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Wednesday
31Dec2008

'Terminator' Joins National Film Registry

DateWednesday, December 31, 2008 at 12:20AM
The Library of Congress has announced a new batch of films selected for preservation in the national film archives. There are some surprising entries - because they should have been selected years ago - and then there are some...uh...surprising entries that certainly belong, but I would've thought were going in sooner than some other classics.

For example, the National Film Registry sure has waited a long time to put Sergeant York on the list, while Terminator seems an odd choice, at least on first glace. But Librarian of Congress James Billington, who has one of the cooler professional titles you'll run across, says, "The registry helps this nation understand the diversity of America's film heritage and, just as importantly, the need for its preservation."

The preservation of old films is no doubt important, and as Billington points out, "The nation has lost about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920." But that makes me question why Terminator is in grave danger of being extinct and impossible to find in good condition. I'm not being snarky; isn't there something older we should really be concerned about? Just thinking out loud...

Anyway, the National Film Registry list is now up to 500 titles with this year's group of 25 classics:

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Deliverance (1972)
Disneyland Dream (1956)
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Flower Drum Song (1961)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Free Radicals (1979)
Hallelujah (1929)
In Cold Blood (1967)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
The Killers (1946)
The March (1964)
No Lies (1973)
On the Bowery (1957)
One Week (1920)
The Pawnbroker (1965)
The Perils of Pauline (1914)
Sergeant York (1941)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
So's Your Old Man (1926)
George Stevens World War II Footage (1943-46)
The Terminator (1984)
Water and Power (1989)
White Fawn's Devotion (1910)

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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