You have to explain America to someone from not here, but you can only use ten movies to do it. Which ten do you choose?

(Now, these do not have to be history movies, they can illustrate something unique about American values or character or “the American experience”.)

the last picture show
saturday night fever
pink flamingos
woodstock
imitation of life
endless summer
the swimmer
grapes of wrath
over the edge
a summer place
(no order)
- bill 1-18-2006 7:08 pm [add a comment]

• which imitation of life -- the lana turner or claudette colbert version?
  - dave 1-19-2006 5:19 am [add a comment]




• i think im previously unaware of the 1934 version.
  - bill 1-19-2006 7:03 am [add a comment]

preliminary list (in no particular order):

1 network
2 dr strangelove
3 texas chainsaw massacre
4 to kill a mockingbird
5 easy rider
6 chinatown
7 nashville
8 fast times at ridgemont high
9 wall street
10 birth of a nation/naughty schoolgirls 4/high noon/rear window/gone with the wind


- dave 1-18-2006 7:15 pm [add a comment]

I totally agree with Dave's first five and...

1 network
2 dr strangelove
3 texas chainsaw massacre
4 to kill a mockingbird
5 easy rider
6 marty
7 on the waterfront
8 2001 space odyssey
9 singing in the rain or guys and dolls or sumthin musical and airy
10 fog of war
- jimlouis 1-18-2006 7:33 pm [add a comment]

7 and 9 i considered, specifically those two musicals. guess those are "guy-friendly" musicals.
- dave 1-18-2006 7:41 pm [add a comment]

Meet John Doe
Debby Does Dallas
The Wild Bunch
Star Trek: First Contact
Ed Wood
Advise and Consent
Sweet Smell of Success
Top Gun
The Green Berets
Greed

- tom moody 1-18-2006 8:08 pm [add a comment]

• greed is on tcm next tuesday at 1115pm. check out next wednesday at 10. i hope thats just for pat.
  - dave 1-19-2006 5:09 am [add a comment]




• I notice the Shanghai Gesture on that second list--highly recommended. It's completely wack.
  - tom moody 1-19-2006 6:11 am [add a comment]

jim marty over glass menagerie ? both are brutal.
- bill 1-18-2006 8:23 pm [add a comment]

No Bill, I feel strong about writer Paddy Chayefsky having two spots to represent American culture--Marty and Network.
- jimlouis 1-18-2006 9:02 pm [add a comment]

spaceballs
- steve 1-19-2006 6:34 pm [add a comment]

the immigrant
the jazz singer
horse feathers
mr. smith goes to washington
high noon
hiroshima mon amour
written on the wind
network
american Graffiti
taxi driver

or instead and even though I don't think it's very well done the Jazz series by ken burns
- steve 1-19-2006 6:55 pm [add a comment]