Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

National Film Registry adds another 25 titles

A Penny Marshall for your thoughts

Not only has 2012 meant a bad time at the movies, it appears as if the national Film Registry has taken the year off.

If Holly Golightly's waiter was as slow on the uptake as these cats are at the NFR, her Breakfast at Tiffany's would have been cold and rotting by the time it hit her plate. This is one title I think we were all shocked didn't make it in during the first go-round.

There was one pleasant surprise -- Ivan Dixon's superb The Spook Who Sat by the Door, the story of America's first black CIA agent. Along with a few deserving masterworks (Anatomy of a Murder, Dirty Harry), a handful of documentaries, historical curios, home movies (The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair), and unexplainable crowd-pleasers (A Christmas Story), there's always a leftover or two that sticks in your craw.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/19/37223/

Given the film's popularity and innovative special effects, I can almost understand inducting The Matrix, but a piece of fluff like A League if Their Own deserves to be shunned, not honored. It's a badly made slab of fiction about an "important" subject that contemporary audiences confuse with documentary realism. Why not simply award Penny Marshall with an honorary Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize while you're at it?

For those of you keeping score at home, the 25 titles added this year bring the registry's grand total to 600 films. Here is this year's list of inductees:

  • Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
  • The Augustas (1930s-1950s)
  • Born Yesterday (1950)
  • Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
  • A Christmas Story (1983)
  • The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight (1897)
  • Dirty Harry (1971)
  • Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2 (1980-82)
  • The Kidnappers Foil (1930s-1950s)
  • Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests (1922)
  • A League of Their Own (1992)
  • The Matrix (1999)
  • The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939)
  • One Survivor Remembers (1995)
  • Parable (1964)
  • Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia (1990)
  • Sons of the Desert (1933)
  • The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
  • They Call It Pro Football (1967)
  • 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
  • The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
  • Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914)
  • The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England (1914)
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Reader writer Chris Ahrens tells the story of Windansea

The shack is a landmark declaring, “The best break in the area is out there.”
Next Article

Mary Catherine Swanson wants every San Diego student going to college

Where busing from Southeast San Diego to University City has led

Not only has 2012 meant a bad time at the movies, it appears as if the national Film Registry has taken the year off.

If Holly Golightly's waiter was as slow on the uptake as these cats are at the NFR, her Breakfast at Tiffany's would have been cold and rotting by the time it hit her plate. This is one title I think we were all shocked didn't make it in during the first go-round.

There was one pleasant surprise -- Ivan Dixon's superb The Spook Who Sat by the Door, the story of America's first black CIA agent. Along with a few deserving masterworks (Anatomy of a Murder, Dirty Harry), a handful of documentaries, historical curios, home movies (The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair), and unexplainable crowd-pleasers (A Christmas Story), there's always a leftover or two that sticks in your craw.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/19/37223/

Given the film's popularity and innovative special effects, I can almost understand inducting The Matrix, but a piece of fluff like A League if Their Own deserves to be shunned, not honored. It's a badly made slab of fiction about an "important" subject that contemporary audiences confuse with documentary realism. Why not simply award Penny Marshall with an honorary Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize while you're at it?

For those of you keeping score at home, the 25 titles added this year bring the registry's grand total to 600 films. Here is this year's list of inductees:

  • Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
  • The Augustas (1930s-1950s)
  • Born Yesterday (1950)
  • Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
  • A Christmas Story (1983)
  • The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight (1897)
  • Dirty Harry (1971)
  • Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2 (1980-82)
  • The Kidnappers Foil (1930s-1950s)
  • Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests (1922)
  • A League of Their Own (1992)
  • The Matrix (1999)
  • The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939)
  • One Survivor Remembers (1995)
  • Parable (1964)
  • Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia (1990)
  • Sons of the Desert (1933)
  • The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
  • They Call It Pro Football (1967)
  • 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
  • The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
  • Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914)
  • The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England (1914)
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Silent Night with Soccer

Next Article

24-Year Fugitive Nabbed in Mexico; Faces Charges in San Diego

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader