"The registry helps this nation understand the diversity of America's film heritage and, just as importantly, the need for its preservation," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in announcing his 2008 selections. "The nation has lost about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920."
The other films selected to the 2008 National Film Registry are: "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), "Deliverance" (1972), "Disneyland Dream" (1956), "A Face in the Crowd" (1957), "Flower Drum Song" (1961), "Foolish Wives" (1922), "Free Radicals" (1979), "Hallelujah" (1929), "In Cold Blood" (1967), "The Invisible Man" (1933), "Johnny Guitar" (1954), "The Killers" (1946), "The March" (1964), "No Lies" (1973), "On the Bowery" (1957), "One Week" (1920), "The Pawnbroker" (1965), "The Perils of Pauline" (1914), "Sergeant York" (1941), "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), "So's Your Old Man" (1926), "George Stevens WWII Footage" (1943-46), "Water and Power" (1989), and "White Fawn's Devotion" (1910).
These latest additions bring the number of films in the registry to reach 500.
Curators select films based on their cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance, saying their picks wouldn't necessarily overlap with those of a movie critic. And some aren't feature films at all: This year's list includes a family's home movie, "Disneyland Dream," which documented a trip to the newly opened park in Anaheim, Calif., in 1956.
"The selection of a title for the registry is not meant to duplicate the Academy Awards or anything like that," said Patrick Loughney, head of the library's audio-visual center.
Some films were selected for their historical value, such as "Hallelujah," the tale of a cotton sharecropper made by MGM as the studio was transitioning from silent to sound films. The 1910 film "White Fawn's Devotion," the oldest film selected this year, was made by James Young Deer. He was the first documented American Indian movie director.
Other movies inspired the nation during times of trouble, such as "Sergeant York" from 1941, which told the story of a Tennessee pacifist who captured 130 German soldiers in World War I. The film stars Gary Cooper.
