Uncle Sam snubs Golden Boy — again! Just one Oscars winner added to the National Film Registry!
Every year the National Film Registry — a branch of the Library of Congress — chooses 25 movies to preserve for posterity. And, as usual, quite a few of its newest choices aren't ones deemed the best of their day by Hollywood — that is, they're not past Oscars contenders.
Although 15 of the films cited were eligible (that is, they were produced after the Oscars were launched), only nine of them received nominations and only one — 1941's "Sergeant York" — was an Oscar winner, with awards for lead actor Gary Cooper (he prevailed in two of his five bids, picking up a bookend in 1952 for "High Noon") and editor William Holmes.
Here are the current 25 selections. Keep reading for Oscars info. on the nine past nominees. First, Gold Derby needs to vent a bit.
According to the NFR's news release, movies chosen to be preserved "are not selected as the 'best' American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring significance to American culture." Isn't that the same thing? The same can be said about this comment by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who makes the final decision about what movies get chosen after discussion with the National Film Preservation Board and the library's motion picture staff: "With this year's list, the registry now includes 500 films and stands as a matchless record of the amazing creativity America has brought to the movies since the early 1890s."
There are dozens of prominent Oscar-winning fllms among the 500 already preserved, including "On the Waterfront" (1954) and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) — even modern ones like "Patton" (1970) and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975). But, surprisingly, all of these past best-picture winners are not among the 500 preserved pictures: "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956), "Broadway Melody" (1929), "Cavalcade" (1933), "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936), "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952), "Mrs. Miniver" (1942), "My Fair Lady" (1964), "Rebecca" (1940) and "You Can't Take It With You" (1938).
Among the films that snagged best-acting Oscars, let's be honest. It's a good guess that even Elizabeth Taylor isn't upset that her much-derided winner "Butterfield 8" (1960) — which even she's ridiculed — hasn't been preserved so far, but every movie lover on the planet should be outraged that the flick that earned her Oscar No. 2 — one of the greatest films ever made, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" — has been overlooked too. NFR is lucky that Bette Davis isn't around to tell them what she thinks about the snubs of her two Oscar champs: "Dangerous" (1935) and "Jezebel" (1938).
The registry estimates that half of the movies produced before 1950 have been lost because of the deterioration of nitrate- or acetate-based celluloid. Nonetheless, it's not bothered to rescue any of these pics that won acting Oscars before that date: "Boys Town" (1938), "A Double Life" (1947), "The Farmer's Daughter" (1947), "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), "Goodbye, "Mr. Chips" (1939), "The Informer" (1935), "Jezebel" (1938), "Johnny Belinda" (1948), "Key Largo" (1948), "None but the Lonely Heart" (1944), "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942), "Sergeant York" (1941), "Song of Bernadette" (1943), "Suspicion" (1940), "The Razor's Edge" (1946), "To Each His Own" (1946), "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945), "Watch on the Rhine" (1943). All of these Oscar champs still survive, but not in the extreme mint condition that NFR delivers.
However, the registry has toiled to save pictures from that same era like "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) and "Lassie Come Home" (1943). Lots of modern movies are among the 500 saved ones even though there's obviously less threat of losing them compared with oldies. Among the more recent inclusions: "The Nutty Professor" (1964), "Alien" (1979) — even "Groundhog Day" (1993)! Here you can see the full list of rescued films made between 1989 and 2007. Here you can see a list of movies still neglected.
The following descriptions of the nine Oscar-nominated entries are taken from the official National Film Registry announcement. Underneath each item, Gold Derby cites, in italics, how the film did at the Oscars.
"The Asphalt Jungle" (1950) — John Huston’s brilliant crime drama contains the recipe for a meticulously planned robbery, but the cast of criminal characters features one too many bad apples. Sam Jaffe, as the twisted mastermind, uses cash from corrupt attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern) to assemble a group of skilled thugs to pull off a jewel heist. All goes as planned — until an alert night watchman and a corrupt cop enter the picture. Marilyn Monroe has a memorable bit part as Emmerich's "niece."
Four Academy Award nominations for "The Asphalt Jungle": director, supporting actor (Jaffe), screenplay, cinematography
"Deliverance" (1972) — Four Atlanta professionals (Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronnie Cox and Jon Voight) head for a weekend canoe trip — and instead meet up with two of the more memorable villains in film history (Billy McKinney and Herbert Coward) in this gripping Appalachian "Heart of Darkness." With dazzling visual flair, director John Boorman and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond infuse James Dickey's novel with scenes of genuine terror and frantic struggles for survival battling river rapids — and in the process create a work rich with fascinating ambiguities about civilized values, urban-versus-backwoods culture, nature, and man's supposed taming of the environment.
Three Academy Award nominations for "Deliverance": picture, director, editing
"Flower Drum Song" (1961) — This film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical marked the first Hollywood studio film featuring performances by a mostly Asian cast, a break from past practice of casting white actors made up to appear Asian. Starring prominent Asian-American actors Nancy Kwan and James Shigeta, this milestone film presented an enduring three-dimensional portrait of Asian America as well as a welcomed, non-cliched portrait of Chinatown beyond the usual exotic tourist facades.
Five Academy Award nominations for "Flower Drum Song": art direction, cinematography, costumes, score, sound
"Hallelujah!" (1929) — The all-black-cast film "Hallelujah" was a surprising gamble by normally conservative MGM, allowed chiefly because director King Vidor deferred his salary and MGM had proved slow to convert from silent to sound films. Vidor had to shoot silent film of the mass-river-baptism and swamp-murder Tennessee location scenes. He then painstakingly synchronized the dialogue and music. Around themes of religion, sensuality and family stability, Vidor molded a tale of a cotton sharecropper that begins with him losing his year's earnings, his brother and his freedom and follows him through the temptations of a dancehall girl (Nina Mae McKinney). The passionate conviction of the melodrama and the resourceful technical experiments make "Hallelujah" among the very first indisputable masterpieces of the sound era.
One Academy Award nomination for "Hallelujah!": director
"In Cold Blood" (1967) — In 1959 two men brutally murdered four members of a Holcomb, Kan., family. Truman Capote reported on the infamous incident, first in a series of New Yorker articles and later in his non-fiction novel, "In Cold Blood." With an unsparing neo-realism, director Richard Brooks adapted Capote's novel, focusing on the motivations, backgrounds, and relationship of the killers, society's failure to spot potential murderers, and their eventual execution on death row. Filmed in striking black-and-white documentary style by cinematographer Conrad Hall, the film starred then-unknown actors Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, both of whom bore a close physical resemblance to the real-life murderers. Blake, in particular, provides a sensational, multi-layered portrayal. The chilling ending depicts Blake climbing to the gallows to be hanged as we hear his heartbeat slowly come to a stop as the screen fades to black.
Four Academy Award nominations for "In Cold Blood": director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, score
"The Killers" (1946) — Director Robert Siodmak took the original Ernest Hemingway short story as the film's opening point and developed it with an elaborate series of flashbacks, creating a classic example of film noir. Two killers shatter a small town's quiet before an insurance investigator (Edmond O’Brien) digs up crime, betrayal, and a glamorous woman (Ava Gardner) behind an ex-fighter's death (Burt Lancaster's electrifying film debut).
Four Academy Award nominations for "The Killers": director, adapted screenplay, editing, score
"On the Bowery" (1957) — "On the Bowery" is Lionel Rogosin's acclaimed, unrelenting docudrama about the infamous New York City zone known as the Bowery. The film focuses on three of its alcoholic skid row denizens and their marginal existence amid the gin mills, missions and flop houses. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote that "this is a dismal exposition to be charging people money to see." Rogosin and his small crew spent months on the Bowery observing and talking with residents. They crafted the film as a "synthesis" of Bowery life, and it remains a wrenching portrait of hopelessness, despair and broken dreams. The film's writer, Mark Sufrin, wrote in an issue of Sight and Sound magazine: "Very few, once they hit the Bowery, ever leave, are reclaimed, or rehabilitated.... I had escaped that frightening place. They still remain."
One Academy Award nomination for "The Bowery": documentary feature
"The Pawnbroker" (1965) — "The Pawnbroker" was the first Hollywood film to depict in a realistic, psychologically probing manner the trauma of a Holocaust survivor, a subject previously taboo because of the fear of poor box office or offending delicate sensitivities. Rod Steiger's astounding performance — as he tries to repress his memories of the anguish, physical and emotional shame of being an internment-camp inmate — also serves a perfect allegory for American film's own struggles to represent this major tragedy of 20th century history.
One Academy Award nomination for "The Pawnbroker": best actor (Steiger)
"Sergeant York" (1941) — Gary Cooper, in one of his favorite roles, won his first Oscar for his dead-on portrayal of Tennessee pacifist Sgt. Alvin York, who in an Argonne Forest World War I battle single-handedly captured over 130 German soldiers. A stirring film, which appeared six months before America entered World War II as a nation and inspired Americans through the later conflict, "Sergeant York" contains three main segments all masterfully directed by Howard Hawks: Cooper's life in Tennessee, the war scenes, and post-war scenes in New York City where his newfound fame briefly tempts Cooper not to return to his Tennessee home. This film is Americana at its finest.
Two Academy Awards for "Sergeant York": actor (Cooper), editing. Nine other nominations: picture, director, supporting actor (Walter Brennan), supporting actress (Margaret Wycherly), screenplay, art direction, cinematography, score, sound
Photos: Columbia Pictures, Universal, United Artists
Does the Registry take into account films that are restored by their studios? If so, it would account for a film like My Fair Lady that is not yet included because it has already undergone an extensive restoration (albeit after almost being lost forever).
Similarly, there is a dearth of Disney films on the list; and there are none of Disney's early shorts except for Steamboat Willie and The Three Little Pigs. Is this because Disney has been adept in the storage and restoration of its films or because the Registry doesn't think "Flowers and Trees" or "Der Fuhrer's Face" are worthy of inclusion? Still, the NFR seemed to think 1991s "Beauty and the Beast" was so important as to warrant inclusion in the registry; if a film that still makes tons of money for Disney was deemed to need restoration, what does that mean for brilliant 1930s Silly Symphonies that are rarely seen today.
The Registry seems to have trouble defining itself. Does it exist to protect the best of the best American films (look at 1989's entries) or things like the Zapruder film or forgotten but important older films that no studio would bother restoring and holding?
The fact these early Oscar winners are not included is troubling though. Has anyone ever seen "Cavalcade"? Does a decent print still exist? I can't think Fox would be in too much of a hurry to spend millions to restore it with little return possible. Maybe the NFR should have two lists: one with 25 older films that are in serious need of restoration, and another with 25 modern films that are known to be in decent shape but are important enough to be saved if need be.
Posted by: ctman | January 04, 2009 at 09:40 AM
I agree that the NFR shouldn't rubber-stamp the Academy; it *should* look for great films that didn't get Oscars--yes, even sometimes home movies. But that should NOT come at the cost of snubbing great films that DID win Oscars. Why is it that "Silence of the Lambs" is NOT in the NFR, while the Best Picture winners on either side of it ("Dances With Wolves" and "Unforgiven") are? I don't think the NFR actually prefers Westerns over thrillers, but that's what that implies.
And why is "Hoop Dreams" the *only* 1994 film on the list, to the exclusion of "Forrest Gump", "Pulp Fiction", "The Shawshank Redemption", and "The Lion King"? You can't blame that one on Oscar; "Shawshank" didn't win any Oscars either (though it was nommed, as was "Hoop Dreams"--though it was famously snubbed for Documentary Feature).
Posted by: RBBrittain | January 03, 2009 at 04:19 AM
Oh, and if being a British film is disqualifying for the NFR, why are "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia" on the list? They at least had a minimal amount of Hollywood support; but then so did "Rebecca" and "Mrs. Miniver".
Posted by: RBBrittain | January 03, 2009 at 04:19 AM
One more thing: aren't they largely concerned with preserving AMERICAN films? If so, REBECCA and MRS. MINIVER are largely British-based movies (with a couple of American participants sprinkled to and fro), so that could explain that.
Posted by: Dean Treadway | January 02, 2009 at 01:01 PM
> "Flower Drum Song" (1961) — This film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical [...] this presented an enduring three-dimensional portrait of Asian America as well as a welcomed, non-cliched portrait of Chinatown beyond the usual exotic tourist facades."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I guess they have no Asian Americans on the panel. My understanding is that this movie (and the play) is not considered a "non-cliched portrait of Chinatown beyond the usual exotic tourist facades."
Posted by: brainypirate | January 01, 2009 at 09:21 PM
that's nonsense, seanflynn. There are dozens of prominent Oscar-winning fllms among the 500 already preserved. Yankee Doodle Dandy. Roman Holiday. Even modern ones. Patton, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest., Midnight Cowboy. They should not be picking Groundhog Day and Terminator over Mrs. Miniver and Rebecca, for chrissake.
Posted by: tomoneil | January 01, 2009 at 05:41 PM
I agree with seanflynn that winning a Best Pic Oscar should not be an automatic ticket into the registry. Of the winning films that haven't made it in, only YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, REBECCA, and MRS. MINIVER are at least acceptable. 80 DAYS, BROADWAY MELODY, CAVALCADE, ZIEGFELD, FAIR LADY and especially GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH are 6 least deserving pre-1980s Best Pic winners ever (and I would add CIMARRON to the bunch, too).
That said, it is an outrage that the cinema's greatest stage-to-screen adaptation WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? is not yet in the registry. But there's always next year.
I love that the NFR is always educating me about shorts, docs, and sleepers that I know next to nothing about. Next to their preservation crusade, this is the organization's most sacred duty, and I applaud that they have yet again performed well. And, yes, I agree with the inclusion of GROUNDHOG DAY and THE TERMINATOR--two profound movies, in their own special ways.
Posted by: Dean Treadway | January 01, 2009 at 05:35 PM
This is a clueless posting...seanflynn is right.
Posted by: johnc | January 01, 2009 at 05:35 PM
I know someone who is part of the selection committee, and has been for many years.
The second most important factor in selecting films, beyond merit, is finding those which otherwise might be overlooked and ignored.
A film that has won best picture or a lead acting Oscar is by definition one that has achieved immortality.
The registry has done a great job in giving attention to films that most people don''t know about. Rubberstamping Oscar winners is not, and should not, be part of their job.
Posted by: seanflynn | January 01, 2009 at 12:26 PM