ten movies about america

[rone]

dr_strych9 lists 10 films he'd use to explain America.  Here's mine:

• The Blues Brothers
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Network
• The Apostle
• Nobody's Fool
• Bob Roberts
• Fargo
• The Rookie
• X
• Deliverance

Nota bene: i haven't seen "The Rookie" or "Deliverance", but i'm acquainted enough with the stories that i'm confident about their appearance here.

Comments

[opadit.livejournal.com]

I'd add Badlands, with the caveat that I'm incredibly biased in favor of the film as a piece of art by itself. But you get quite a few very American things in that movie: scenery (I've lived in the U.S. all my life but I still find the expanses of the Dakotas and Wyoming just jaw-dropping), guns, a love story, and media sensationalization of grisly crimes.

I might also add The Color Purple.

Fun thought experiment!

[coldsleep.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I highly approve of the inclusion of Bob Roberts. Seen Deliverance, I guess it works.

Blues Brothers, yes. Dr. Strangelove, yeah.

I'd probably include American Graffiti. Or Footloose. Maybe Cannonball Run or L.A. Story.

[mezdeathhead.livejournal.com]

I think I'd throw in Big Lebowski and call it a good list.

TiX

[venividi.livejournal.com]

Hmm, America in 10 films. Is it possible?

1) Intolerance
2) The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
3) Stay Away Joe
4) Woodstock
5) The Longest Day
6) Witness
7) Sex, Lies, and Videotape
8) Kentucky Fried Movie
9) The Day the Earth Stood Still
10) Mississippi Burning

covers about half the explanation. also needed:

11) Elmer Gantry
12) Reds
13) Little Big Man
14) Tales of the City (I cheat, it's a miniseries)
15) Mr Smith Goes to Washington
16) Boogie Nights
17) Snow Falls on Ceder
18) Pleasantville
19) Apollo 13, Contact, or Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
20) Philadelphia Story

or, you could skip all of that and watch Citizen Kane

Re: TiX

[opadit.livejournal.com]

Intolerance

100% yes, yes, yes.

Come to think of it, I think I'd say Dog Day Afternoon and Twelve Angry Men, too.

Re: TiX

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

why take Kentucky Fried Movie over say 'Amazon Women On The Moon' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092546/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9QW1hem9uIFdvbWVuIE9uIFRoZSBNb29ufGZ0PTF8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGNvPTF8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=21")?

KFM was merely stoner fodder. whereas AWOTM offered the proper framing within the technical failures of the then newly arrived all night cheap movie tv shows - clearly a far better entre into the moral collapse of american culture in the pre-cable everywhere era.

hmmm

[lara7.livejournal.com]

I'd include Citizen Kane for the whole self-made man/rise and fall story and instead of Deliverance, Gone with the wind says a lot more about the myth of The South than a suspense film about murderous hillbillies.

Actually, come to think of it, Deliverence and The Evil Dead are actually the same film: travel to the woods for a short trip, something evil in the woods gets you. Deliverance has the squeal like a pig rape scene, Evil dead has the infamous "tree rape" scene. Although I guess there's no cover-up aftermath in Evil Dead.

[matrushkaka.livejournal.com]

That's a good list, and having grown up in the South, I'll say "Deliverance" is a good pick. I posted my 10, but it was hard to keep it at 10. I also wanted to add "Philadelphia," "Fried Green Tomatoes," and "The Outsiders."

[matrushkaka.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, also and "American History X."

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

Bob Roberts

That was the one I was trying to remember! Doh!

[cheesetruck.livejournal.com]

A. Sugar rules.

B. Must see Fargo at some point.

I'd play, but I don't ... really... I'm not sure I've seen 10 films.

ten movies

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

The week before Katrina I had a Professor from Germany visit. When it came up in conversation that he was unfamiliar with Betty Boop, I showed the Fleischer Bros shorts "Ha Ha Ha" and "Snow White", after which I said he now knew everything important he needed to know about Betty Boop and the United States.

Catch me in another mood, I might give a completely different list, but for now I'll say:

King Kong (1933)
Citizen Kane
It's A Wonderful Life
The President's Analyist
Liquid Sky
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Red Dawn
Apollo 13
Bulworth
Good Night and Good Luck

Re: ten movies

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

I guess the themes being our amazing national senses of ambition, humor, paranoia, and self contemplation.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Mmm, Bulworth. Totally.

Re: ten movies

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

Props for adding Liquid Sky!!!

Clearly one of the more important films of the era!!!

Clearly revealed more about the Space Alient Threat than any other film!

Re: ten movies

[venividi.livejournal.com]

Now if you switched to 10 animated films it would be a bigger challenge.

Obviously the list would have to include Fleisher's original clown cartoon, steamboat willy, What's Opera Doc, The Line and The Point, Gerald McBoingBoing and Fritz the Cat, but what else?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hmm, i'll say The Incredibles.

Re: ten movies, animated

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Good picks all, but to be contrary, here's a list using none of them:

1)Gertie the Dinosaur
2)Koko's Earth Control (not the first of the series, but an example of the silent Flesher toons at their height)
3)Skeleton Dance (example of early Disney soundie)
4)Snow White (Betty Boop)
5)Snow White (Disney)
6)Peace on Earth
7)One Froggy Evening (For a list of one, this would be it)
8)How the Grinch Stole Christmas
9)Luxo Jr.
10)The Incredibles

Re: ten movies, animated

[venividi.livejournal.com]

Not exactly using "none" of them, as "Koko's Earth Control" is the one I was trying to think of when I wrote "original clown..."

Not sure I place Peace on Earth, but I definitely applaud the others. I picked Point/Line because it's a bit of Jones that most people are not familiar with and deserves to be as well known as Grinch.

[filthy-habit.livejournal.com]

I'd probably whack The Rookie off the list and use The Natural as the representative sports/baseball movie, or possibly Eight Men Out.

You also left off an obvious one: The Godfather (saga). Nothing more American than the immigrant experience.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I thought about that but i left The Rookie because of the second chance-major longshot theme, plus it's Disney and what's more American than Disney?

[filthy-habit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but The Natural aspires to be a myth while The Rookie is just a true story. You know how Americans love to build myths.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hey, any true story turns into a myth when filtered through Disney.

Just down the block from Disney Land

[venividi.livejournal.com]

What's more american than disney?

The Crystal Cathedral, of course:
http://www.seeing-stars.com/Churches/CrystalCathedral.shtml

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

PRE-CISELY.

They should really sell Robert Schuller wigs.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

No Woody Allen?
No Tim Burton?
No Westerns?
No Documentaries?
No gangster movies?
No Repo Man?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Woody Allen stopped being America in the `80s.

Tim Burton? AAHAHAHAHAHAno. OK, i liked how dr_strych9 justified Mars Attacks!, but it's still not something i'd show someone else to represent America, especially when Dr. Strangelove does it much better.

Westerns stopped being America long ago.

I don't know documentaries very well, and they seem so narrow that i can't think of one i'd use to represent America.

Gangster movies are entertaining but, again, not what i see of America, excepting possibly Godfather I/II.

I still haven't seen Repo Man.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

Let me recommend Living Dolls (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0285298/).

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

When i'm president, i am outlawing child beauty pageants.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

Alas, when child beauty pageants are outlawed only outlaws will have child beauty pageants.

It's a difficult thing to watch, but it does a better job of taking a snapshot of a particular corner of America than anything I've seen elsewhere. There are single moms, gay men, curiously absent family members, etc. And of course a complete absence of irony.

Oh, and if I recall correctly it's set in some corner of the South; it'll tell you more about the contemporary South than will Deliverance, Gone With The Wind, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

YOU MUST SEE REPO MAN

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

"A Repo Man Has A Code Of Conduct"

The single most important line, EVER!!!

[venividi.livejournal.com]

Westerns may have stopped being American, by three movies that taken as a trilogy do a great job of summing up america are

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Once Upon a Time in the West

and

The Hallelujah Trail

Go see Repo Man, soonest.