Every year, America’s National Film Registry selects a varied group of films it considers noteworthy to be given the sort of archival protection normally reserved for priceless museum pieces. This year, the lucky group includes Mary Poppins, Pulp Fiction and **Forbidden Planet.
While some could see a weird corporate synergy cooked up by Disney to have Poppins – the very film whose difficult genesis is chronicled in its new P.L. Travers film **Saving Mr. Banks **– added to the register this year, it simply appears to be a coincidence. It’s joined by the usual eclectic mixture, with Quentin Tarantino’s multi-strand crime tale and the 1956 sci-fi pulp classic among them (Dr. Morbius will be so pleased) among them.
Other titles set to share climate-controlled self space include 1945’s Gilda, 1961’s J****udgement At Nuremberg, 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, The Right Stuff (1983) and Michael Moore’s CEO-bothering, memorable documentary **Roger & Me **(1989).
To take a look at the full list, head to The Wrap’s report on the announcement. “The National Film Registry stands among the finest summations of more than a century of extraordinary American cinema,” the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, said in a statement. “This key component of American cultural history, however, is endangered, so we must protect the nation’s matchless film heritage and cinematic creativity.”
Heroically, he did not add, “And yes, Dick Van Dyke’s accent is part of that, so deal with it.”