Ten All-American Movies

Take some time away from the grill or pool this weekend to relax and be inspired by these ten movies that exemplify the American character of toughness, fairness, hard work and humor.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

If you’ve ever been suspicious of politicians (and who hasn’t?), this is the movie for you. Naïve Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) finds that in D.C., even his idol (Claude Rains) is corrupt. Despite a frame-up, though, Smith wins the day and gives hope to all idealists who want to make politics a little more truthful and generous than it really is.

To Kill A Mockingbird Released just before the civil-rights movement gained national attention, this story follows Gregory Peck as he defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. Playing Atticus Finch, Peck projects an unwavering moral authority as he fights to give the defendant a fair trial. The movie still makes some pretty strong points about justice and race.

Norma Rae Sally Field – best known as Gidget and the Flying Nun – forged new ground for herself in the role of the real-life title character. As Norma Rae, a hardscrabble Southern woman who defied the odds to unionize employees at the textile plant where she worked, Field was utterly believable as the woman who won a battle against the company bad guys. It’s no surprise that she won an Academy Award.

Saving Private Ryan Unlike many other war movies, Saving Private Ryan manages to blend both the epic and the personal in a grueling story of World War II. The harrowing opening scene, of troops landing at Normandy Beach on D-Day, will give you even more respect for the veterans who survived that bloodbath. Coupled with a poignant effort by American soldiers to find a private whose brothers have been killed, Ryan gives a 360-degree view of a horrific war.

Glory In Glory, the 54th Massachusetts regiment is made up of black men who wear their Union gear in defiance of a Confederate threat to execute them if they’re captured. Capt. Robert Shaw (Matthew Broderick) takes command of them and ultimately leads the regiment in a desperate charge. The final scenes are more than inspiring, as men who were not always welcome in their own country go to fight for that country’s ideals of freedom and liberty.

Gone With The Wind Millions of fans can probably recite the script line by line. But GWTW has lost none of its power in its depiction of a once-wealthy region ravaged by war, and the determination of Scarlett O’Hara to make a new life for herself out of the ashes. The movie won eight Academy Awards, with Leigh taking home the Oscar for Best Actress. Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy, won for Supporting Actress, the first time a black actor had won an Oscar.

Rocky The movie that made Sylvester Stallone a superstar. Rocky tells the story of a broken-down South Philadelphia boxer who goes up against the best fighter in the world (Carl Weathers). Does Rocky win? The answer’s not too hard to guess, but in Rocky Stallone created a character every Joe Six-Pack could identify with—and be inspired by.

High Noon Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly are probably the best-looking couple ever to meet in a dusty frontier town, but love takes second place to the law in High Noon, quite possibly the best Western ever made. Cooper, in the latter stages of his career, won an Oscar for his portrait of a sheriff who’s got to shoot it out with four bad guys.

Forrest Gump To our knowledge, Tom Hanks has never played a bad guy, and this movie is no exception. As the title character, an amiable, somewhat dense Southerner, Hanks invites us to follow him through his adventures and traumas, including college football, the Vietnam War and beyond. The funny, poignant movie, which was praised by political conservatives, shows Gump not as a caricature but as an earnest American going for the goal of family, love and service to his country.

Meet Me in St. Louis One of the best American musicals was directed by Vicente Minnelli, whose future wife, Judy Garland, starred in the story of a family living in St. Louis just before the World’s Fair opened there in 1904. In the movie, the legendary Garland first sang two of her signature tunes, “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” Few other musicals portray the optimism and joy of an American family at the beginning of the 20th century, where you got a kiss from the boy next door and home was the most cherished place of all.