Christopher Nolan’s celebrated Batman movie, The Dark Knight (2008), has been added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. The movie is amongst a collection of 25 films which have been selected for preservation, sitting alongside the likes of Grease (1978), Shrek (2001), and The Hurt Locker (2008), amongst others.
Each year, the Library of Congress selects an assortment of movies to be added to the Registry which are deemed influential. Of the movies that have been chosen this year, The Dark Knight was added after it received significant backing in a public vote, with the Library of Congress referring to it as “one of the biggest public vote getters”.
Commenting on The Dark Knight’s inclusion in the Registry, Christopher Nolan, said: “This is not only a great honour for all of us who worked on ‘The Dark Knight’, this is also a tribute to all of the amazing artists and writers who have worked on the great mythology of Batman over the decades.”
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Comic book movies in the National Film Registry
Since the creation of the National Film Registry in 1989, only a few comic book movies have been added to the list – meaning The Dark Knight joins a very exclusive club. To date, the comic book movies include Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor (1936), which was added in 2004, Superman: The Movie (1978), which was added in 2017, and of course, The Dark Knight.
In addition to the above titles, pulp heroes have been represented via Tarzan and His Mate (1934), which was added in 2003, The Mark of Zorro (1940) added in 2009, and The Mark of Zorro (1920) added in 2015.
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The 25 movies added to the National Film Registry
According to the Library of Congress, the 25 movies that have been added to the National Film Registry this year have been chosen “because of their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage”. This year’s movies are as follows:
- Suspense (1913)
- Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
- Bread (1918)
- The Battle of the Century (1927)
- With Car and Camera Around the World (1929)
- Cabin in the Sky (1943)
- Outrage (1950)
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
- Lilies of the Field (1963)
- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)
- Wattstax (1973)
- Grease (1978)
- The Blues Brothers (1980)
- Losing Ground (1982)
- Illusions (1982)
- The Joy Luck Club (1993)
- The Devil Never Sleeps (1994)
- Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
- The Ground (1993-2001)
- Shrek (2001)
- Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege (2006)
- The Hurt Locker (2008)
- The Dark Knight (2008)
- Freedom Riders (2010)
The Dark Knight and the above list of films join 775 existing titles in the Registry which include the likes of Star Wars (1977), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and Mildred Pierce (1945).
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Thank you for stopping by I’ll Get Drive-Thru to read this post about The Dark Knight. For more Batman-related content, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.
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