‘Lion King,’ ‘Princess Bride,’ More Added to the National Film Registry
The one good thing that the United States Congress has ever done was pass the National Film Preservation Act in 1988, establishing a National Film Registry in the Library of Congress wherein moving pictures deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” can be securely preserved. The National Film Preservation Board can induct up to 25 new entries into the archives each year, and today Deadline brings the news of which movies will effectively achieve immortality as the Class of 2016. Lots of enduring, worthy works have made the cut, though it is with a solemn heart that I must once again report the egregious continued snub of Pauly Shore comedy vehicle Bio-Dome.
The 25 new inductees, spanning an eligibility period from 1903 to 1998, will bump the full total of entries in the registry to 700. Among this year’s most notable inclusions: Alfred Hitchcock’s chilling death-from-above horrorshow The Birds, John Hughes’ seminal high-school coming-of-age touchstone The Breakfast Club, the James Dean-starring East of Eden, Disney’s second coming highlight The Lion King, LGBT landmark documentary Paris is Burning, everyone’s most beloved fairytale The Princess Bride, and feminist buddy comedy Thelma & Louise. Wes Anderson will make his debut in the registry in his first year of eligibility, for 1998’s Rushmore, and a lesser-known favorite also joins the ranks in Robert Downey Sr.’s acidic advertising satire Putney Swope. The full list has been reproduced below, and they’re all more than worth a look:
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
Ball of Fire (1941)
The Beau Brummels (1928)
The Birds (1963)
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
East of Eden (1955)
Funny Girl (1968)
Life of an American Fireman (1903)
The Lion King (1994)
Lost Horizon (1937)
Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
Paris Is Burning (1990)
Point Blank (1967)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Putney Swope (1969)
Rushmore (1998)
Solomon Sir Jones films (1924-28)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Suzanne, Suzanne (1982)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
A Walk in the Sun (1945)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)