National Film Registry Adds MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, FORBIDDEN PLANET, ROGER & ME, More

Stories about magical nannies, western desperadoes and outer space explorers in the far future as well as documentary films about dance and the economic decline of a major American city are part of the 25 new films named to the National Film Registry this year. The films span the years 1919 to 2002 and include such classics as Mary Poppins, The Magnificent Seven, Forbidden Planet, Pulp Fiction, The Right Stuff and the noir Gilda, documentaries like 1940’s Men And Dust, the Civil Rights short Cicero March and Michael Moore’s Roger & Me.

The Registry, which is maintained by the Library of Congress, was created to preserve films of culturally, historically or aesthetically significance and spans from early silent films to modern blockbusters like Star Wars and Raiders Of The Lost Ark to the historically important such as the Zaprauder film of the President Kennedy assassination. Copies of each film named to the Registry will be stored at the Library of Congress’ cold-storage vaults at the Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center near Culpeper, Va. This year’s group of 25 films brings the number of films in the registry to 625.

Librarian of Congress James H Billington states –

The National Film Registry stands among the finest summations of more than a century of extraordinary American cinema… This key component of American cultural history, however, is endangered, so we must protect the nation’s matchless film heritage and cinematic creativity.

Interesting curios on the list this year include Martha Graham Early Dance Films, a collection of three filmed performances from between 1931 and 1944 that were staged by the iconic choreographer and the impressionistic Notes On The Port Of St. Francis. Recently rediscovered and restored by the Oklahoma Historical Society, 1920’s Daughter Of Dawn features an all-Native-American cast of Comanches and Kiowas that presents a priceless record of Native-American customs, traditions and artifacts of the time.

Here is the complete list of films added this year. The starred entries have video clips below.

• Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
• Brandy in the Wilderness (1969)
• Cicero March* (1966)
• Daughter of Dawn* (1920)
• Decasia* (2002)
• Ella Cinders* (1926)
• Forbidden Planet* (1956)
• Gilda* (1946)
• The Hole (1962)
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• King of Jazz* (1930)
• The Lunch Date (1989)
• The Magnificent Seven (1960)
• Martha Graham Early Dance Films (1931-1944) – (“Heretic,” 1931; “Frontier,” 1936; “Lamentation,” 1943; “Appalachian Spring,” 1944)
• Mary Poppins (1964)
• Men and Dust* (1940)
• Midnight (1939)
• Notes on the Port of St. Francis (1951)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• The Quiet Man (1952)
• The Right Stuff (1983)
• Roger & Me (1989)
• A Virtuous Vamp (1919)
• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Wild Boys of the Road (1933)