US Library of Congress added cinematic works
( 2003-12-17 14:36) (Agencies)
The US Library of Congress has
added 25 landmark cinematic works to its National Film Registry, ranging from
popular classics like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to a documentary
about giraffe hunting in Africa.
This year's selections, bringing to 375 the number of movies added to the
registry since it was established in 1989, span nearly 100 years of motion
pictures dating back to an 1894 attempt by pioneering film engineer W.K.L.
Dickson of the Thomas Edison Company to combine film images with sound.
This year's most modern entry was the 1988 animated short "Tin Toy" from
Pixar Studios, which went on to revolutionise computer animation with such hits
as "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo."
The list also includes such obscure but culturally significant works as the
1924 Inuit title "The Chechahcos," the first feature film produced in Alaska;
"The Hunters," a 1957 study of a giraffe hunt by Kalahari Desert tribesmen; and
a 1928 Fox Movietone newsreel about a group of touring black musicians from
South Carolina, the Jenkins Orphanage Band.
Better-known works are the 1969 western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,"
starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford; Mel Brooks' 1974 horror spoof "Young
Frankenstein"; Elizabeth Taylor's 1944 breakout film "National Velvet; James
Cagney's 1949 turn as a psychopathic gangster in "White Heat"; George C. Scott's
acclaimed performance in the 1970 Oscar winner "Patton"; and the rather steamy
pre-Production Code film "Tarzan and His Mate" from 1934.
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