8.

Cartoons, a shrinking goon and Dog Day Afternoon

The National Film Registry selects this year’s 25 films for preservation

By Angela Espinoza

adds 25 films to their collection of those deemed

worthy of preservation in the Library of Congress
so that future generations have the opportunity to view
them. The NFR chooses films of all sorts, relying not
on quality, analysis or skill within the films, but on their
contributions to the film industry and their importance in
history.

Of the 25 selected for entry, certain films happen

to stand out from the rest. One example is The Muppet
Movie, a 1979 feature film about Jim Henson’s ever-
popular creations, The Muppets, as they are portrayed in
a film-within-a-film about their origins. Another film that
stands out is not so much a film, but a music video. The
first of its kind to be entered in the NFR, the music video
for the Michael Jackson hit “Thriller” has also been

B= year, the National Film Registry (NFR)

entered for preservation, undoubtedly due to his recent
passing..

Dog Day Afternoon, a film I’m particularly fond
of, has also been selected for preservation. Based on
true events, the 1975 classic, staring Al Pacino and John
Cazale, tells the story of two men who hold up a bank
containing several hostages, refusing to cooperate with
the barricade of police outside until their demands are
met. The film is noted for a scene in which Pacino’s
character, Sonny, speaks out against the police, drawing
the crowd of on-lookers to chant “Attica!” in reference
to the Attica Prison riot. The film is also noted for its
usage of bisexual and transgender characters, as well
as containing no musical score other than Elton John’s
“Amoreena” within the opening credits.

The oldest film in this year’s selection, the 1911
short film Little Nemo, portrays the creator of the original
Little Nemo comics providing an animated film sequence

 

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to a group of businessmen. Not only are two of the ten
minutes in the film beautifully animated, it’s shown in
brightly painted colours, while the remainder of the film
is in black and white.

Another interesting film added to the bill is the
1957 sci-fi classic, The Incredible Shrinking Man, which
made use of over-sized props and impressive camera
techniques for its time.

The newest film to be added was the 1995
experimental animated short film, Scratch and Crow,
created by Helen Hill, an experimental animator and
filmmaker who lived in Canada for a short time, and
subsequently had a Nova Scotia animation award
named after her when she was murdered in 2007 at the
age of 36. Amongst this film’s entries are two other
experimental films: Janie Geiser’s animated The Red
Book, released in 1994, and Sidney Peterson’s 1949
experimental/surrealist film, The Lead Shoes.

The Story of GI. Joe, an acclaimed 1945 war film, is
about war correspondent Ernie Pyle as he journeys with
an American infantry unit during World War II. Based
on Pyle’s actual Pulitzer Prize-winning articles, the film
went on to be nominated for four Academy Awards. For
the record, the G.I. Joe action figures are not related to
the film; only the name in the film’s title was used, which -
refers to the generic government-issued “Joe’s.”

One unique film titled Precious Images, released
in 1986, is an eight minute short film consisting
of 470 half-second clips from dozens of culturally
aesthetic American films up to that point, with musical
accompaniment made specifically for particular genres
focused upon in the film’s several movie montages.

One of the stranger films selected is the 1975
animated short film, Quasi at the Quackadero. An adult-
themed surrealist cartoon, the basic premise follows two
anthropomorphic ducks and a robot as they spend their
day at a futuristic theme park that exploits the ability to
use time travel and mind reading techniques, and one
of the ducks plans to eliminate the other. The film has
become a cult classic, and I’m sure something of an
artifact amongst the counterculture community.

Among the remaining 14 films selected for

preservation are:

The Exiles (1961)

Heroes All (1920)

Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972)
Jezebel (1938)

The Jungle (1967)

Mabel’s Blunder (1914)

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Pillow Talk (1959)

The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1930-1936)
Stark Love (1927)

A Study in Reds (1932)

Under Western Stars (1938)