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25 films get a “Close Encounter” with historic film registry

By David W. Shelton | December 27, 2007 |

The United States National Film Preservation Board announced today that 25 new films would be added to the historic film registry begun in 1989. To date, 475 films have been added to the list. The new additions include Stephen Spielberg’s classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the 1985 hit Back to the Future.

The US National Film Preservation Board was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988 by Congress. Each year, 25 new films are added to the National Film Registry of films for preservation in the Library of Congress.

Today’s additions also include the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt, which fully propelled the star to iconic status, and Kevin Costner’s historical opus, Dances with Wolves. Grand Hotel, 12 Angry Men, and Wuthering Heights are also among the additions.

The film registry already includes last year’s more well-known inductees: Rocky, Groundhog Day, Fargo, and Halloween. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Miracle on 34th Street, The Sting, and Toy Story were added in 1995.

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant motion pictures to the Registry. The list is designed to reflect the full breadth and diversity of America’s film heritage, thus increasing public awareness of the richness of American cinema and the need for its preservation.

The list of the nearly-500 films that make up the list of significant films includes:

Alien (1979)
American Graffiti (1973)
Apocolypse Now (1979)
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Both the 1925 and 1959 version of Ben-Hur
The Black Stallion (1979)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Cabaret (1972)
Casablanca (1942)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Dracula (1931)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Easy Rider (1969)
Fantasia (1940)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Frankenstein (1931)
The French Connection (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Graduate (1967)
Hoosiers (1986)
How the West was Won (1962)
The Hustler (1961)
King Kong (1933)
Lassie Come Home (1943)
The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
The Last Picture Show (1972)
M*A*S*H* (1970)
The Manchurian Candidate (1862)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939)
Nashville (1979)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Nutty Professor (1963)
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Peter Pan (1924)
Psycho (1960)
Rebel without a Cause (1955)
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
Shaft (1971)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The Sound of Music (1965)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Thin Man (1934)
The Thing from another World (1951)
The Fly (1976)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Tootsie (1982)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1068)
Unforgiven (1992)
West Side Story (1961)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Zapruder Film (1963)

About David W. Shelton

Posts by David W. Shelton are copyright (c)2006, 2007, 2008 by the author. All rights reserved. David W. Shelton is a writer, speaker and activist in Clarksville, and serves on the Clarksville Human Relations Commission. His passions include film and complete equality for all people, and he has worked in various capacities to work toward this goal. He is currently an illustrator, graphic designer, trainer, and is the owner of Imagine Media Solutions. He is an Adobe® Certified Instructor in Photoshop®.

Web Site: http://www.skippingtothepiccolo.com/

Email: dwshelton@charter.net

Sections: Arts and Leisure
Topics: Back to the Future, Close Encounters, United States National Film Preservation Board

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