ROLL THE GARBAGE: Many of the films in
this year's batch for the National Film Registry are in there for technical reasons (early use of color photography, most notably), but there are also things you would have thought were in already (
Anatomy of A Murder, Born Yesterday), a few more contemporary (
The Matrix, Slacker, A League of Their Own), and perhaps most deservingly--
They Call It Pro Football, the first film
from what became NFL Films.
The Atlantic earlier this year
had a nice and fascinating longread on just how much
They Call It Pro Football changed the game, which is well worth your time.
Thanks, Matt for linking to the piece on NFL Football. The one time I visited NFL Films it felt like what MGM studios must have felt like in its heyday. Which other studio makes 16 films every week for 16 weeks?
ReplyDeleteAnatomy of a Murder, as everyone here probably knows by now, is my favorite movie. It should be on the Registry for the opening Saul Bass titles alone.
ReplyDeleteKate was kind enough to send me this, which all AoaM fans should see: http://sbmblog.typepad.com/sbm-blog/2012/12/your-chance-to-fund-anatomy-of-anatomy.html
That is excellent. Thanks for posting it.
ReplyDeleteHow's the Criterion edition of AoaM? Worth the upgrade?
The tributes to the late Steve Sabol noted the influence of NFL films. I was most struck by -- and related to -- Tom Brady, I think it was, talking about how he played backyard football in slow motion, entirely because of NFL films.
ReplyDeleteI actually teared up a bit seeing it was included. Steve Sabol and his compatriots kind of created how to film sports in a modern way and deserves every bit of acclaim they can get.
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