Cinematical

It's pretty easy to pick out Christmas movies and Halloween movies, and it's not too hard to find a New Year's movie, or even Arbor Day or Memorial Day movies. But how do you select a Fourth of July movie? Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) takes place during the Fourth of July, when the sheriff (the late, great Roy Scheider) tries to close the beach to protect the people from the killer shark and the greedy mayor wants to keep the beaches open to make lots of money. And who can forget Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991), with its image of a cackling, cigar-smoking Robert De Niro looming over the helpless, passive family, while fireworks explode overhead? These movies may not be entirely appropriate, or they may be all-too-appropriate symbols of America in 2008, but either way, they're both terrific movies.

The road movie is a uniquely American genre; unlike other parts of the world, Americans have the freedom to drive across 3000 miles of open land without getting hassled. It also involves cars, for which Americans have a singular passion. There are dozens of great road movies (not surprisingly), but let's go with three of the most unique examples. Tim Burton's cult classic Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) brings the title hero on the road to find his stolen bicycle; the film also has the best hitch-hiking sequences since It Happened One Night. Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) is the ultimate existential car movie, and David Lynch's The Straight Story (1999) is the road movie transplanted to a power lawnmower (which is pretty American, too, when you think about it).

They say that baseball and jazz are two of America's great inventions, and subsequently, the baseball movie and jazz movie. In the former category, Field of Dreams (1989) is a given, but let's pair it with my all-time favorite baseball movie, The Rookie (2002). I really didn't want to see a G-rated Disney movie that was based on a true story and ran 129 minutes; I could almost feel the syrup and treacle poisoning my system. But it was amazingly low-key and exceptionally moving, with a great, underrated performance by Dennis Quaid. In 1988, Clint Eastwood released two of the greatest jazz films: his Charlie Parker biopic Bird represented his earliest transition from "Dirty Harry" stardom to Great American Filmmaker, and the documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser is filled with great music and great moments.

What else is uniquely American? What about that old saying "Mom & apple pie?" We could check out Adrienne Shelly's Waitress (2007), which has pretty much supplanted any other pie movie to date, but I'd want to throw in a few episodes of "Twin Peaks," just so I could hear Kyle MacLachlan describe the town's "damn good" pie and coffee. "Mom" movies get a little tricky; whenever "mom" comes up in a movie's title, it's always about a sadistic, psychotic weirdo, rather than the mom who tucked you in at night. Some examples: Mommie Dearest (1981), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Serial Mom (1994), Mommy (1995), Mother (1996), The Mother (2003), Die, Mommie, Die! (2003), or Your Mommy Kills Animals (2007). And remember Alien (1979)? The creepy computer that tried to bring an alien specimen back to earth was called... you guessed it: "Mother." So let's go with the two Freaky Friday movies (1976 and 2003), or maybe American Gangster (2007), with Ruby Dee's Oscar nominated performance as Denzel Washington's sweet, but no-nonsense ma.

Speaking of that, how many movies have been released recently with the word "American" in the title? There were three in 1999: American Beauty won the Oscar, American Pie won the box office, but the best was Chris Smith's documentary American Movie, about a half-baked filmmaker working on a short horror film, but steadfastly refusing to give up his dream. That aside, I have to mention Allen and Albert Hughes' American Pimp (2000), about which the title says all. (What a great poster to hang in your bedroom!) Then we have movies that celebrate the First Amendment, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The ultimate double bill in that arena would have to be Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976) and George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), both inexplicably good and surprisingly non-preachy movies based on true stories.

Those are all good ideas for Fourth of July rentals, but I've been saving the best one for last. And, no it's not Born on the Fourth of July, which I don't care to ever see again, and it's not Yankee Doodle Dandy. It's John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), a partly fictionalized, pre-beard tale of our greatest president, one that both red and blue states can agree upon, played marvelously by Henry Fonda (with a fake nose and mole). He celebrates the Fourth of July, tastes some apple pie (as well as some peach pie!) and then helps defend two innocent brothers in court. Speaking of which, that's another amendment in the Bill of Rights, the right to a fair trial. It's good to consider things like that as we march ahead into our increasingly troubled times. Me, I'm also going to consider some apple pie...