25 Films Added to Nat'l Film Registry, 2022

[rick]

National Film Registry Adds Another 25


Films Selected for the 2022 National Film Registry

(chronological order)

Mardi Gras Carnival (1898)
Cab Calloway Home Movies (1948-1951)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
Charade (1963)
Scorpio Rising (1963)
Behind Every Good Man (1967)
Titicut Follies (1967)
Mingus (1968)
Manzanar (1971)
Betty Tells Her Story (1972)
Super Fly (1972)
Attica (1974)
Carrie (1976)
Union Maids (1976)
Word is Out: Stories of Our Lives (1977)
Bush Mama (1979)
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982)
Itam Hakim, Hopiit (1984)
Hairspray (1988)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Tongues Untied (1989)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
House Party (1990)
Iron Man (2008)
Pariah (2011)

[erik]

Interesting group of films there.

I do want to put it a good word for Carrie, the very first film adaptation of a Stephen King novel (his first novel too [natch!]).  Sissy Spacek almost won a Best Actress Oscar right then and there for her portrayal of a tormented high school teen with telekinetic powers who, after the brow-beating she gets from a religiously obsessed mother (Piper Laurie) and the destructive harassment she gets from her high-school classmates, takes those powers public in a most frightening fashion at the prom. This film, directed by Brian DePalma, is not just a horror film, although it is that, and certainly one of the best horror films of the 1970's to boot. It is a very evocative study of what it is like to be a teenager in America, and to torn by not only having to conform to what is considered "socially acceptable" behavior at high school, but to also be at the "mercy" of religious fanaticism. The scene at the prom, after Spacek and her date (William Katt) win the vote for king and queen in a rigged election, through the horrific humiliation she then suffers, and then the horror that she unleashes, is truly unforgettable, even if certain elements about it seem dated. It is also, however, not nearly as graphic in terms of its violence as most horror films of our time now unfortunately are. I'd even go so far as to suggest that one can see the warning signs of such incidents as Columbine and Virginia Tech in what happens during the prom.

So on that count alone, I think Carrie definitely deserves its place in this year's National Film Registry list.