Discuss: What Film Best Captures the American Spirit?
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Fandom, Politics
The madness of Election Day is over -- and I certainly hope you have your I Voted! sticker to prove you were there! No matter what your politics, you can't deny that we saw one of the most exciting and historic elections in history. And whether today finds you ecstatic or despondent in our next President, you have to appreciate what we saw happen in 2008, and what a fantastic country we live in. We have the right to vote our conscience! We have the right to speak our minds without fear of repercussions! We live in a country where anyone can become president, where men and women are created equal, and we all pursue happiness with the freedom and means to do so. We can agree on that whether we're Democrat or Republican. And you know what? At the end of the day, whatever way you vote, we're not that different. And what better way to illustrate that than to have a nice chat about movies? Because whoever your candidate and whatever your affiliation and beliefs, you're here on Cinematical because you love movies.
With that unifying spirit in mind, I'd like to know what films you think best capture the American spirit. Are they John Wayne westerns? The feel good films of Frank Capra? The sacrifices of Saving Private Ryan? Maybe it's less obvious or more personal -- for you, there's no one more American than John McClane, or nothing that says family values more than E.T.
And while I would be quite tempted to pick E.T., I have to go with the one pictured above: To Kill a Mockingbird. To me, there's no one or nothing that embodies the promise of America more than Atticus Finch. Everything you need to know and want to believe of our country is embodied in his quiet fight for justice, and the deep love he has for his young family. It doesn't get any better than that. But of course, that's my opinion -- and it's time for you to have yours.
With that unifying spirit in mind, I'd like to know what films you think best capture the American spirit. Are they John Wayne westerns? The feel good films of Frank Capra? The sacrifices of Saving Private Ryan? Maybe it's less obvious or more personal -- for you, there's no one more American than John McClane, or nothing that says family values more than E.T.
And while I would be quite tempted to pick E.T., I have to go with the one pictured above: To Kill a Mockingbird. To me, there's no one or nothing that embodies the promise of America more than Atticus Finch. Everything you need to know and want to believe of our country is embodied in his quiet fight for justice, and the deep love he has for his young family. It doesn't get any better than that. But of course, that's my opinion -- and it's time for you to have yours.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-05-2008 @ 2:14PM
Ryan said...
Mr. Smith goes to Washington is, for me, the definitive American movie. Stewart in that movie embodies everything that we want to optimisitcally believe that a good American is. One the other hand, I think Claude Raines' portrayal of a corrupt politician is extremely transcedant today as well. The movie's final filibuster still puts butterflies in my stomach every time I see it. I'm a sucker for Capra, and I don't think anything he ever did touched me more than the end of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
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11-05-2008 @ 4:33PM
jimbob said...
I was going to say Mr Smith, but as a cynical non-American, for different reasons. The Hitler youth analogies just shine through on that one.
The Siege comes pretty close to real America. Maybe Starship Troopers, or Guilty by Suspicion
11-05-2008 @ 2:32PM
ScreenRant.com said...
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "To Kill A Mockingbird" represent the spirit of what America ONCE was.
If I were to pick a movie to represent the current state of affairs I'd probably go with "Idiocracy."
Vic
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11-05-2008 @ 2:49PM
colby said...
HA!
That is pure gold!
11-06-2008 @ 10:49AM
Jennifer said...
I completely agree. However, I would LIKE to think that there's at least some (I pray more) members of society that lives up to Atticus.
11-05-2008 @ 2:45PM
Anthony said...
"The Untouchables". If you take the side of mobsters and criminals you know what you are doing is wrong, you will be punished either by a bigger tougher mobster ("part of a team") or by a law-abider, the long-arm of the law. In one movie, you see the gentle side of America embodied by family and coworkers of Elliott Ness as he smiles at the birth of his child and the violent side of our ability to seek redress and retribution (again with the baseball bat). Finally, even when our hero Elliott Ness is embarassed at first for being an outsider - who doesn't understand "the Chicago Way" - he adapts and overcomes; something not a single politician in the last twenty years embodies (even last night's election). It is the average Americans - in this case Ness and Capone - who embody the greatest and potentially the worst of who we are.
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11-05-2008 @ 2:53PM
mcafee_matthew said...
Bloodsport - without a doubt!!
No in seriousness...Crash (the Paul Haggis' film not David Cronenberg's) I think successfully portrays our society in a somewhat balanced and entertaining form.
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11-05-2008 @ 5:52PM
Anthony said...
Apparently your America is not my America. I think Crash is the most pretentious piece of garbage I may have ever seen and it in absolutely no way reflects what I feel is the spirit of America.
11-06-2008 @ 9:16AM
mcafee_matthew said...
And what film DOES represent what you feel is the spirit of America...Die Hard?
11-05-2008 @ 6:42PM
will said...
well, I think the best representation of modern American society captured on film would have to be The Wire.
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11-05-2008 @ 3:12PM
JP said...
"Jean Louise. Jean Louise, stand up. Your Father's passing."
Just reading that quote makes me cry. Amazing. Atticus Finch in TKAM is everything we want America to be.
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11-10-2008 @ 11:40PM
Thunderbuck said...
Hear hear!
Atticus Finch is the only fictional character I've honestly adopted as a role model.
11-05-2008 @ 3:16PM
lw said...
Nothing says America better than the movie form we invented; the western. And nobody did that better than John Ford and John Wayne. Westerns say everything about us, from our struggle with harsh environments to our never say die attitudes to our struggle with the better angels of our human nature in how we treated the Indians. It's all there in the western for better or worse.
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11-05-2008 @ 3:19PM
Gary said...
I am struggling to come up with one Elisabeth. Your speech while very inspiring does not take into consideration the fact that California as well as voting for a black, democratic president also voted to ban gay marriages yesterday.
One black president does not suddenly mean that all men and women are created equal. Do not get carried away there. The fact that so many black people voted for Obama because he is black is just as racist as the many people who voted for John McCain him because he is isn't black.
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11-05-2008 @ 3:44PM
Alanit said...
So what is the gravity of your speech? Does it really matter now that Obama has won? see it in your heart that maybe the white man has destroyed up this country enough that it'll take a black man to fix it, and that's an impossible task we voters put our faith on. This kind of speech needs to be terminated, it is exactly the kind of bullshit our great nation is often tainted by: Ignorance.
11-05-2008 @ 3:58PM
Elisabeth said...
Well, ultimately Cinematical IS a movie site, and our posts are only supposed to be movie related. I could have gone on and on about Prop 8 (though at the time of writing, it was still undecided), but I didn't want to open the floor to diatribes. While I fiercely disagree with a ban on gay marriage, the post above wasn't the time or the place to discuss it. This isn't Wonkette or Gawker, this is Cinematical.
And while I long for a day when skin color doesn't matter, you have to admit that black people voting for Obama *because* he is black is negated by the fact that he's the *first* black candidate. When you vote for someone because he is representing your community in a way that hasn't happened before...who can blame them? Is that truly racism? If there was really a rioting sense of "Down with white people!" the argument might have more weight. I'm afraid the real bigotry still came from white voters.
We still have a long way to go, yes, but the idea here was to discuss movies, regardless of political affiliation. This is the last I'll say on my own views, and while I'm not going to dissuade other commentors from sharing theirs, I hope we can just stick to the discussion laid out in the post.
11-05-2008 @ 4:26PM
Kevin said...
Not to nitpick, but I just wanted to throw in some statistical support to what others are saying. In 2004 Kerry received 88% of the african american vote. So its not like they came out in record proportions to support Obama. The republican party gave up on the African American vote decades ago, and has done nothing to try and appeal to them. Consequently african americans refuse to vote for a republican candidate. The fact that they had an African American candidate to vote for in this election was an incentive to vote democrat, but certainly not there only reason for doing so. If they had voted SOLELY on that issue than that would have been cause for alarm, but they voted for Obama because he appealed to their ideals and the republican party does not. Compare that to the 11% of whites who in a poll earlier this year admitted that they would not be able to vote for Obama simply because he is black. Just a thought.
11-05-2008 @ 3:36PM
Alanit said...
How bout Robocop? that one nailed the aspect of america that's most divisive with humor and violence, just as valid an argument of the american spirit. It took an european to see this, and it's still unsurpassed.
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11-05-2008 @ 3:37PM
austin said...
Gary, you have some good points and I could not agree more with your review of racism and the factor it may or may not have played on both sides of this election.
As to the movie that I'd say most reflects America, I am going to go with "The Shawshank Redemption."
I know that may seem a bit off -- after all, it's about jail, corruption, and unfair treatment -- but I think it captures something far more poignant -- and that is the Spirit of America. Here is a man unfairly placed in a harsh prison for essentially the rest of his life. Of course he eventually escapes, but while there, he works to improve the lives of the people he is around. He could have just spent his time in misery, or worked to just improve his position -- but instead he gave hope, education, and even managed to fight corruption. That, to me, demonstrates the power of Americans.
In second place, I'd put "Saints and Soldiers." This is a small budget war movie that focuses on the lives of 5 brave, very different, men coming together. You don't have the huge epic storyline, nor the epic CG enhanced screen shots -- but you do have a realistic protrayal of the men who helped defeat Hitler and make America strong again, and the relationship between brothers in battle. As a soldier myself with deployment time, I think it is a far more accurate protrayal than most other war films out there.
In third place, I'd put "Gattaca." Yeah, I know -- it's sci-fi and takes place in the future. How does that make any sense? Again, this is about the spirit of a man overcoming the world he was born in, which I believe most reflects the American Spirit.
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11-05-2008 @ 7:20PM
Dorv said...
I was really disappointed with Saints and Soldiers... I heard enough good things about it that I purchased the DVD sight unseen (something that always leads to bad results), and wasn't impressed. Not bad, just didn't live up to the expectations I'd developed.