Titanic Makes the National Film Registry, Just in Time for Its 20th Anniversary
Titanic, the billion-dollar James Cameron epic on the verge of its its 20th anniversary, has sailed ..
Titanic, the billion-dollar James Cameron epic on the verge of its its 20th anniversary, has sailed into the National Film Registry. The mammoth film was a juggernaut from the moment it hit theaters, quickly becoming the highest grossing film of all time and turning young actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into bonafide movie stars. Its selection by the Library of Congress is a lovely cherry on top of this year’s whirlwind anniversary celebrations for Titanic, which was recently re-released in theaters in a new Dolby Vision format. “It’s stunning,” Cameron recently gushed to Vanity Fair. “It’s beyond 70 millimeter, it’s beyond any format that you’ve seen before.”
The legendary blockbuster joins a motley crew of National Film Registry selections, which also includes Die Hard, the Bruce Willis action film that may or may not be a Christmas movie, depending on who you ask. The Goonies also truffle-shuffled its way into the registry, capping off a banner year for Sean Astin, who recently popped up in 80s deification project Stranger Things.
Christopher Nolan’s amnesia thriller Memento has also been selected for preservation; released in 2000, the film is the youngest selection in the bunch.
On a rather timely note, Spike Lee’s Oscar-nominated documentary 4 Little Girls has also been selected. The film is about the four black children who were murdered in the 1963 Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, a terrorist act that was carried out by white supremacists. The doc’s selection arrives mere hours after Democrat Doug Jones beat Republican candidate Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race on Tuesday night. Back in the late 1990s, Jones was the lead attorney who prosecuted Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, two members of the Ku Klux Klan who carried out the 1963 bombing. Both were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2002. After Tuesday’s highly anticipated election, Jones has another historical achievement to burnish his civil service legacy.
Here are all the films that have been selected this year by the National Film Registry:
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Boulevard Nights (1979)
Die Hard (1988)
Dumbo (1941)
Field of Dreams (1989)
4 Little Girls (1997)
Fuentes Family Home Movies Collection (1920s and 1930s)
Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
The Goonies (1985)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
Interior New York Subway, 14th Street to 42nd Street (1905)
La Bamba (1987)
Lives of Performers (1972)
Memento (2000)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918)
Spartacus (1960)
Superman (1978)
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988)
Time and Dreams (1976)
Titanic (1997)
To Sleep with Anger (1990)
Wanda (1971)
With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain (1937-1938
Get Vanity Fair’s HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Full ScreenPhotos:15 of the Most Torturous Movie Shoots in Hollywood History
Justice League
Making a massive superhero movie with a sprawling cast is never easy, but D.C.’s Justice League truly is in a league of its own. Not only did director Zack Snyder drop out due to the tragic death of his daughter, but new director Joss Whedon has had to oversee two months‘ worth of re-shoots, which is now causing a world of scheduling issues for the busy cast. He’s now also dealing with studio pressure to make the movie funnier and lighter in the wake of Batman v Superman’s horrible reviews.Photo: Courtesy of Clay Enos/DC Comics.
Cleopatra
The 1963 film about the iconic Egyptian queen has gone down as one of the most famously complicated shoots of all time. Cleopatra was not only the most expensive movie ever made at the time ($44 million, equivalent to $300 million today)—it also took multiple directors and years of embarrassingly fraught production to make, nearly destroying 20th Century Fox in the process.Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Heaven's Gate
It’s the textbook example of a potential blockbuster gone wrong. Michael Cimino’s 1980 Western was supposed to be the post-Deer Hunter project that established his Hollywood prowess. Instead, it ran spectacularly over budget—a testament to his controlling nature—and was buried at first sight by ruthless critics, a devastating blow that haunted the filmmaker for the rest of his life.Photo: From United Artists/Everett Collection.
Ishtar
A comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty at the height of their fame should have been a home run. Instead, audiences got Ishtar, a critical bomb. It was a wreck behind the scenes as well, with the Moroccan setting proving inhospitable to traditional Hollywood production. Director and writer Elaine May also butted heads with cast and crew, and was nearly fired by the studio. Ishtar racked up a gargantuan $50 million budget and endured an incredibly tense 10-month post-production period, in which Hoffman, Beatty, and May all tried to make their own cuts of the film, which led to a screaming match between Beatty and May.Photo: From Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection.
Waterworld
Every decade has its own Cleopatra–esque bomb; in the ‘90s, it was Waterworld,Kevin Costner’s bloated sci-fi adventure. The film ran up a $175 million bill and became one of the biggest flops of all time. Bad luck was everywhere: a pricey set sank under water, cast members got seasick, and Costner nearly died after a stunt in which he was tied to the mast of a boat went ferociously wrong.Photo: From Universal Pictures/Everett Collection.
Titanic
James Cameron’s $210 million epic was a logistical nightmare, thanks to its high budget and his perfectionist ways. He had massive set-pieces built to make the film look photo-realistic, and was picky about the smallest of details—like requesting real wallpaper instead of painted sets. Cameron’s famous temper also flared up on the stressful shoot, often putting him at odds with his crew and studio execs.Photo: From 20th Century Fox/Everett Collection.
Suicide Squad
Speaking of superhero movies . . . Suicide Squad was a perfect case of actors going a little too method. Jared Leto, in character as the Joker, would send his co-stars horrible gifts like rats and used condoms. Jai Courtneydid shrooms and burned himself. Director David Ayer encouraged the chaos, turning the set into a miniature fight club to help the actors bond through beating each other up. It’s no wonder they needed an on-set therapist.Photo: By Clay Enos/Warner Bros./Everett Collection.PreviousNext
Justice League
Making a massive superhero movie with a sprawling cast is never easy, but D.C.’s Justice League truly is in a league of its own. Not only did director Zack Snyder drop out due to the tragic death of his daughter, but new director Joss Whedon has had to oversee two months‘ worth of re-shoots, which is now causing a world of scheduling issues for the busy cast. He’s now also dealing with studio pressure to make the movie funnier and lighter in the wake of Batman v Superman’s horrible reviews.Courtesy of Clay Enos/DC Comics.
Cleopatra
The 1963 film about the iconic Egyptian queen has gone down as one of the most famously complicated shoots of all time. Cleopatra was not only the most expensive movie ever made at the time ($44 million, equivalent to $300 million today)—it also took multiple directors and years of embarrassingly fraught production to make, nearly destroying 20th Century Fox in the process.Courtesy Everett Collection
Heaven's Gate
It’s the textbook example of a potential blockbuster gone wrong. Michael Cimino’s 1980 Western was supposed to be the post-Deer Hunter project that established his Hollywood prowess. Instead, it ran spectacularly over budget—a testament to his controlling nature—and was buried at first sight by ruthless critics, a devastating blow that haunted the filmmaker for the rest of his life.From United Artists/Everett Collection.
Ishtar
A comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty at the height of their fame should have been a home run. Instead, audiences got Ishtar, a critical bomb. It was a wreck behind the scenes as well, with the Moroccan setting proving inhospitable to traditional Hollywood production. Director and writer Elaine May also butted heads with cast and crew, and was nearly fired by the studio. Ishtar racked up a gargantuan $50 million budget and endured an incredibly tense 10-month post-production period, in which Hoffman, Beatty, and May all tried to make their own cuts of the film, which led to a screaming match between Beatty and May.From Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection.
Fitzcarraldo
Werner Herzog’s jungle drama was so needlessly complicated that it was nicknamed the “conquest of the useless.” He tasked his crew with building bizarrely complex sets, at one point requiring at least 700 people to pull a boat up a mountain for one of the scenes. A handful of people were injured, including one man who was bitten by a poisonous snake and had to cut his own foot off to staunch the venom. On top of that, Herzog was working with actor Klaus Kinski—someone he once lightly considered having killed because of their volatile relationship.From New World/Everett Collection.
The Shining
Poor Shelley Duvall. The actress was tormented while making Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic, calling the experience “almost unbearable.” The director would play psychological mind games with her and force her to cry for hours on end, shredding the young actress’s nerves and even causing her hair to fall out.From Warner Bros./Everett Collection.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Problems began before the cameras started rolling on this critically reviled 1996 flick—original star Bruce Willis dropped out, Val Kilmer made dramatic demands, and Marlon Brando retreated after the shock of his daughter’s death. Just three days into filming, director Richard Stanley was fired. Things only got worse from there, with Kilmer ramping up his diva tactics and Brando lazily checking out, delivering his lines via earpiece.From New Line/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock.
Silence
Martin Scorsese’s dream project took decades to get financed, and it was still an uphill battle from there. The 2016 film about Portuguese priests trekking to Japan was actually shot in Taiwan under grueling weather conditions, including high heat, humidity, and monsoons that nearly shredded the skeletal set. Actors Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield also pushed themselves to the brink, with Driver admitting he lost nearly 40 pounds for his role.Courtesy Of Paramount Pictures.
World War Z
In some ways, Heaven’s Gate has nothing on Brad Pitt’s epic zombie adaptation. World War Z had just about every problem a film can have: a wildly overblown budget (around $225 million), scheduling issues, the departure of key behind-the-scenes members (writers, producers, visual-effects artists), and personality clashes between the star and director Marc Forster, all of which was detailed in a 2013cover story.cover story.By Jaap Buitendijk/Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection.
Apocalypse Now
The heady Vietnam War film was the biggest gamble of Francis Ford Coppola’s career. He sank $16 million into it, and had to grapple with extreme weather conditions on the Philippines-based set. His cast was also dealing with their own setbacks—Marlon Brando couldn’t remember his lines and was severely overweight, Harvey Keitel had to be fired and replaced, and Martin Sheenhad both a heart attack and a nervous breakdown while filming.From United Artists/Everett Collection.
The Revenant
Leonardo DiCaprio would have done anything to win an Oscar, so The Revenant put him to the test. The grueling film saw the actor eat raw bison liver, sleep inside a dead horse carcass, and suffer through miserable freezing temperatures on the Alberta, Canada set. Not only that, but director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and co-star Tom Hardy often feuded off-camera, with tensions rising over creative disagreements. In the end, DiCaprio got his precious statuette—so it was all worth it, right?By Kimberley French/20Th Century Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection.
The Canyons
Lindsay Lohan’s worst habits came to the forefront while working on this 2013 drama, directed by tempestuous former Scorsese collaborator Paul Schrader. In a straightforward New York Times exposé, it was revealed that Lohan disappeared for days before filming began, and would often clash with Schrader, as well as co-star James Deen. It was a precarious set, with the scrappy $250,000 film running into problems around every corner.From IFC Films/Everett Collection.
Waterworld
Every decade has its own Cleopatra–esque bomb; in the ‘90s, it was Waterworld,Kevin Costner’s bloated sci-fi adventure. The film ran up a $175 million bill and became one of the biggest flops of all time. Bad luck was everywhere: a pricey set sank under water, cast members got seasick, and Costner nearly died after a stunt in which he was tied to the mast of a boat went ferociously wrong.From Universal Pictures/Everett Collection.
Titanic
James Cameron’s $210 million epic was a logistical nightmare, thanks to its high budget and his perfectionist ways. He had massive set-pieces built to make the film look photo-realistic, and was picky about the smallest of details—like requesting real wallpaper instead of painted sets. Cameron’s famous temper also flared up on the stressful shoot, often putting him at odds with his crew and studio execs.From 20th Century Fox/Everett Collection.
Suicide Squad
Speaking of superhero movies . . . Suicide Squad was a perfect case of actors going a little too method. Jared Leto, in character as the Joker, would send his co-stars horrible gifts like rats and used condoms. Jai Courtneydid shrooms and burned himself. Director David Ayer encouraged the chaos, turning the set into a miniature fight club to help the actors bond through beating each other up. It’s no wonder they needed an on-set therapist.By Clay Enos/Warner Bros./Everett Collection.
Yohana DestaYohana Desta is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
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