This year\u2019s list of 25 films to be added to the Library of Congress\u2019 National Film Registry should be announced in the next few days. And while the National Film Registry has many obvious classics \u2013 not to mention more than a few oddities \u2013 there are still a surprisingly high number of landmark works that have yet to be enshrined within its ranks.<\/p>\n
For what it\u2019s worth, I would like to offer my list of 10 films that are long overdue inclusion on the National Film Registry\u2019s list of “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films.”
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Admiral Cigarette (1897).<\/strong> This Thomas Edison-produced for the National Cigarette and Tobacco Company is widely recognized as the first filmed advertisement. While that is clearly significant on its own terms, the content of this one-minute film is fascinating. Four men \u2013 an Irishman with thick mutton chops, an American Indian in a war bonnet, an elderly man wearing a beret and some kind of uniform (some sources identify him as either a soldier or a clergyman) and Uncle Sam. Opposite of the men is a giant Admiral Cigarette box. A lovely young lady wearing a mix of nautical and showgirl attire emerges from the box and happily hands out cigarettes, which everyone smokes \u2013 a very rare display of ethnic, racial and gender parity from an intolerant era. <\/p>\n