WASHINGTON — One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most famous one-liners will be back for generations to come, now that 1984’s “The Terminator” has been selected for preservation in the nation’s film archive.
The low-budget film directed by James Cameron set a new standard for science fiction and made Schwarzenegger, now California’s governor, a star. The Library of Congress announced Tuesday morning that it’s one of 25 films being added to the National Film Registry.
The move will guard Schwarzenegger’s deadpan “I’ll be back” against deterioration, along with the sounds and images of the other culturally significant picks. Other titles being added to the registry include the groundbreaking 1929 film “Hallelujah,” which had an all-black cast; Richard Brooks’ 1967 film adaptation of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”; and the 1972 film “Deliverance,” based on James Dickey’s novel about four businessmen on a nightmarish canoe trip in the remote Georgia wilderness.
“The registry helps this nation understand the diversity of America’s film heritage and, just as importantly, the need for its preservation,” Librarian of Congress James Billington said in announcing his 2008 selections. “The nation has lost about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920.”
As time passes, older nitrate- and acetate-based films begin to deteriorate, Billington said. The Library of Congress is working to digitize and preserve endangered film and audio files at its new Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center near Culpeper, Va.
With Tuesday’s additions, the total number of films in the registry will reach 500.
The registry, established by Congress in 1989, works with film archives and movie studios to ensure original copies are kept safe. It also acquires copies for preservation in its own vaults.
Curators select films based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic significance, saying their picks wouldn’t necessarily overlap with those of movie critics.
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