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One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous one-liners will be back for
generations to come, now that 1984's "The Terminator" has been selected
for preservation in the nation's film archive.
{sidebar id=1}The low-budget film directed by James Cameron set
a new standard for science-fiction and made Schwarzenegger, now
California's governor, a star. The Library of Congress announced
Tuesday morning that it's one of 25 films being added to the National
Film Registry. The formal unveiling was scheduled for 8 a.m.
The
move will guard Schwarzenegger's deadpan, "I'll be back," against
deterioration, along with the sounds and images of the other culturally
significant picks. Other titles being added to the registry include the
groundbreaking all-black-cast film "Hallelujah" from 1929; Richard
Brooks' 1967 film adaptation of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood"; and
the 1972 film "Deliverance," based on James Dickey's novel about four
businessmen on a nightmarish canoe trip in the remote Georgia
wildnerness.
"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."
As time
passes, older nitrate- and acetate-based films begin to deteriorate,
Billington said. The Library of Congress is working to digitize and
preserve endangered film and audio files at its new Packard Campus of
the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, an approximately $250
million facility built in a bunker in the hills near Culpeper, Va.
With Tuesday's additions, the total number of films in the registry will reach 500.
The
registry, established by Congress in 1989, works with film archives and
movie studios that own the rights to the selected films to ensure
original copies are kept safe. It also acquires a copy for preservation
in its own vaults among millions of other recordings.
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.
The
library accepted public nominations for the film registry selections
online and issued a specific call for lesser-known films, including
amateur and home-movie footage.
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, a
member of the Winnebago tribe.
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, starring Gary Cooper, was
released just months before the United States entered World War II.
Source: AP
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