National Film Registry deems Return Of The Jedi and The Lord Of The Rings culturally significant
Thanks to the Library Of Congress, future generations will always have access to the Ewoks
Aux News National Film Registry
If, for some inconceivable reason, you refuse to watch any movies unless they’re deemed historically and/or culturally significant enough to be included in the Library Of Congress’ National Film Registry (which preserves a running collection of important films like Shrek), we have some good news for you: You can finally watch the whole original Star Wars trilogy. Yes, more than a decade after including The Empire Strikes Back and three decades after adding Star Wars, the Library Of Congress has decided that Return Of The Jedi is also Important—now to wait and see what happens with the next eight movies in the series, which will help us all settle some arguments.
The Library Of Congress doesn’t only care about Star Wars, though, as there are a number of similarly interesting additions to the National Film Registry this year, including The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (setting up another trilogy the Congress Librarians will have to deal with), Selena, WALL-E, Cooley High, Pink Flamingos, Strangers On A Train, Stop Making Sense, The Watermelon Woman, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, and A Nightmare On Elm Street, as well as influential silent films made by Black Americans like 1926's The Flying Ace (a film that reportedly inspired the Tuskegee Airmen) and 1930's Hellbound Train (a “staunchly Christian film” made by Black filmmakers James and Eloyce Gist that had previously been lost).
The website for the Library Of Congress’ National Film Registry includes little blurbs on the 25 films added this year, like the hilarious note that Return Of The Jedi isn’t as good as the other two but, eh, you have to include it or that the Nightmare On Elm Street series went on long enough that series star Freddy eventually fought Jason from Friday The 13th (though none of those movies are on the list, even the one where Jason fights a girl with psychic powers).
A small number of films from the National Film Registry are available to watch for free on the LOC’s website, but—and this should hardly be a surprise—they tend to be very old stuff that is in the public domain. Disney isn’t giving up those Star Wars movies or Steamboat Willie until you rip them out of Walt’s frozen hands.
Here’s the full list of movies added this year:
- Ringling Brothers Parade Film (1902)
- Jubilo (1919)
- The Flying Ace (1926)
- Hellbound Train (1930)
- Flowers And Trees (1932)
- Strangers On A Train (1951)
- What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)
- Evergreen (1965)
- Requiem-29 (1970)
- The Murder Of Fred Hampton (1971)
- Pink Flamingos (1972)
- Sounder (1972)
- The Long Goodbye (1973)
- Cooley High (1975)
- Richard Pryor: Live In Concert (1979)
- Chicana (1979)
- The Wobblies (1979)
- Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of The Jedi (1983)
- A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
- Stop Making Sense (1984)
- Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1987)
- The Watermelon Woman (1996)
- Selena (1997)
- The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
- WALL-E (2008)
51 Comments
I don’t need some nerdy librarians to tell me that Jedi and Fellowship fucking rule. But it helps. Good to see Stop Making Sense on there as well.
Stop Making Sense is the greatest concert film ever. I will accept no other.
Fake news.
Is this just a listicle or are they actually preserving the movie in some form — and if so, is it the original cut or one of the largely panned edits?
Unclear but probably the special editions.
Hey, check it out: 15 extra seconds of Darth Vader walking around. It’s like a whole new movie!
This is not a listicle. If a movie is owned by a private entity, the registry works with them to make sure the film gets preserved. Otherwise they’ll preserve films themselves, especially the older ones that have fallen out of copyright.
Supposedly they try to get the films on their original format. So it’s possible they might get the OG cut.
https://savestarwars.com/lucas-nfr.htmlThe following is the response from the Library of Congress’ librarian Zoran Sinobad:“While both STAR WARS (1977) and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) are on the National Film Registry, the Library has not yet acquired new prints of either one. When the request was made for STAR WARS, Lucasfilm offered us the Special Edition version. The offer was declined as this was obviously not the version that had been selected for the Registry. We have not yet requested a print of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, added to the Registry late last year.
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> The Library of Congress does hold the original release versions of STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI, but these 35mm prints were acquired as copyright deposits in March 1978, October 1980, and June 1983 respectively. All three are classified as archival masters and as such cannot be accessed for viewing/research. The existing condition reports for STAR WARS and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (there is no report for RETURN OF THE JEDI) indicate that the former has minor scratches but is in good shape overall, while the latter has extreme color fading. We also have an additional 35mm print of the original STAR WARS (received June 1979) with English subtitles for the deaf.
First off, that dude has a great name. Second, well put. Third, what kind of assclowns try to pull this shit? Hopefully now that Disney has the reins they will right this wrong and give over as many original prints as they can spare.
It’s not just a listicle as this is very much about preserving and restoring these movies if necessary. Now which version of ROTJ is preserved, I don’t know.
GREEDO SHOT FIRSTOh wait, wrong film.
I should probably purchase an Ewok doll since, within a few minute of their introduction to ROTD, I was sound asleep.
“I could write about any or all of these 25 films, but I’ll just try to start a Star Wars fight in the comments instead.”
Fucking seriously? Ringling Brothers Parade Film (1902)? Everyone knows that series went to crap after Ringling Brothers Big Top Moving Picture (1899).
Splitter!
influential silent films made by Black Americans like 1926’s The Flying Ace (a film that reportedly inspired the Tuskegee Airmen) and 1930’s Hellbound Train (a “staunchly Christian film” made by Black filmmakers James and Eloyce Gist that had previously been lost)It’s always a good day when I discover two more silent films to add to my “must watch” list, and doubly good when one of them was previously thought lost.
I think it’s fair to say the chances of the greatest entry in the NOES series, Freddy’s Revenge, being included in the National Film Registry have increased dramatically.
Freddys Revenge is good but its not Dream Warriors good… bitch!
can’t wait till they induct Dream Warriors so I can successfully make a “welcome to the National Film Registry, BITCH” joke
If that happens I’d hope Robert Englund would still be around to say it.
Return of the Jedi is my favorite Star Wars film to re-watch endlessly. I know Empire has the critical bona fides, but whatever; Jedi is more fun.Too bad they never made any more Star Wars films after it, though.
Does this mean that Pink Flamingos is officially no longer a cult film?
This is the real headline. The National Film Registry has decided that Divine eating shit is culturally and historically relevant.
The tone of this article is so flippant. The first Star Wars trilogy is culturally significant, after all. So is Shrek, despite the eye-rolling it may cause. Anyway, those are only a handful of the new films coming in, many of whom run the risk of being lost and forgotten if it weren’t for projects like the registry.
hey now
To learn This is Spinal Tap is in the Library of congress brings me great joy.
The facility where they house this stuff is not all that far from where I live. Used to pass it as a kid as my dad had a coworker that lived down there. Originally built for the Fed. Reserve as a bunker that held billions of dollars in case of a nuclear war during the cold war. Also had a continuity of government function as well. They show movies there in the summer but the facility is strictly controlled otherwise.https://www.google.com/maps/@38.4423373,-77.9746003,668m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
Star whatsit now? Lord of the who? Sure, stick in these small indie numbers no one has ever heard of, that’s a brave move. Dicks.
Why is that Ewok staring hard into someone’s soul?
Just watched the ending of Pink Flamingos?
Or the beginning, or the middle…
Fun fact, the dad from Little People Big World played an Ewok
Ewok bedroom eyes?
Look, I’ve said for years that they had to put The Last Jedi in the National Film Registry after they’d already put in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. You can’t leave future post apocalyptic societies hanging like that!
There are three more movies that continue that saga….
There was a third Ewoks movie after Battle for Endor?
No mention of the big question: did they actually get their hands on an unadulterated copy of the 1983 movie, or is the actual movie they’re archiving an Extended Edition? Is it Hayden Christensen next to Alec Guiness, or is it the guy who was actually in the movie?
Selena? Is that the Jennifer Lopez film? Never expected to see that here
There’s a good attempt to correct some historical injustices, but I also enjoy the implication that if your movie is old enough, it will get on there eventually. “No critic has ever put this on a “must watch” list, we don’t have anything to say about it, and most people haven’t even heard of it, but damn, Jubilo is old as shit. In it goes.”
The fact that it was added to the Registry this year makes up a full third of its Wikipedia entry, after the basic IMDB stuff. There’s not even a plot summary.
Richard Pryor: Live In Concert is the single greatest filmed recording of a live standup comedy appearance in the medium’s history. Good on the Registry for recognizing that.
A couple of my favourite films are in that list, The Long Goodbye and Stop Making Sense!, plus a handful of others I really like, so I guess I approve.Yeah, I bet the Library of Congress are thrilled with that.
the ending of The Long Goodbye is an abomination but otherwise it’s pretty cool
now to wait and see what happens with the next eight movies in the series, which will help us all settle some arguments.For the last three, I believe the Medical Waste Dumpster of Congress is assembling their list.
I saw Cooley High for the first time during lockdown. Forget the influence on the What’s Happening series, this is Mean Streets (and Lords of Flatbush) in Chicago’s North Side. Like Scorsese, Eric Monte’s characterizations ring very true despite the low-budget filmmaking. There’s a sequence where two of the leads try to extort a sex worker that’s very cringey, but to its credit the writing and direction never falls back on sentiment. Plus, the use of Motown songs is refreshing in that they seem to be recorded from the actual record players/radios on set. Rights for those tunes must have been much less expensive in the years before The Big Chill.
I’m still waiting for them to include The Blob (1958)https://pureblather.com/2019/03/21/the-blob-national-film-registry/
Are you from Phoenixville?
No, I just think the movie belongs.
So this is “films”…and they talk about having “prints” so eventually they’re just going to get up to the point where it’s only Christopher NolanI actually hope they have, if it exists, a print of the Extended Editions of LOTR…I don’t really see the point in watching the theatrical at this point
National Film Registry says “Yub-yub!” to Ewok movie!