Mr John Rogers, the fabled Kung Fu Monkey, recently launched a new meme into the cold void of space. It floated there for a time, before latching onto my psyche and forcing me to automatically type the following list.
The question?
Explain America to someone from somewhere else by giving them 10 movies to watch.
A quick explanation: With his list, John seems to be trying to cover all the bases - a film about war, a film about class, another about race, etc. I’ve taken a different tack, possibly because I’ve never been to America and therefore couldn’t care less about trying to comprehensively represent it.
I’ve simply listed the films that I feel build an image of a nation both beautiful and terrible. Here we go:
King of New York.
The Godfather.
Groundhog Day.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Apocalypse Now.
Forbidden Planet.
Star Wars.
Raging Bull.
Chinatown.
Dr. Strangelove.
And as an extra bonus feature, I’ve decided to add an optional portion to the meme:
Explain America to someone from somewhere else by giving them 10 television shows to watch.
The Twilight Zone.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The Simpsons.
Deadwood.
Twin Peaks.
Freaks and Geeks.
Star Trek: The Original Series.
Six Feet Under.
The X-Files.
The Sopranos.
And there you have it. If anyone else wants to take a shot at this meme, consider yourself properly tagged.
Didn’t you pay attention in Style and Genre?
No Westerns? No musicals?
Only one film noir (and it’s contemporary)?
These are THE American genres.
Tut tut.
Can’t believe I’m sticking up for old films.
Glaring omissions - Citizen Kane, The Searchers, All That Heaven Allows, It’s A Wonderful Life, Once Upon A Time In America, ET, GoodFellas, either Scarface, any 1940-58 film noir really, any MGM musical.
This is pretty easy.
Comment by Tony Coca-Cola — January 22, 2006 @ 11:16 pm
Crap. The Searchers was actually supposed to be on that list. Either that or The Wild Bunch.
They may be a quintessential genre, but I’d argue that most musicals - given that they’re highly character-driven - don’t really explain America too well. I’m not sure that Citizen Kane does either.
You’re right about Goodfellas and Once Upon A Time in America, though.
But not ET. Spielberg can go to Hell.
Comment by Xander Bennett — January 23, 2006 @ 1:46 am
Did my list. It looks nothing like yours. Didn’t duplicate a single one of your films. Sure to get blasted for some of my choices!
Comment by MaryAn — January 23, 2006 @ 7:47 pm
Surely The West Wing must make the list - 95% of the show is “explain America”.
Comment by Dave — January 24, 2006 @ 12:15 am
I would eliminate the Godfather and King of New York. Add Major Dundee.
Comment by ed — January 26, 2006 @ 11:20 pm