Because we're ALL ambivalent--We all want to escape, like George Bailey and Dorothy Gale. But in the end, there's no place like home and our friends are here.
"Barry Lyndon" - released in 1975 and in the theaters during our bicentennial in 1976 - is a great American movie by negative example. The casually cruel British class system and culture it depicts was exactly what the colonists needed to get away from in 1776 - but, as the main character himself discovers, it's both seductive and hard to fight.
When I was 12 I saw "Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) in a movie theater. It's a farce about the Soviet and US nuclear arms race with Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, and various loony characters. A false command for US planes to bomb their targets in the Soviet Union is thwarted at the last minute and the planes are successfully recalled, except for one. There's great tension intercutting bumbling military and presidential officials with the maverick plane as it approaches its bombing target, which will then automatically set off a "Doomsday" of nuclear bombs. This was a scary movie despite its dark humor, twelve years before the Bicentennial. But America survived that threat, surprise.
Here's two movies, radically different, that sum up so much about America for me:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
- Airplane! (1980).
They came out within a year of each other, and they both highlight aspects of the American character - flawed, heroic, goofy, dedicated, questioning, determined. In both you had characters striving for goals and mostly succeeding.
And these two movies show American filmmakers at the top of their game in pursuing their vision. Popcorn movies? Yes. But they both fulfilled their vision and then some.
I love both movies, and they continue to make me smile whether it's "Don't call me Shirley" or "Top men."
“The Music Man”, the original with Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, and little Ronnie Howard.* A fast talking con man comes into an Iowa town, promising to create a “boy’s band”, only to find out that his cynical heart isn't so cynical after all.** Comes with an Independence Day picnic and firecrackers.
Speaking of picnics, I’d to add in “2001 Maniacs” starring Robert Englund as Mayor Buckton with a Confederate flag eye patch, who wants to invite you to Pleasent Valley’s Guts And Glory party. Yeah, it’s a horror movie, and it’s not even a prestige horror movie like “Silence Of The Lambs”, but damn: it’s beautifully lit and shot, it doesn't waste one minute, and if you like your scripts unPC and your humor extra, extra dark, this is one for you. It isn't filet mignon, but it’s dang good barbecue. For the American history buffs out there, it’s a reminder that the Civil War left scars that still haven't healed even 200 years later…and why should always listen to your history professor.
“Yankee Doodle Dandy”, James Cagney took a break from gangster roles to be vaudville’s singing, dancing George M. Cohan, the songwriter who gave America “It’s A Grand Old Flag”, “Over There” and of course, “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. Still love the scene where he plays a singing, tap dancing FDR 😳 complete with lyrics slamming Hirohito (this scene, BTW, was shot the day after Pearl Harbor).
*Sorry, Disney, but the modern version just doesn't stack up with this classic, even though you add 4th of July fireworks.
**Of course, a fast talking conman who wants to cheat people out of their money by promising to create a brass band? That hits a whole lot different in the age of Trump.
I would also nominate Die Hard (1988), Star Wars (1977), All the President's Men (1976), and Fargo (1996). Maybe most of the Coen works? It's hard to stop!
Restricting my list to other movies released in 1976, these are about America or Americanism then, and maybe now:
Rocky - Timeless story about dreams and self-knowledge, struggle, social class and community, love, and how victory can mean going the distance. Thrilling portraits of Philly, its places and people; the Bicentennial is in the background. Grittiness is balanced by a heroic musical score; it probably wouldn't work so well or have been so popular without the combination. As a kid, I didn't know who Burgess Meredith was, but I had a Rocky t-shirt.
Taxi Driver - Released between the NYC fiscal crisis and the 1977 blackouts, a million miles from the NYC of Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's set mostly at night, creating a mythic view of an urban America corrupted by decay and crime, in which beauty seems like a sign. Anomie, mental illness, guns, self-improvement, celebrity, rescuer delusions, media tropes; it's got it all.
Bad News Bears - Misfit youth baseball players and their washed-up manager join a real talent and learn to work together. Hilarious and unsentimental, with 1970s themes of social change and kids as real people.
This piece makes me want to see both movies again. I was in high school in Tennessee in 1976. It all hits a little close to home.
So many great movies listed in the comments. I can't think of a more compelling movie about America than The Searchers. Everything ugly and romantic and confounding about the country is in there.
And in honor of July 4, I'll mention a more obscure one, Polonsky's Force of Evil. It's a far cry from The Searchers, but it's fascinating on every level — and boy, does its portrait of corruption seem apt for the current moment.
Awesome - The Searchers was one of the “more thematically controversial” movies I was thinking of, along with Gone With The Wind, Citizen Kane, and even Dances With Wolves. Ethan is such a great character for a guy like Wayne to play, he’s so obviously damaged by decades of genocidal warfare, yet he can’t allow himself to be vulnerable enough to try to heal from that because, in his mind, his very survival depends critically on never being vulnerable at all. For Wayne to showcase that limitation of American perceptions of masculinity (a theme which gets a compelling reprise in Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper) is really a terrific thing for him to have done as an actor.
Wayne was very proud of The Searchers, so I've read. It's an unsettling movie, and I think it was meant to be unsettling. There's still discussion of what Ford intended to say, but I think from the moment we realize Ethan is determined to kill Debbie, it's clear what a twisted man he is, and nothing that happens later erases the revelation. Ethan is neither a hero nor a cartoon villain, and his racism makes you confront the reality of how this country was built. It's hard for me to believe Ford went there by accident.
Dazed and Confused is one of my favorites. Probably because Texas really was like that. It was like watching my high school experience even though I didn't graduate till 1987.
Not set close to the 4th but Pump Up The Volume fits for today since it is so much about freedom of speech. Maybe that is why I have had that one on my mind so much this year.
Clint Eastwood has loved playing the biggest racist bigot of all time. Then when he spoke to an empty chair at the 2012 RNC CONVENTION he showed himself to be just a horrific person. Eastwood is not an American hero. Instead of combat duty he was a lifeguard. Stop elevating him.
Also…The Godfather? A serial saga of la Cosa Nostra? Vicious killers who invaded our country with murder, trafficking, drugs and prostitution! You’re sick.
Excuse me! Where do you get off telling other commenters that they are "sick" because they have different taste in movies than you? Who died and made you judge?
The Godfather is considered by many--most?--critics and scholars to be one of the greatest films--American or otherwise. It pops up on nearly ALL the "best" lists. The portrayal and and/or witnessing of violence on screen is not an endorsement of violence.
Also: "vicious people who invaded our country"? Who are you? Stephen Miller?
Would The Patriot count? Because I watched that on the 4th
I'm also a sucker for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
It's a Wonderful Life and The Wizard of Oz.
Because we're ALL ambivalent--We all want to escape, like George Bailey and Dorothy Gale. But in the end, there's no place like home and our friends are here.
I like movies that puncture the myths of America’s cowboy past- in no particular order:
Monte Walsh
The Missouri Breaks
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
A very brief yet very tenacious myth about Individual self reliance, vs the inflexible resistance to change. And many other engrossing themes.
"Barry Lyndon" - released in 1975 and in the theaters during our bicentennial in 1976 - is a great American movie by negative example. The casually cruel British class system and culture it depicts was exactly what the colonists needed to get away from in 1776 - but, as the main character himself discovers, it's both seductive and hard to fight.
When I was 12 I saw "Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) in a movie theater. It's a farce about the Soviet and US nuclear arms race with Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, and various loony characters. A false command for US planes to bomb their targets in the Soviet Union is thwarted at the last minute and the planes are successfully recalled, except for one. There's great tension intercutting bumbling military and presidential officials with the maverick plane as it approaches its bombing target, which will then automatically set off a "Doomsday" of nuclear bombs. This was a scary movie despite its dark humor, twelve years before the Bicentennial. But America survived that threat, surprise.
Here's two movies, radically different, that sum up so much about America for me:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
- Airplane! (1980).
They came out within a year of each other, and they both highlight aspects of the American character - flawed, heroic, goofy, dedicated, questioning, determined. In both you had characters striving for goals and mostly succeeding.
And these two movies show American filmmakers at the top of their game in pursuing their vision. Popcorn movies? Yes. But they both fulfilled their vision and then some.
I love both movies, and they continue to make me smile whether it's "Don't call me Shirley" or "Top men."
“The Music Man”, the original with Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, and little Ronnie Howard.* A fast talking con man comes into an Iowa town, promising to create a “boy’s band”, only to find out that his cynical heart isn't so cynical after all.** Comes with an Independence Day picnic and firecrackers.
Speaking of picnics, I’d to add in “2001 Maniacs” starring Robert Englund as Mayor Buckton with a Confederate flag eye patch, who wants to invite you to Pleasent Valley’s Guts And Glory party. Yeah, it’s a horror movie, and it’s not even a prestige horror movie like “Silence Of The Lambs”, but damn: it’s beautifully lit and shot, it doesn't waste one minute, and if you like your scripts unPC and your humor extra, extra dark, this is one for you. It isn't filet mignon, but it’s dang good barbecue. For the American history buffs out there, it’s a reminder that the Civil War left scars that still haven't healed even 200 years later…and why should always listen to your history professor.
“Yankee Doodle Dandy”, James Cagney took a break from gangster roles to be vaudville’s singing, dancing George M. Cohan, the songwriter who gave America “It’s A Grand Old Flag”, “Over There” and of course, “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. Still love the scene where he plays a singing, tap dancing FDR 😳 complete with lyrics slamming Hirohito (this scene, BTW, was shot the day after Pearl Harbor).
*Sorry, Disney, but the modern version just doesn't stack up with this classic, even though you add 4th of July fireworks.
**Of course, a fast talking conman who wants to cheat people out of their money by promising to create a brass band? That hits a whole lot different in the age of Trump.
I would also nominate Die Hard (1988), Star Wars (1977), All the President's Men (1976), and Fargo (1996). Maybe most of the Coen works? It's hard to stop!
Restricting my list to other movies released in 1976, these are about America or Americanism then, and maybe now:
Rocky - Timeless story about dreams and self-knowledge, struggle, social class and community, love, and how victory can mean going the distance. Thrilling portraits of Philly, its places and people; the Bicentennial is in the background. Grittiness is balanced by a heroic musical score; it probably wouldn't work so well or have been so popular without the combination. As a kid, I didn't know who Burgess Meredith was, but I had a Rocky t-shirt.
Taxi Driver - Released between the NYC fiscal crisis and the 1977 blackouts, a million miles from the NYC of Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's set mostly at night, creating a mythic view of an urban America corrupted by decay and crime, in which beauty seems like a sign. Anomie, mental illness, guns, self-improvement, celebrity, rescuer delusions, media tropes; it's got it all.
Bad News Bears - Misfit youth baseball players and their washed-up manager join a real talent and learn to work together. Hilarious and unsentimental, with 1970s themes of social change and kids as real people.
yes!
Breaking Away needs to be on the list.
And American Graffiti!
This piece makes me want to see both movies again. I was in high school in Tennessee in 1976. It all hits a little close to home.
So many great movies listed in the comments. I can't think of a more compelling movie about America than The Searchers. Everything ugly and romantic and confounding about the country is in there.
And in honor of July 4, I'll mention a more obscure one, Polonsky's Force of Evil. It's a far cry from The Searchers, but it's fascinating on every level — and boy, does its portrait of corruption seem apt for the current moment.
Awesome - The Searchers was one of the “more thematically controversial” movies I was thinking of, along with Gone With The Wind, Citizen Kane, and even Dances With Wolves. Ethan is such a great character for a guy like Wayne to play, he’s so obviously damaged by decades of genocidal warfare, yet he can’t allow himself to be vulnerable enough to try to heal from that because, in his mind, his very survival depends critically on never being vulnerable at all. For Wayne to showcase that limitation of American perceptions of masculinity (a theme which gets a compelling reprise in Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper) is really a terrific thing for him to have done as an actor.
Wayne was very proud of The Searchers, so I've read. It's an unsettling movie, and I think it was meant to be unsettling. There's still discussion of what Ford intended to say, but I think from the moment we realize Ethan is determined to kill Debbie, it's clear what a twisted man he is, and nothing that happens later erases the revelation. Ethan is neither a hero nor a cartoon villain, and his racism makes you confront the reality of how this country was built. It's hard for me to believe Ford went there by accident.
That’s really excellent - thanks for your insights!
Albert Brooks' Lost in America... Yuppies emulate Easy Rider in an RV, lose it all in Las Vegas, get menial jobs, find America.
Dazed and Confused is one of my favorites. Probably because Texas really was like that. It was like watching my high school experience even though I didn't graduate till 1987.
Not set close to the 4th but Pump Up The Volume fits for today since it is so much about freedom of speech. Maybe that is why I have had that one on my mind so much this year.
No Country for Old Men
Dark! But I’ll allow it.
Clint Eastwood has loved playing the biggest racist bigot of all time. Then when he spoke to an empty chair at the 2012 RNC CONVENTION he showed himself to be just a horrific person. Eastwood is not an American hero. Instead of combat duty he was a lifeguard. Stop elevating him.
I might be pushing it on the last two, but...
Lincoln
The Godfather
Do the Right Thing
Bridge of Spies
Gangs of New York
Old Joy
Ford v. Ferrari
Also…The Godfather? A serial saga of la Cosa Nostra? Vicious killers who invaded our country with murder, trafficking, drugs and prostitution! You’re sick.
Excuse me! Where do you get off telling other commenters that they are "sick" because they have different taste in movies than you? Who died and made you judge?
The Godfather is considered by many--most?--critics and scholars to be one of the greatest films--American or otherwise. It pops up on nearly ALL the "best" lists. The portrayal and and/or witnessing of violence on screen is not an endorsement of violence.
Also: "vicious people who invaded our country"? Who are you? Stephen Miller?
Someone needs to get off their moral high horse.