In mid-December every year, the Library of
Congress releases a list of 25 films that will be
added to the National Film
Registry; each work receives a substantial amount of money to be used for
preservation and restoration. This list is the cinematic heritage of the United
States and my second favorite film event of the year behind the Oscars.
The National Film Preservation Board invites the
general public to submit entries. I thought it would be fun to publish my ten submitted
recommendations for 2020. Here they are:
1. …Baby One More Time (1998)
– This music video represents the start of the late 90s pop phenomenon that
would go on to influence artists like Christina Aguilera, N*SYNC, Mandy Moore,
and Jessica Simpson. It featured rising star Britney Spears in her most
memorable performance. With its high school venue and suggestive lyrics, it
also started a national conversation about appropriate displays of sexuality,
especially in the teenage years.
2. Dancing Baby (1996)
– This short digital clip was one of the first major viral videos and internet
memes shared widely across the web, launching millions more.
3. The King of Kings (1927)
– De Mille certainly wasn’t the first filmmaker to tackle the greatest story
ever told, but he made it a Hollywood staple. This was one of the biggest films
of the silent era with an amazing performance by H. B. Warner in the title role
and writing that preserves the glory of the King James translation while being
intelligible to a contemporary audience. It also one of the first epics to use
color.
4. The Land Before Time (1988)
– This is a classic of late 20th century animation that got
every kid interested in dinosaurs. It also introduced loss and recovery in a
way not seen since Bambi and Old Yeller.
5. The Line and the Dot (1965)
– Chuck Jones creates an experimental animated romance out of geometric shapes,
demonstrating the universal nature of gender archetypes.
6. Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)
– Thanks to a late night TV showing featuring wise-cracking robots, this has
rightly earned the reputation as possibly the worse film ever made but endless
watched and discussed with glee by a generation of future film critics. It also
shows an early example of independent filmmaking, shot on a shoestring budget
by an insurance salesman.
7. Me at the Zoo (2005)
– This nineteen second short film created by friend Yakov Lapitsky was the
first film uploaded to YouTube by co-founder Jawed Karim, launching the 3rd most
visited website in the world and fundamentally changing the medium of film
forever.
8. Mean Girls (2004) –
In a subtle way, Mean Girls dealt with the rise of bullying in
high schools as well as the experience of being a teenage girl. It is a
cornerstone of high school movies for Millennials in the same way John Hughes
was for Generation X.
9. The Passion of the Christ (2004)
– This cultural landmark covers the last day of Jesus of Nazareth, filmed in
Latin and Aramaic. While immediately controversial for its violence and
accusations of anti-Semitism, it continues to be seen by many for its religious
convictions. As of 2015, it is still the highest grossing R-rated film and
non-English film made.
10. The Patterson–Gimlin Film (1967)
– This film, which runs only a few seconds, claims to show a real Bigfoot
walking through a Northern California forest. Whether true or a hoax, it set
off a firestorm of paranormal interest in the United States that continues to
the present.
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