'Return Of The Jedi,' 'Nightmare On Elm Street' And 'Pink Flamingos' Added To 2021 National Film Registry

Luke Skywalker and his pals, a brigade of hobbits, a pair of charismatic serial killers and a crass cross-dresser were among the iconic characters from productions included in the 2021 slate of movies added by the Library of Congress to its National Film Registry.

What Happened: Each year, the Library of Congress selects 25 films for registry based on their “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance.” Some of the selections are based on recommendations by an expert panel on film history, and some are culled from nominations by the public.

This year, the Library of Congress paid closer attention than usual to moviegoers, with the agency acknowledging “significant public support this year through online nominations” for the inclusion of “Return of the Jedi” (1983), the final installment in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, and “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), the first installment in the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic books.

The National Film Registry selection also included a number of films with central characters who exhibited various levels of deranged anti-social behavior: Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train” (1951), Robert Aldrich’s “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962), John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” (1971) and Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984) made the grade.

What Else Happened: Also included on the National Film Registry were a pair of animated works from the Walt Disney Co. DIS: “Flowers and Trees” (1932), the first cartoon produced in the three-strip Technicolor format, and “WALL*E” (2008), from the company’s Pixar division.

Two popular concert films were also cited: “Richard Pryor: Live in Concert” (1979) and the Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” (1984).

For many years, the Library of Congress has stressed diversity and inclusion by calling attention to films made by women and communities of color. In keeping with that tradition, the National Film Registry included “Hellbound Train” (1930) by Black evangelists James and Eloyce Gist and “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” (1987), by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña about the 1982 murder of a 27-year-old Chinese American in Detroit by two white autoworkers who were convicted of manslaughter but given probated sentences and never served prison time.

“We strive to look at the range of films, those that are entertaining and inspiring, but also those films that raise more difficult questions, titles that get us to recognize that films are documents of our complex social and political history and that their preservation is absolutely essential if we're going to look honestly at our past,” said film historian Jacqueline Stewart, who is chairwoman of the National Film Preservation Board. 

Photo: Divine in "Pink Flamingos" (1972), courtesy of New Line Cinema.