Robert Rodriguez is officially historically significant as the Library of Congress preserves his debut film

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

It is that time of the year again, 25 films are chosen to be preserved by the Library of Congress for the future in the National Film Registry. In all, the registry now has 575 films, so what films joined these ranks?

There are some absolute classics on the list including THE LOST WEEKEND, BAMBI, STAND AND DELIVER, NORMA RAE, THE KID, THE BIG HEAT, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) and FOREST GUMP. However a couple of films that really stand out on the list are ones that we do enjoy on the site, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and Robert Rodriguez’s debut film EL MARIACHI! Yes you read that correctly, to be saved for future generations and holding cultural and historical significance the awesome low budget violent actioner! Congratulations to Rodriguez and his team for this amazing honor. I am pleased to see a film like that make the list, as well as one of the most popular genre films with LAMBS.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington stated “These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture. Our film heritage must be protected because these cinematic treasures document our history and culture and reflect our hopes and dreams.” The films are chosen from hundres of titles that are nominated by the public.

El Mariachi (1992)
Directed, edited, co-produced and written in two weeks by Rodriguez for $7,000 while a student at the University of Texas, El Mariachi proved a favorite on the film festival circuit. After Columbia Pictures picked it up for distribution, the film helped usher in the independent movie boom of the early 1990s. El Mariachi is an energetic, highly entertaining tale of an itinerant musician, portrayed by co-producer and Rodriguez crony Carlos Gallardo, who arrives at a Mexican border town during a drug war and is mistaken for a hit man who recently escaped from prison. The story, as film historian Charles Ramirez Berg has suggested, plays with expectations common to two popular exploitation genres — the narcotraficante film, a Mexican police genre, and the transnational warrior-action film, itself rooted in Hollywood Westerns. Rodriguez’s success derived from invigorating these genres with creative variants despite the constraints of a shoestring budget. Rodriguez has gone on to become, in Berg’s estimation, “arguably the most successful Latino director ever to work in Hollywood.”

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and director Jonathan Demme won accolades for this chilling thriller based upon a book by Thomas Harris. Foster plays rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling, who must tap into the disturbed mind of imprisoned cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in order to aid her search for a murderer and torturer at large. A film whose violence is as much psychological as graphic, Silence of the Lambs — winner of Academy Awards for best picture, director, actor, actress and adapted screenplay — has been celebrated for its superb lead performances, its blending of crime and horror genres and its taut direction that brought to the screen one of film’s greatest villains and some of its most memorable imagery.

The entire list of films on the registry can be found here.

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS star and Oscar winner Jodie Foster!