Heroes All is a documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 released by the American Red Cross

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

. The film examines returning wounded World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 veterans and their treatment at Walter Reed Hospital, along with visits to iconic Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, landmarks. The Red Cross Bureau of Pictures produced more than 100 films, including Heroes All, from 1917-1921, which are invaluable historical and visual records of the era with footage from World War I and its aftermath.

Several Red Cross cinematographers achieved notable film careers, including Ernest Schoedsack, later producer of Grass

Grass (1925 film)

Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life is a silent documentary film which follows a branch of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia as they and their herds make their seasonal journey to better pastures. It is considered one of the earliest ethnographic documentary films. It was written by Richard Carver and...

(1925), Chang

Chang (film)

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness is a documentary film about a poor farmer in Issan and his daily struggle for survival in the jungle. The two directors of Chang, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B...

(1927), and King Kong

King Kong (1933 film)

King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...

(1933), and A. Farciot Edouart, the latter becoming a special effects cinematographer for Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 from the 1920s to the 1950s. According to Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...

, a sound version was prepared in 1931.

In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

 by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time.