Daily Loaf

Editor’s Note: Still nursing that post-July 4th hangover? Check out some of these fine films and let the patriotism melt the headache away. And for more news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, be sure and check out the CL Movies & Television site.]

1) Nashville
Robert Altman’s masterpiece captured America in the ’70s like no other film, encompassing all of the decade’s confusion, disappointment and uncertainty. The film follows 24 different characters over a period of a few days in Nashville, just before a political fundraising concert. We take a peek into the lives of country music superstars, hippies, aspiring singers, mothers, producers, liberals, conservatives, radicals, Christians. We see how America has changed, and how our moral system had been skewed by Vietnam, Watergate, the Kennedy assassinations and the sexual revolution. Nashville illustrates perfectly what John Lennon meant by “strange days, indeed” on the cut “Nobody Told Me.”

2) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
There are few speeches in movie history more powerful than Jimmy Stewart’s impassioned number on the floor of the House of Representatives. He says what every American wanted to say: These politicians are more loyal to their parties and think of people as numbers they need to get re-elected. Frank Capra’s idealistic film has not lost one bit of its relevance and should be required viewing for all children.

3) Yankee Doodle Dandy
Was there anyone who was more patriotic than George M. Cohan? It’s easier to say that no one was more perky about it. This film is chock full of patriotic musical numbers that will make your heart beat with pride. And don’t miss James Cagney’s iconic performance as Cohan — just to watch him dance is astonishing in itself.

4) The New World
Terrence Malick’s film is a lot more than a history lesson; it’s a spiritual journey of a woman torn between two worlds. We see the story of Pocahontas (whose name is never said in the film) and her connection with these strange men who have entered her tribe’s world. She is banished from the tribe and is forced to live with the colonists on John Smith’s orders. Smith leaves fearing imprisonment, but Pocahontas finds love and marries John Ralph. We see her travel to England where she enters her own new world. At its core, the film shows us how this woman bridged the gap between natives and the West, at least for a brief moment. She saw and understood both sides, and it’s a tragedy that no one else did.

5) Sullivan’s Travels
When a big Hollywood writer goes out on the road in disguise as a hobo to find what real suffering is like in America, he gets a rude awakening. The common man he so desperately wants to represent doesn’t care the least bit if he is represented or not. The film is a tribute to the power of movies and their importance in bringing joy to the American people even in the depths of the Great Depression.

6) The Searchers
In what may be John Ford’s greatest film is the most iconic of John Wayne’s performances. He has been obsessively searching for his “kidnapped” niece, not to rescue her but to kill her because she has become ”the leavin’s of a Comanche buck.” Wayne’s Ethan Edwards is the prototype for the American loner driven to violent extremes. Taxi Driver and countless other films were directly inspired by this dark Western. The film’s sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans and the atrocities committed toward them may have been muted for the 1950s audience, but it’s certainly there and remains powerful to this day.

7) Citizen Kane
Only a story like Kane’s could be told in America. William Randolph Hearst’s story inspired the film, and the trajectory of his career, and of Kane’s, is echoed in latter-day celebrities (think Elvis or Michael Jackson): First there’s success, then unbelievable ambition, and then the personal demons and isolation from society (Xanadu, Neverland, San Simeon, Graceland). The personal stories may be tragic but the legacies are great and uniquely American.

1776
Oh, the genius that came up with this musical. 1776 trumps School House Rock any day.

9) JFK
Sometimes the most patriotic thing you can do is question American authority. Oliver Stone’s film captures America’s paranoia and anger over the Kennedy assassination and the missing pieces in its investigation. Using New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison as a vessel, the film illustrates the absurd and unjust claims of the Warren Commission.

10) Harlan County, USA
Barbara Kopple’s landmark documentary follows the mine strikes in Harlan County in 1973. The images and monuments the film captures linger in the mind for a long time.

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