Tess of the Storm Country" (1914)
"Think of Me First as a Person" (1960-75)
"A Time Out of War" (1954)
"Traffic in Souls" (1913)
