Each year in December, the Stateside Library of Congress carefully selects 25 films that will officially be added to the distinguished U.S. National Film Registry. Movies that make it into such an archive are heralded as near-perfect crafts that leave an everlasting impact not only on the film industry as a whole but on American heritage and human culture. Among the submissions this year, one, in particular, stands out as probably equally expected and unexpected.
Per a report from Empire Online, the 2008 blockbuster Iron Man, which essentially resurrected the genre of superhero/comic films from its bare existence, established the MCU, and heroically saved actor Robert Downey Jr’s life, has made it into the Registry. Fans worldwide undoubtedly applaud this addition to the chronicles of film history, and it would be difficult to dispute its monumental impact on multiple generations. Of course, the MCU and the astronomical resurgence of superhero films, in general, has not been without backlash from harsher critics and a select number of acclaimed directors, who adamantly believe that such films hold no substance and have even tarnished the tradition of filmmaking. Regardless of such opinions, Iron Man now historically represents one of the most successful genres of film.
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The Ongoing Legacy of the National Film Registry
Other landmark films added to the Registry include When Harry Met Sally (1989), a romantic comedy for the ages starring young Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan that gave audiences one of the most hilarious fake sex scenes in film. Disney’s animated classic The Little Mermaid (1989), which paved the way for many more animated musicals and recently got the remake treatment, also made the list.
Also added to the list include the original camp musical Hairspray (1988) directed by John Waters, the original film rendition of Carrie (1967) based on the book by Stephen King, neo-noir blaxploitation film Superfly (1972) starring Ron O’Neal, Titicut Follies (1976) which was a searing account of living conditions in a Massachusetts state prison for the criminally insane, and Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), for which Jose Ferrer became the first Hispanic actor to win an Oscar for the Best Actor category. The oldest film on the list to be added this year was a clip of newsreel footage from 1898 of a Mardis Gras Carnival Parade in New Orleans, though to be lost and later found in a museum in the Netherlands.
The complete list of submitted films can be viewed here. As of this year, 850 movies have been added to the U.S. National Film Registry and can include any and all manner of genres of films, from dramas to documentaries to musicals and experimental student films. In a pledge for even further diversification, many of the films submitted this year were also helmed by female, minority, and LGBTQ+ directors/co-directors.
