Live Poll: 2022 National Film Registry

@TheOldJalapenoman​ 

Not best, just most historical value.

For me that would probably be the Mardi Grass short which is the oldest surviving film about the event.

@cinephile​ The NFR's mission is to preserve films it deems "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". There's nothing in the criteria about being great, wonderful, transcendent works of immense beauty. The registry happens to include some of the best films of all time. It also includes many that are trashy, offensive, stupid and outdated (The Birth of a Nation comes to mind), but it does this because those films play an important part in our nation's history. It's not like the Oscars where their mission is to honor the greatest achievements of the greatest achievers, nor is it meant to be a highly-curated list of essential movies for movie-lovers à la 1001 Movies to See Before You Die. The purpose is to preserve the most significant parts of a particular nation's film history, warts and all. To that end, I'd say for the most part, the National Film Registry has been doing a pretty good job overall. I have some minor criticisms of my own - I do feel like it has neglected certain genres and does not treat all subcultures and geographic regions equally - but the inclusion of movies like The Little Mermaid and Iron Man is definitely not one of them.

The Little Mermaid and Iron Man both had a tremendous impact on the film industry and on their respective genres. Both became landmarks of the start of a new era in film history. Both have remained highly popular and well-recognized for over a decade. In what universe does that not qualify them as culturally significant?

@timothy_gray_el34lojg1aih1​ 

Iron Man is not culturally important, aesthetically important, or historically important. It is anthropologically important. It impacts tell us about society as it is right now, this appeal won't last. I would not dare to compare The Birth of a Nation with Iron Man. We will talk about it when Iron Man turns 107 years old.

@cinephile​ I just looked up the definition of "anthropologically" on Google. It says:

in a way that relates to the study of the human race, its culture and society, and its physical development

How can it be anthropologically important, but not culturally important? What you are saying makes zero sense.

@timothy_gray_el34lojg1aih1​ 

Simple, films are culture, Iron Man is culture, but it is not important to the culture. However, the study of Iron Man is anthropology as it is also important to society, I would not say it tells a lot about human history, physical development, etc. But, being important to society is anthropologically important. 

In other words, being culturally important implies being anthropologically important. But, being anthropologically important does not imply being culturally important. That is how Iron Man is anthropologically important without satisfying (in my opinion) the criteria for the NFR.

As for The Little Mermaid, it is not important whatsoever in any domain except maybe aesthetical. But, that is debatable because it does not revolutionize anything. It brought Disney into the so-called renaissance era, but the history of the corporation is not closely enough linked to the story of the country.

I think that we should preserve what we can be proud of. And, as much as you seem the dislike Birth of a Nation, we can be proud of it, it is a major achievement in cinema history. I don't think there is anything to be proud of in Iron Man, I don't want archeologists or aliens to find traces of this film in 500 years. I'm not American so it feels weird to tell Americans what should or should not be preserved at the Library of Congress. But, Iron Man should definitely not be preserved at the Library of Congress, unless we are talking about the Library of Congress' dumpster.

@cinephile​ Perhaps The Birth of a Nation is not the best example to bring up to make my point. It was very influential and the filmmaking techniques are spectacular, it's the message of the movie that I hate. There are other examples of movies in the NFR that obviously were not inducted on the basis of masterful film technique or being something we can be "proud of". The two Roy Rogers/Gene Autry vehicles (Under Western Stars & Melody Ranch, respectively) in the NFR were undoubtedly inducted based on the fact they were hugely popular at the time, more than anything else. These movies are not hailed as masterpieces by contemporary film aficionados. There's also stuff like a short from 1954 called The House in the Middle, which is a piece of cold war propaganda attempting to show housewives how they can protect their house from an atomic blast with good housekeeping. Does that sound like something that the filmmakers (or our country in general) can be proud of? I don't think so, but it's definitely of historical interest. There's religious propaganda in there as well - Hellbound Train (1930), inducted last year, was made to scare parishioners away from the dangers of listening to jazz, and one I haven't seen called The Blood of Jesus (1941), which seemingly has an anti-atheist message. If these films weren't over over 50 years old, we'd probably be putting them in the same cinematic tier as something like God's Not Dead (2014). These too were not inducted for quality, per se. Finally, there's some movies in there that even I have to scratch my head and wonder why (like Gigi (1958)).

Suffice it to say, I think The Little Mermaid and Iron Man will fit right in, even though they might not be the greatest movies ever. They play an important part in the story of America's film history, and that alone makes them worth preserving.

P.S.

I maintain that your explanation for how a film can be anthropologically important but not culturally important is nonsensical and constitutes an assault on the English language.

Also, The Birth of a Nation is many things, but something to "be proud of" is not one of them. Impressed? Sure. Proud? No. It's a shame that so much effort was put into something so hateful.

@Jessica​ 

Thanks, it has been corrected.

And sorry for taking this long to reply, I took a small trip adn only logged in for the bare minimum this last three days.

@Peter_pbn​ Thanks.