MGM
MGMThe Martin Scorsese-directed concert film The Last Waltz, documenting The Band‘s star-studded 1976 farewell show, is among the 25 films just added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
Each year the Library of Congress selects a number of films for preservation that are considered to have “cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage.”
The Last Waltz, which was released in 1978, focuses on the final concert ever by The Band’s original lineup, which took place Thanksgiving Day 1976 at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom. The show featured a jaw-dropping lineup that included Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Ronnie Wood and Ringo Starr. The movie also included interview segments with The Band’s five members.
Commenting on The Last Waltz being acknowledged with the honor, Scorsese said, “The National Film Registry is an essential American enterprise that officially recognizes the rich depth and variety, the eloquence and the real greatness of American cinema and the filmmakers who have created it, film by film.”
Other music-related films chosen for the registry this year include Purple Rain, starring Prince, and the Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter.
Here’s the National Film Registry’s complete 2019 class:
Amadeus (1984)
Becky Sharp (1935)
Before Stonewall (1984)
Body and Soul (1925)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Clerks (1994)
Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island (1903)
Employees Entrance (1933)
Fog of War (2003)
Gaslight (1944)
George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute (1937)
Girlfriends (1978)
I Am Somebody (1970)
The Last Waltz (1978)
My Name Is Oona (1969)
A New Leaf (1971)
Old Yeller (1957)
The Phenix City Story (1955)
Platoon (1986)
Purple Rain (1984)
Real Women Have Curves (2002)
She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Zoot Suit (1981)
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