American Cultural History Through the Movies

[DoctorJones24]

I was thinking this could be a fun, informative, and time consuming game for this forum. The goal is to offer movies that you think could best be used to teach non-Americans about American history and culture. But since that's too broad to be any fun, here's the catch.

Come up with lots of lists of 5 movies, and each list should focus on a different decade in American history, starting with 1770.

I'd say the emphasis should be be on the historical/cultural content rather than the films' contribution to cinema, but obviously if you've got one that does both, all the better. Clearly, one of the interesting things will be seeing what people decide are the key events for each decade--and thus what events need to be taught. For starters, let's avoid documentaries and stick only to feature films. If someone has already offered a list for a given decade, I think it's fine to offer an alternate or two, but let's try to fill them all in eventually, and not end up with 20 lists of movies about the 80s.

So the format, for example, would look like this:

1960-1969
JFK
The Right Stuff
The Doors
Malcolm X
Apocalypse Now


(Not that I'd use those 5--that's just a sample)


I'm interested to see what Via, Gringo, Ghost, and the rest of you can come up with.

[spejic]

and not end up with 20 lists of movies about the 80s.This will be hard, because lots of movies came out in the 80s. The movie industry wasn't too big in 1810.

[DoctorJones24]

This will be hard, because lots of movies came out in the 80s. The 1810 decade was not that great movie-wise.

:eek: "about the 80s"
Silly spejic. It's late.


Here's my first pass at the 1930s. I'm not crazy about this list, but I'm no Gringo.

1930-1939
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)
Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
Pride of the Yankees (Sam Wood, 1942)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
O Brother Where Art Thou (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2000)

[spejic]

:eek: "about the 80s"No, because most movies tend to be about the era they are shot in, or at least close. For example, I can't even find 5 movies set in the 1810-1819 period, let alone have some to pick from. Here is my complete list after an hour of searching:

The Buccaneer (1938) - Cecil B. DeMille
The Buccaneer (remake, 1958) Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston
Tecumseh:the Last Warrior (1995) - A minor movie.
War of 1812 (1999) - A Canadian TV miniseries docudrama that made it look like invading Canada unprovoked was somehow bad.
Magnificent Doll (1946) - not even set in 1810-1819, but involves James Madison and Dolly Madison.

[Uppa 90]

1860's
----

Glory
Cold Mountain
Gone With The Wind
Dances With Wolves
Old Yeller ? (i think that was around there)

I would have said Beloved, too, but something tells me that is the next decade... I haven't seen Birth of a Nation, but it should probably be on there as well...

I left out tv miniseries ("Roots" and "The North and the South")

and Steven Spielbergh has a movie in the works about Lincoln, actually it is called "Lincoln", and as of right now it stars Liam Neeson in the title role... which is fantastic to have an Irish actor as one of America's greatest leaders... set to come out in 2008

[GringoTex]

What an excellent game:

1870s:

Vera Cruz
Outlaw Josey Wales
Winchester '73
The Searchers
Red River

[Ghost]

I already hate this little game.

[GringoTex]

1940s

They Were Expendable
The Best Years of Our Lives
Force of Evil
Shadow of a Doubt
Wages of Fear

[Ghost]

Ask me some other day when I haven't just watched 348 movies in the past 64 hours. ASnd make it after Bob Bradley has vamanosed from the USMNT job.

[Real Ray]

1960's

Easy Rider
Big Wednesday
I Shot Andy Warhol
Downhill Racer
Bullitt

[Ghost]

My first pass at the 1970s ... These are too alike. I'm surprised no one has even attempted the Iran Hostage Crisis. I was trying to think of a good 70s foreign policy movie, but nothing came immediately to mind.

The Ice Storm (1997)
All the President's Men (1976)
Nashville (1975)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

[needs]

Sure, take the easy decades. Here's a shot at the 1830s... Without cheating by picking all movies about the Alamo.

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
The Alamo (1960)
Amistad (1997)
How the West was Won (1962)
Moby Dick (1956)

[Via_Chicago]

I don't want to do it by decade, since I don't think that totally works for me (but I'm a history major, so what?). Anyway, I'm doing it instead by defining event, cultural context, or general theme. The films I've chosen are representative of a wide variety of films and genres. Some of them have influenced how large numbers of Americans view these historical events and issues, right or wrong (Fahrenheit 9/11, Gone With the Wind, Apocalypse Now, etc.), while others are simply great commentaries on American attitudes towards those same issues from their own time period (in other words, they are time capsules).

American Journalism (in a kind of chronological order):

Park Row (Sam Fuller)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula)
Network (Sidney Lumet)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore)

The Civil War:

Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith)
Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming)
The Beguiled (Don Siegel)
The Red Badge of Courage (John Huston)

(Editorial comment: You know, for one of the most important events in our nation's history, there are very few movies about the civil war, and even fewer really great movies).

Vietnam (broken into several different categories):

Pro War

The Green Berets (Ray Kellogg, John Wayne, and an uncredited Mervyn LeRoy)
Rambo: First Blood Part II (George P. Cosmatos)
Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis)

Anti War*

The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis)
Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick)
Fog of War (Errol Morris)

Other*

Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
Platoon (Oliver Stone)

*I have serious reservations about considering both Apocalypse Now and Platoon "anti-war" films, but that's a different discussion. Nonetheless, I also have reservations about Full Metal Jacket for the same reason. The Deer Hunter I have fewer reservations about since it's depiction of the war is mostly psychological, but again, arguable.

World War II - American Responses to the War in Europe and Japan

The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner)
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg)*
To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
The Longest Day (several directors)+
Sands of Iwo Jima (Allan Dwan)
The Big Red One (Sam Fuller)
The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage)

*While this film is mostly about the Holocaust, it portrays a highly American view of events, with rich capitalist Schindler saving the Jews, but only because they could benefit him financially. When he notes his failure as a "slave profiteer" at the end of the film, he is Spielberg's stand-in for American wealth during the war.
+American perspectives of the internationalism of the allies.

Korean War

The Steel Helmet (Sam Fuller)
Fixed Bayonets! (Sam Fuller)
MASH (Robert Altman)

Communism/The Red Scare/McCarthyism:

My Son John (Leo McCarey)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
Johnny Guitar (Nicolas Ray)
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick)
Pickup on South Street (Sam Fuller)
High Noon (Fred Zinneman)
Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch)
One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder)
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger)
Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer)

The Counter Culture and the Counter-Counter Culture:

Petulia (Richard Lester)
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
Dirty Harry (Don Siegel)
Forrest Gump (making its second appearance)

Anyway, that's enough for now. Hopefully, this'll generate some discussion for awhile.

Oh, I thought I'd add a category on turn-of-the-century America:

The Godfather Pt. II (Francis Ford Coppola)
Greed (Erich Von Stroheim)
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)

[Demosthenes]

1960's

Easy Rider
Big Wednesday
I Shot Andy Warhol
Downhill Racer
Bullitt

You have to have Medium Cool on this list.

[Demosthenes]

My first pass at the 1970s ... These are too alike. I'm surprised no one has even attempted the Iran Hostage Crisis. I was trying to think of a good 70s foreign policy movie, but nothing came immediately to mind.

The Ice Storm (1997)
All the President's Men (1976)
Nashville (1975)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Network?

[Demosthenes]

1920's
Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)
Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920)
The Great Gatsby (Jack Clayton, 1974)
The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987)
The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)

[DoctorJones24]

My first pass at the 1970s ... These are too alike. I'm surprised no one has even attempted the Iran Hostage Crisis. I was trying to think of a good 70s foreign policy movie, but nothing came immediately to mind.

The Ice Storm (1997)
All the President's Men (1976)
Nashville (1975)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

That's a pretty good list.

I'd sub El Norte for The Ice Storm and Maryam for Dog Day (there's your Iran hostage crisis movie).

[TheSlipperyOne]

Network?

Network took place in the 70s, but damn if it wouldn't be more appropriate to put on the list that reflects the 2000s.

[Owen Gohl]

(Editorial comment: You know, for one of the most important events in our nation's history, there are very few movies about the civil war, and even fewer really great movies).

I think there are two reasons for this.

1. Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind both intimidated film-makers. These films were so commercially successful and seemingly historically definitive, that executives felt there wasn't any point in trying to produce more films on the war. The "hangover" from Birth of a Nation, which I believe was re-released in 1930, was so strong in the late 30s that some people had doubts that GWTW would make money. They were wrong, but it was many years before anyone attempted to top GWTW. When they tried (Raintree County - 1958), they failed miserably. GWTW, which was re-released in the late 90s (how many films made in the 30s were showing in theaters 60 years later?), still dominates the public's image of the war. Personally, I'm not all that fond of it. I think that Jezebel (1938) offers a more accurate depiction of the Old South (actually it's set a few years before the war).

2. The other problem is that unlike World War Two, which united the country, the Civil War divided the country, so any film about the war ran the risk of alienating one side or the other. This isn't as big a risk as it used to be, but for many years producers were hesitant to authorize Civil War films for fear of losing a significant share of the market.

[Ghost]

You have to have Medium Cool on this list.

I"ve been working on a sixties list, and Medium Cool will definitely be there. In fact, here it is.

Medium Cool (!968) - political turmoil
Apocalypse now (1979) - For better or worse, the film that a lot of veterans say best captures the spirit of Vietnam.
Fail Safe (1964) - Cold War Doomsday paranoia.
Malcolm X (1995) - Civil rights era
The Right Stuff (1983) - Mercury program

I like a lot of the picks in the previous sixties choices, as well.