America Through the Movies

Today’s episode continued Sounds of Cinema’s programming for America’s semiquincentennial with a look at movies that have captured and defined American culture.

Last week’s episode of Sounds of Cinema featured an interview with Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin, authors of the book America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. Benshoff and Griffin discussed the way American cinema has represented this country and various groups of people and at the end of the interview I asked them to name some films that define and explain America. Harry Benshoff named John Sayles’ Lone Star and Robert Altman’s Nashville. Sean Griffin picked Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

I want to expand on this idea: how to capture and define America through the movies. But as I’ve had time to think about it, I realized that there are multiple ways to approach that question. Benshoff and Griffin addressed it in their book through our identities and communities: race, class, gender, disability, and sexuality. But there are other ways of thinking about culture, such as through the themes and motifs that keep recurring in our stories and our history. We can also think of this issue in terms of films genres. What action heroes are definitively and uniquely American? Is there an American love story? What is the American horror film?

Instead of settling on one approach or another, I’m going to explore America at the movies through a few different lenses and hopefully by the end we’ll have a list of titles to watch. I want to say on the outset that this is not a list of the greatest movies or ones that are patriotic. I’m trying to pick the films that best represent who we are. That includes dramatic films and documentaries but I’m excluding series such as the 2008 John Adams miniseries and 1977’s Roots and multipart documentary projects like those by Ken Burns and Frederick Wiseman.

Nathan’s Top Five Movies about America

I’m going to start by naming my picks of five movies that capture the United States. Just like I asked Benshoff and Griffin, these are the movies I would pick if I were trying to describe America in a few titles. This is in no particular order but I’ll start with Rocky. This film is the story of a down on his luck boxer named Rocky Balboa who gets a shot at the World Heavyweight title. Rocky is an aspirational story and it epitomizes the Horatio Alger story in which an impoverished person pulls themselves up by their bootstraps. That’s a popular American narrative formula and Rocky has become the defining example of it in American cinema. What distinguishes Rocky is the soulfulness of its characters. Rocky is full of flawed and real human beings craving dignity while engaged in individualistic struggles. Rocky Balboa himself has become an icon that belongs in the pantheon of characters in American fiction alongside Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield.

For my second pick I’m going to cheat a bit and name two films: The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. The original film is about Michael Corleone taking over the family business from his father Vito and becoming the new Don. The Godfather Part II is split between a prequel showing Vito’s journey from Italy to America and founding his empire and Michael descending into darkness and isolation in his single-minded pursuit of power. The first two Godfather movies form a coherent whole. The saga of the Corleone family touches so many American institutions. It’s an immigrant narrative, it’s the story of a family business, and it’s a critique of power in American society. It’s also about where these things connect. The Godfather films mirror the aspirations and disappointments of American empire. It’s the closest we’ve come cinematically to Shakespeare’s historical tragedies.

My third pick is one of the titles mentioned by Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin: Do the Right Thing. Set on a hot summer day, racial and economic tensions boil over in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Do the Right Thing is a portrait of America’s complicated racial relationships. While the film leans toward the negative, it also bluntly addresses a topic that a lot of television and Hollywood films have papered over in their portrayal of America. Do the Right Thing is a portrait of a community of people trying to get by and run their businesses while historical prejudices and resentments creep up and eventually become undeniable. The film explicitly asks the audience what it means to “do the right thing.” It also implicitly asks us to question our identity and the allegiances borne out of it and whether or not we can ever overcome the limits of that idea of ourselves.

My fourth pick is Team America: World Police. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are among America’s great satirists and Team America parodied Michael Bay-style action filmmaking. This film is specific to the post-9/11 era but Team America’s ideas about Hollywood and America’s role in the world are broadly applicable. Hollywood has long been the champion of American imperial power and the cheerleader for the military industrial complex. Its films have reassured citizens of America’s moral authority and that military might is the mechanism through which freedom is upheld. Team America doesn’t necessarily dispel all that but it does critique those ideas while sending up American ignorance and self-centeredness. The portrayal of other nations and peoples is purposefully ridiculous. Team America visualizes the way our culture views other countries and the way other countries view us. The film does not deny that America can be a force for good in the world but Team America also suggests that our maximalism and presumptuousness are not always flattering.

My fifth pick is Roger and Me, the first documentary feature by Michael Moore. As in many of his films, Moore uses the tribulations of his hometown of Flint, Michigan as the basis for examining larger national struggles. Throughout the documentary, Moore attempts to interview Roger B. Smith, then the chairman of General Motors. The local automobile manufacturer had been Flint’s economic engine but when the plant downsized the community was devastated. Roger and Me documents Flint imploding in the aftermath of economic deprivation, contrasting the struggles of Flint’s citizens with the enrichment of GM’s executives. The story of Flint is a microcosm of the American economy, especially in our former industrial centers. But Roger and Me is also emblematic of the American populist spirit. Michael Moore’s dogged pursuit of Roger Smith is consistent with the traditions of American muckraking journalism and Moore himself embodies the Horatio Alger ethos, making a feature film and making a name for himself out of the rubble of economic devastation.

Film Genres

As I thought about what movies defined America, I began thinking about film genres. Each genre—action, romance, horror, comedy—embodies certain aspects of the human experience and carries with it certain political and ideological ideas. Here are some films that exemplify America in a few different genres.

In the action genre, the obvious answer is Raiders of the Lost Ark. As played by Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones is the definitive American action hero. Indiana Jones is to American culture what James Bond has been to the United Kingdom. His adventures are set in the World War II era and Raiders is one of several stories that put Jones in direct conflict with Nazis, channeling World War II’s important place in America’s conception of itself. Indiana Jones is also a fallible and accessible hero and American in his interactions with people of other nations.

Speaking of heroes, the comic book was popularized in America and the superhero genre has been a fixture for decades. The superhero has been a way for America to visualize its status as a global superpower. On the comic book page, Superman and Captain America have traditionally represented the aspirations of the United States but on film Batman has most consistently resembled American culture. And of the screen’s many iterations of the Caped Crusader, the one that most interestingly visualizes American power and culture is Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

The science fiction and fantasy genres often bleed into each other. Robocop and They Live offered critical insights into late twentieth century American life but if there is a single sci-fi and fantasy movie that is most American, it must be the original Star Wars. That isn’t exactly a bold choice but it’s the most obviously accurate one. The appeal of Star Wars stretches across the globe but Star Wars also captured and transmitted a distinctly American sensibility. In doing so, Star Wars also captures a tension in American life. A farm boy joining the Rebel Alliance and its struggle against the Empire speaks to the American preoccupation with underdogs fighting for democracy but the most popular character of Star Wars is Darth Vader. That contradiction between cheering for an underdog and idolizing power reveals a disconnect in America’s sense of itself.

Is there a definitive cinematic American love story? There are cases to be made for the 1930s screwball comedies It Happened One Night and Bringing Up Baby. There are also arguments to be made for 1960’s The Apartment, 1970’s Love Story, 1977’s Annie Hall, and either film version of West Side Story (although Spielberg’s film has an edge). However, When Harry Met Sally… is probably the American love story. At its core, the film asks whether men and women just be friends. There is a democratic spirit to the film’s conception of relations between the sexes which plays out against the background of New York City. 

Identifying a definitive American musical film is difficult in part because there are so many of these films and the genre has gone through fads and iterations. Stage musicals that might be candidates for the definitive American Broadway show may not have been so successful as motion pictures because something was lost in translation to the screen. For an American musical film, there are cases to be made for Singin’ in the Rain, 1979’s Hair, 1980’s Fame and The Blues Brothers. Adjacent to the musical is the show business biopic which is defined by the rags to riches to rehab formula seen in The Doors, Walk the Line, and Bohemian Rhapsody. That formula simultaneously appeals to American’s desire to enjoy the excess of a rockstar lifestyle and the need to be punished for it. The American musical film that brings all of this together is A Star is Born. Hollywood keeps coming back to this story with new interpretations but the 1954 version stands out, partly owing to the way the themes of A Star is Born are mirrored by the life of lead actress Judy Garland. 

Comedy is tricky because humor doesn’t usually age well. Comedy is very specific to culture and to the time in which it was made. There are also a lot of comedy subgenres: farce, comedy of manners, sex comedy, slapstick, and parody, to name a few. There are a lot of American comedy icons to choose from as well including Charlie Chaplin, Mel Brooks, and Rodney Dangerfield and films such as Modern Times, Blazing Saddles, and Caddyshack are good candidates. But when it comes to identifying a comedy that captures and reflects American culture, that film may be Jackass: The Movie. This adaptation of the television series consisted of a troupe of idiots masochistically punishing themselves for our entertainment. But their antics are also marked an endearing fraternalism and Jackass has an entrepreneurial DIY spirit. It’s extreme, exhibitionistic, tacky, and so very American.

Horror is the sibling of comedy and this genre also has many subcategories. The American horror film began by adapting European literature and folktales but the genre found its American identity with the release of Alfred Hitchcock Psycho. However, the definitive American horror film is probably John Carpenter’s Halloween. A mental patient escapes from a security hospital, dons a blank white mask, and stalks babysitters on All Hallows Eve. Halloween is a specifically American horror film. This boogeyman haunting a suburban neighborhood epitomizes the return of the repressed and the fear that was inherent to the origin of the suburbs. Samhain and All Hallows Eve have long historical precedents but Halloween is a distinctly American holiday and this film has been instrumental in turning it into one of our most popular annual celebrations.

Lastly, we can’t talk about American film genres without addressing the western. The genre has gone through fads and phases, most importantly the classic Hollywood western and the later revisionist western, but it remains one of the clearest ways in which America has mythologized itself and interrogated that mythology. There are various films to choose from, among them High Noon, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Dances with Wolves, and Unforgiven. But it’s 1939’s Stagecoach that is both central to the genre and to America’s conception of itself. Some of the politics and imagery of Stagecoach might seem out of fashion but those motifs persist in different forms.

American Society at the Movies

Here are some films that capture various facets of American life.

Economics and Capitalism

I’ve already mentioned Roger and Me in relation to capitalism and economics. Some other films that also effectively capture American work life and capitalism include Clerks, Fast Food Nation, Fight Club, Office Space, Pretty Woman, Risky Business, and Wall Street.

In a related topic, American media has elevated and venerated the wealthy and often erased the visibility of the poor. Some relevant documentaries about wealth and poverty include The Queen of Versailles and Frederick Wiseman’s 1975 film Welfare.

Democracy

Democracy is also a consistent American motif both in life and at the movies. One of the democratic themes of American history is the expansion of freedom with marginalized communities fighting their way into positions of power. Born in Flames is a docufiction by Lizzie Borden which imagines a subversive feminist movement operating in the United States. The Times of Harvey Milk is a documentary about the career and legacy of California’s first openly gay public official but it’s also a portrait of a community.

Americans have a complex relationship to their government. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Frank Capra’s film about an everyman doing the right thing at considerable personal cost while serving in Congress. It’s an aspirational fantasy of what democracy could be. Oliver Stone’s 1995 biopic Nixon makes a fascinating counterpart to Capra’s film. Richard Nixon is one of the most vilified figures in American political history but this film is empathetic and a tragedy in which the personal and the political intersect. 

Militarism, Guns, and Violence

America loves its military and its guns and those obsessions bleed together in American cinema. When it comes to militarism, I’ve already mentioned Team America: World Police. The character John Rambo is an American icon, particularly as seen in Rambo: First Blood Part II. Top Gun is also quite important in this discussion. Together those films present a picture of American military might and a belief in peace and security through superior firepower. As a counterpoint, look to the Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds and to the 2024 speculative fiction Civil War which imagined American militarism unleashed on the homefront.

American society is quite violent and there is no lack of movies featuring guns. 1974’s Death Wish and 1979’s Taxi Driver thoughtfully dramatized violent responses to urban crime. Also relevant is the little seen 1981 documentary The Killing of America, a collage of violent scenes in American life, and the 2025 documentary Thoughts & Prayers which examines the industry that has arisen around mass shooting training and prevention.

Faith

Faith, and particularly Christianity, is also an important institution in American life. Hollywood filmmakers have generally avoided the topic altogether but the film adaptations of Inherit the Wind and Elmer Gantry are incisive looks at the intersection of faith and public life. Also relevant is Jesus Camp, a documentary about an evangelical summer camp. For a more conciliatory take on American Christianity, see the 2004 picture Saved! and 1998’s The Apostle.

Life on the Margins

America loves the rebel and the iconoclast in part because of the culture’s (often shallow) preoccupation with freedom. The key title is Easy Rider which was one of the defining expressions of the 1960s counterculture. The work of John Waters and Sean Baker also applies here, namely Pink Flamingos and Tangerine. Werner Herzog’s documentary Grizzly Man examined the life and death of naturalist Timothy Treadwell and Into the Wild was an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book. Both films were in tune with a tradition of American explorers and the spirit of people like Henry David Thoreau. Andrea Arnold’s American Honey and Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland also depict people living on the margins of American society.

Geography

We can also explain America geographically and through the identities of our regions and major cities. There’s a surplus of movies set in New York City but Joseph Sargent’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and John Landis’ Coming to America at least start to provide a picture of the city. 

California is associated with decadence but also possibility, beauty, and youth. 1963’s Beach Party is a silly but accurate representation of what California symbolizes to the rest of the country. For Los Angeles in particular, see La La Land, Boyz n the Hood, and 2004’s Collateral.

For the southern region of the United States, I’d suggest Eve’s Bayou, Nashville, and The Florida Project.

The southwest and particularly Texas are portrayed in John Sayles’ Lone Star, a multigenerational story about the various communities in a border town. More recently, see 2021’s Red Rocket.

Las Vegas is America’s adult playground and Showgirls is the leading cinematic representative for Sin City followed by Martin Scorsese’s Casino, and Diablo Cody’s Paradise.

Chicago has also been the site of quite a few films with a range of topics and tones. The documentary Hoop Dreams, the 1992 horror film Candyman, and the comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are a good place to start.

Aside from Chicago, I’ve left much of the Midwest and so-called “flyover country” off this list because that region has been largely neglected by Hollywood. Hopefully that will change.