17 Comments:

you forgot shakes the clown

By  Anonymous, at 3:14 PM  

Oh hell, only 10?? Here's off the top of my head:

Grapes of Wrath
American Beauty
American Movie
Godfather
Truman Show
Shawshank Redemption
Catch 22
On The Waterfront
Fargo
Gone With The Wind
All The President's Men
West Side Story
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Apocalypse Now
Wall Street
Office Space
Dr. Strangelove
Stand By Me
Glengarry Glen Ross
Cool Hand Luke
Raging Bull
The Producers (original)
The Sting
Caddyshack
Taxi Driver
Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Eyes Wide Shut
Raising Arizona
Animal House
A Christmas Story
Singing In The Rain
Three Days of the Condor
LA Confidential
A Few Good Men
Rebel Without A Cause

Well, that's already way too many, but I'm sure someone smarter than I can narrow it down...

By  Anonymous, at 3:20 PM  

Is there a Western in your list? There's a lot of America in a Western. Self-reliance. Bigotry. Problems solved by the gun.

Oh, and, of course, Shakes the Clown

By  Hammer, at 3:28 PM  

Yeah, this list needs a western, and it probably oughta be John Ford and John Wayne. I nominate The Searchers.

And Cabin Boy.

By  Joseph Thvedt, at 4:21 PM  

here's 10 or so for you...

The Breakfast Club- high school angst
Dead Poet Society- boarding school angst
Animal House and PCU- because somewhere in the balance is college life
Grosse Point Blank- so I left high school to be an assassin angst
Reality Bites- not that it's a good film but it's what happens after college
Annie Hall- angst for people in their 30's
Fargo- fucked up my life angst
The Godfather- how to be an Italian-American angst
China Town or Big Trouble in Little China- the part of the melting pot that forgot to melt
Blazing Saddles- because someone thought there should be a western

Th

By  Anonymous, at 6:34 PM  

clerks
hedwig and the angry inch
as good as it gets/philadelphia
the color purple
casablanca
school ties
to kill a mockingbird
12 angry men
war games/red dawn
duck soup

By  Anonymous, at 6:47 PM  

You need a revenge picture, too. And a teenage slasher film to represent the religious right.

And Jaws, so that James can talk about the USS Indianapolis again.

And, of course, Shakes the Clown.

By  Hammer, at 9:52 PM  

Lots of good suggestions so far. I was especially pleased to see Lost In America.

Here are a few more. I'm too lazy to come up with 10, and besides, my other 7 (6 if you count The Searchers) are probably already mentioned.

Do the Right Thing
All the King's Men
The Right Stuff

By  Joseph Thvedt, at 10:03 PM  

here's another 10
waiting to exhale
steel magnolias
heart like a wheel
driving miss daisy
moonstruck
a star is born
fried green tomatoes
pretty woman
shakes the clown

By  Anonymous, at 1:03 AM  

Here's our picks (in no particular order):

1- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc -the greatest popcorn flick of all time. The ultimate American hero: intelligent, active, out west, fights Nazis, hates snakes.

2- 12 Angry Men- because we like us some justice

3- Pulp Fiction- because we just can't say no to fast talking pop culture. Plus, we like to remake foreign stuff in our image. A'la A Band Apart.

4- Roadhouse- Because it has everything: stock characters, fighting injustice when the government is corrupt, beer, bouncers, revenge, Patrick Swayze (sp)

5- Casablanca- because its how we remember the post war (see the Third Man for another view)

6- Lion King- because we need a Disney/cartoon flick in there somewhere.

7- Duck Soup- because comedies don't get any funnier

8- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly- because Lee Marvin would want it that way.

9- Gates of Heaven- because Errol Morris is the best documentary film maker of all time and because this could only happen in America.

10- Paris, Texas- once again, only in America

cp

By  Anonymous, at 8:19 AM  

this got some of us at work thinking. a couple of us came up with our own lists.
mine is as follows (i cheated and used a dozen, i just couldn't narrow it down):
Crash (04) - race relations in america
Skins (02) - life of the not so fortunate; life in the "ghettos" of america
A Day Without Mexicans (04) - hispanics life in america; the haves and the have-nots
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (02) - life of a (not too recently) immigrated family in america (i know it says greek wedding, but i know a ton of people, of various backgrounds, that feel like this movie completely captured the extended family get-together)
Thelma and Louise (91) - middleclass women in america
Breakfast Club (85) - average middleclass american teenager life
Office Space (99) - life in cubeville
Wag the Dog (97) - american politics
Kissing Jessica Stein (01)- american relationships and sexuality
The Muppet Movie (79) - the child in each american
Trekkies (97)/The Comic Book Movie (04) - the american underground obsession
Pulp Fiction (94)/Fight Club (99) - how cool americans believe we are, american love of violence

By  Anonymous, at 2:23 PM  

COME ON! A baseball flick is essential! The Natural, Field of Dreams

Ditto on Elvis. Whether you like it or not, Elvis changed America and personifies it in a myriad of ways. Jailhouse Rock or King Creole (younger days). His '69 comeback special or his gospel documentary (later days).

Again, like it or not, I think a religious flick is necessary....probably Mel's bonanza

To Kill a Mockingbird...crucial

A musical...all mentioned good choices...but I'd add Sweet Charity

Dancing at the Blue Iguana...the dark and seedy side and beyond-angst for women in America

Terms of Endearment....that's CHOCK-FULL of America

A political flick...all mentioned good choices

Gone With the Wind

A Mel Brooks and/or Woody Allen flick

A Christmas Story

Something animated (Peanuts, Simpsons...I know, they're not movies)

Something with "America" in the title

Really bad horror flick (The Blob, Killer Tomatoes,...)

Stand By Me

By  Anonymous, at 2:36 PM  

d'oh! forgot the baseball movie. you guys should have a poll about the best baseball movie. our money is on bull durham.

cp

By  Anonymous, at 8:10 AM  

There should be a poll on best baseball movie, or at least sports movie. And yes, Bull Durham is the best baseball movie.

I can't help but notice that like a dog returning to its vomit, Jambo is bringing up "Almost Famous", a film I enjoyed but now has suffered in my estimation due to endless Jambo hype. He really needs concentrate more on "The Life Aquatic".

And here's my list, which no doubt Jambo will shred me to pieces on:

Last of the Mohicans – the best movie on pre-Revolution America
Pow-Wow Highway – first movie about modern-day Native Americans where they actually acted and sounded like modern-day Native Americans
Office Space – you have a better depiction of working in corporate America?
The Outlaw Josey Wales – Civil War, the American West, Native Americans, and Clint Eastwood killin’ folks. Very very American
The Godfather I and II – for what it said about family and the Family, crime, post-war America, celebrity, betrayal/revenge, and it’s so iconic in American culture.
Saving Private Ryan – almost picked The Big Red One for my WWII pick but this just had to be
L.A.Confidential – for digging in the soft under-belly of 1950s America and exposing its corrupt core
Fight Club – conformity is a part of American life, here’s one way to deal with it
American Beauty – this is what the suburbs are really like
Hoosiers – because (give or take a decade) this is pretty close to the world I grew up in
Avalon - the best movie about immigrants in America
Animal House - because when I originally saw it in a theater at a midnight showing for only fraternities, everyone stood and applauded when we found out Neidermeyer got fragged in 'Nam.

By  Anonymous, at 8:38 AM  

Are there 10 baseball movies? 8 Men Out, Major League 1 & 2, Bull Durham, Angels in the Outfield, Sandlot, The Natural...A League of Their Own...

By  Hammer, at 8:40 AM  

Um, Cobb? Pride of the Yankees? I haven't seen either one so I may have been misled by the titles. How about the Bad News Bears? And Field of Dreams mentioned above. That's at least ten.

Actually Jerjo I don't a have a problem with any of your movie choices. But did you sell your place in Aderal?

By  Jambo, at 12:09 PM  

Here's my dark little list...which has been sitting on my desktop for the last several days...because work reduces my attention span to that of a gnat.

1. Requiem for a Dream, Director's Cut
2. The Corporation
3. Full Metal Jacket
4. Network
5. Roger and Me
6. Wal*Mart - The High Cost of Low Price
7. Bill Hicks - Sane Man
8. Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
9. Supersize Me
10. THX 1138

By  Nyarlathotep, at 4:09 PM  

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