National Film Registry Names ‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,’ and ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ as 2024 Additions
Nobody puts Baby in a corner, but the National Film Registry did just put “Dirty Dancing” on its 2024 list. The 1987 Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey classic was among the 25 films Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced this morning as being added to the Registry, which honors classic films worthy of preservation.
Trekkies’ hearts are rejoicing this morning, as well, because “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” is a new add to the list — making it the first “Trek” movie ever to join the Registry. And the theme of ’80s blockbusters continued with “Beverly Hills Cop” also making the cut. In a bit of shock that it wasn’t already on there before, Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” one of the most acclaimed horror movies of all time, finally received recognition also.
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Before this morning and its 25 additions, there were 900 films on the National Film Registry, which was established in 1988 following lobbying by Martin Scorsese and others in favor of film preservation. That was at the very beginning of the contemporary public push for film preservation in the U.S. — MoMA had already been a longtime leader, with William Everson and other individuals contributing as well (we won’t even get into French efforts in this space) — when there were conflicting visions of how to keep film history alive, and the necessity of film preservation wasn’t necessarily as prominent in the public consciousness as it is now: Some, like Ted Turner, initially thought that keeping older movies alive meant colorizing black-and-white films or pan-and-scan cropping them to fit the then-aspect ratio of TVs. The panic over that at the time was a bit overblown, and Turner not only amended his ways but founded Turner Classic Movies in 1994, which never shows colorized or pan-and-scanned films, nor does it have commercial breaks. But the point stood that film preservation as an idea barely existed in the popular U.S. consciousness then (aside from MoMA, Eastman House, UCLA, and the Library of Congress itself) and creating an institution such as this helped publicize the need for actually keeping classics intact and the in the best possible condition.
The National Film Registry Board selects the films and is composed of members from AMPAS, AFI, DGA, the MPA, NATO, the ASC, the WGA, and a whole bunch of other alphabet soup organizations. Film historian, TCM host, and former Academy Museum head Jacqueline Stewart chairs the Board. She’ll be joined on TCM by Hayden on December 18 to introduce a lineup of the new films. Since 1997, the National Film Registry Board has also allowed the public to submit their suggestions for new additions to the list, and apparently over 6,700 suggestions were received this year.
The oldest film added to the list this year is 1895’s “Annabelle Serpentine Dance,” and the most recent is 2010’s “The Social Network.”
Here’s the film list of films added to the National Film Registry in 2024:
“Annabelle Serpentine Dance” (1895)
“KoKo’s Earth Control” (1928)
“Angels with Dirty Faces” (1938)
“Pride of the Yankees” (1942)
“Invaders from Mars” (1953)
“The Miracle Worker” (1962)
“The Chelsea Girls” (1966)
“Ganja and Hess” (1973)
“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974)
“Uptown Saturday Night” (1974)
“Zora Lathan Student Films” (1975-76)
“Up in Smoke” (1978)
“Will” (1981)
“Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” (1982)
“Beverly Hills Cop” (1984)
“Dirty Dancing” (1987)
“Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt” (1989)
“Powwow Highway” (1989)
“My Own Private Idaho” (1991)
“American Me” (1992)
“Mi Familia” (1995)
“Compensation” (1999)
“Spy Kids” (2001)
“No Country for Old Men” (2007)
“The Social Network” (2010)
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