Found at Majikthise, Lawyers Guns and Money, and Lance Mannion, and apparently originating here: choose ten movies that you would show to someone to explain America to them. Here’s my list, off the top of my head, making some effort not to duplicate the others.
- The Player (1992)
- Cool Hand Luke (1967)
- Training Day (2001)
- Metropolitan (1990)
- Easy Rider (1969)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
- Hoop Dreams (1994)
- The Sting (1973)
- Glory (1989)
- Dr. Strangelove (1964)
I thought at first it would be hard to think of ten good ones, but I ended up having to leave out Fargo, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Thelma and Louise, The Conversation, The Untouchables, Blue Velvet, and a bunch more. I’m not providing any explanations for my choices — figuring it out should be half the fun.
Comments
42 responses to “Explaining America in movies”
This is interesting, as a non-american.
I recall a film with Henry Fonda, about the depression era, the film title escapes me, but it was representative of an era?
Is your choice based on up-to-minute?
To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the most powerfull films of any era.
I recall a film with Henry Fonda, about the depression era, the film title escapes me, but it was representative of an era?
Grapes of wrath I think Paul. But really, it is much different now 🙂
I’d suggest Crash, Hoosiers, Coming Home, Annie Hall, and the Breakfast Club…
Fargo is a really great idea
Never had America explained to me, that’s probably why I fail to understand so many things… Nevertheless, I would add “Paris Texas”, one of my favorite movies.
Thanks a million S!
Of course, America today is really quite different, but my own “idea-of-america” based on one or two films would be:
Taxi Driver
It’s a Mad,Mad,Mad,Mad World
Two contrasting films, but having never been to the U.S I know this would be pretty inacurate and non-representative?
My first idea of what America was like was gleaned from watching Deliverance.
Dreams are good, but I gotta pick a different sport…Field of Dreams:
Bonus quote:
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.
Also, I forgot Waiting for Guffman. That perhaps symbolizes America more than any other movie could
Silly of me, but I think National Lampoon’s European Vacation pretty much describes America.
I’m making this list before following any of your links, to make it more fun. Since the idea is to explain America, it would help if there was a good suburban movie, but I can’t think of one off hand. In chronological order:
1/ Citizen Kane (1941)
2/ The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
3/ The Best Years of our Lives (1946)
4/ A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
5/ Mean Streets (1973)
6/ Hannah and her Sisters (1986)
7/ Mystery Train (1989)
8/ Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
9/ Hoop Dreams (1994)
10/ Gridlock’d (1997)
I don’t want to number them:
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)
The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970)
The Southerner (Jean Renoir, 1945)
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)
A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)
Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989)
Man, I wish I’d thought of Little Big Man!
Though it seems oft-avoided due to its popularity, I think Taxi Driver is the only glaring ommision from the list. Scorcese REALLY hits the nail on the head in his description of alienation, loneliness, and exclusion in the modern world. Though a grim and frighteningly delusional look into the head of an oddity, Taxi Driver is a biting and accurate description of one admittedly dark aspect of current society.
Also, maybe something Tarantino? Pulp Fiction, perhaps? Though extremely self-referential and not always a social commentary, it certainly epitomizes a current trend in film. If there’s one thing Quentin Tarantino knows, it’s the state of American Film.
Koyaanisquatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983)
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
El Norte (Gregory Nava, ’83)
A River Runs Through It (Robert Redford, 1992)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967)
The Best Years of our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
Too bad there’s no movie version of Vineland.
The American movies had unexpected effects elsewhere in the world…
The “Happy Birthday” and “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” songs exist in Italy because the Italians saw the songs being sung in American movies and liked the songs. Their songs are the same melodies with just the words directly translated, and are now part of their culture. (According to my friends here, they didn’t have a Happy Birthday song before.)
Heh.. so my burning curiosity wants to know, since the Happy Birthday song is copyrighted, and ASCAP and Time Warner consider it a form of copyright infringement to sing the songs in public, can they fine the Italians when they sing “Tanti Auguri a Te” too ..?
I think a Calvin and Hobbes movie could explain America in the movies the best…
Thanks for the link! It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? One of my readers came up with it.
Ah, scusi’ ! Forgot the right quote in the html link ->
Unhappy Birthday song .
From a political POV, I am slightly surprised that nobody has suggested “Being There (1979)” yet…
Patton (1970)
Crossing Delancey (1988)
Casablanca (1942/43)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
The Cowboys (1970)
Matewan (199?)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1967)
L.A. Confidential (1997?)
Mississippi Burning (198?)
In no particular order
Diner
Network
Dead Man Walking
Bowling for Columbine
Roger and Me
American Graffiti
Saturday Night Fever
Wall Street
Picnic
Kramer vs. Kramer
Elliot
Supprised you left off Farenheit 911 Elliot. Surely Roger Moore’s magnum opus deserves a place among the 10 films which explain America to the rest of the world.
Explain America! Well…Latin America, Central America, North America… The United States, Canada, Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Chile. Uruguay, Peru,Equador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize…you want to explain all of them in one movie? How about America in 80 days by Sean Carroll? Conditional on his financial resources and flare for adventure…One movie to the wise: The Shawshenk Redemption…location, location, location
I loved Roger Moore in Fahrenheit 911. The part where he zoomed through the terrorist camp in his specially-modified Lotus, shaken-not-stirred martini in one hand and grenade launcher in the other? And ended up in bed afterward with the hot Pakistani nuclear physicist? That was awesome.
I consdered F911 but am hopeful that the Bush era is only a temporary annoying interruption and is not reflective of the true America.
Elliot