Forgive if this has already been done – I haven’t seen it in the last five months.
What five movies would you consider that every red-blooded American should have be familiar with?
Hmmmm…off the top of my head:
KING KONG
GONE WITH THE WIND
THE WIZARD OF OZ
CITIZEN KANE
A representative Hitchcock film, probably NORTH BY NORTHWEST.
There. You could beam down from Mars are be able to have a reasonably coherent cocktail-party conversation with these five under your belt.
Uke
Wow, keeping it to five is making my head hurt.
But, how about:
The General (1927)
The Adventures of RobinHood (1938)
Casablanca (1944)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
. . . and I ran out of space before I ran out of decades.
I won’t dispute any of the lists but it’s misleading to suggest that a hundred or a thousand movies let alone five can define cultural literacy.
Since you asked though, if I was stranded on a desert island with only my 32" Sony, DVD player and an environmentally friendly generator and could only take five disks with me I’d have:
Young Frankenstein Perhaps the funniest movie ever made. May substitute Blazing Saddles.
L.A. Confidential One of the best recent films I can think of. Captures the era well without trying to be a film noir.
Lawrence of Arabia A good example of a David Lean “they don’t make them like that anymore” wide vista epic. Substitute Ryan’s Daughter, A Passage to India, Bridge on the River Kwai orDr. Zhivago if you like.
Taxi Driver Scorsese and De Niro at their best.
20,000 leagues Under the Sea (1954) For no reason in particular.
Yikes, this is tough.
Intolerance (1916)—silent drama
The General (1928)—silent comedy
42nd Street (1933)—musical
Gone with the Wind (1939)—epic faux-history
Queen of Outer Space (1958)—high camp
Wait, guys, wait! Back to the OP, everyone; Poly said to make choices for the sake of cultural literacy!
The five I picked are FAR from being my favorite movies, or movies I’d take to a desert island, or any of that…but they ARE five I’ll make damn sure my kids see before they’re ten years old.
That said, I wish I had room for CASABLANCA, and TOP HAT, and DUCK SOUP, and FRANKENSTEIN, and THE GOLD RUSH, etc. But with these five a person could make wry references to “Rosebud,” to “It was Beauty killed the Beast,” to dresses made out of the good drapes and “As God is my witness I’ll never go hungry again,” to Brains/Heart/Courage and Lions/Tigers/Bears/Oh my, and so on and so forth.
Cultural literacy.
Uke
Porky’s
Dumb and Dumber
Beach Blanket Bingo
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Airplane
I think that would be enough to have an intelligent conversation with any red-blooded american.
In terms of cultural literacy, I’d pick:
Casablanca
The Godfather
Gone with the Wind
Star Wars
The Wizard of Oz
These were chosen not because they were the best movies ever made, or because they had the most influence on film-making, but because there are innumerable referances from these films throughout ordinary life.
Ike, thanks for getting us back on track with the intent of the OP. That said I think Little Nemo’s list is outstanding. The only change I’d make would be to exchange Citizen Kane for Star Wars.
The Wizard of Oz
Citizen Kane
2001
Star Wars
Casablanca
That being said, I’ve never even seen Casablanca, but I am familiar with the story. I think I’ll go watch it this afternoon.
It hurts me to leave out The Godfather, I LOVE that movie, but I think my other five are more representative.
~Harborina
“This is my sandbox. I’m not allowed to go in the deep end. That’s where I saw the leprechauns.”
Damn you Nemo for posting before I return from work!
Your list is without question correct in terms of cultural influence. While one might wish to place Citizen Kane on the list, it has no where near the CULTURAL influence of those other films. The Same would be true for 2001 & many others. The only film I can think of off hand to compete for a place on your list would be ET, which I personally cannot stomach, but it’s influence cannot, alas be denied.
That said, lets have some fun with the OP. The question was what films must a red-blooded american be familiar with? This implies our cultural imperialism! So what films best represent this?
- A John Wayne Movie! Yes Wayne’s screen persona is that of the true redblooded American. Patriot, rough around the edges, a man’s man. (tongue firmly in cheeck). All red-blooded Americans must be familiar with John Wayne! As an example, lets pick McLintock! (the exclamation is part of the title, btw)
- A Disney film. What better to represent our crass comercialism. Thus it must be a RECENT Disney movie, made with all sorts of tie-ins to futher our profit. Hmmm… to many options… well, let’s pick The Lion King, that way we can get in the part about ripping off the Japanese and/or Shakespeare.
- Mindles Violence! Yes, cartoonish violence with a high body count. We’re americans dammit, we shoot stuff. So many options… Well, we already have a western with John Wayne, so lets take Dirty Harry.
- Sex! oops, no not sex. No, Sex Appeal! no, er… well, we red-blooded americans like our T&A even if we have a puritan streak the size of the rockies about it. Again, so many choices…hmm…OF COURSE! Barbarella! Yeah it’s not technically an american film, but Jane Fonda’s screen persona of virginal sex kitten works perfectly for this.
- A biblical epic! Why you ask? Well, we red-blooded americans like to at least pretend we are religious, and sometimes we even are. Plus, big and oversized is the essence of being a red-blooded american. And what could be better than the Ten Commandments? Yes, its long, its got overacting, its got special effects, and it’s even fairly consistent with the actual text.
- Finally, we must in some way pay tribute to the essence of american cinema: the remake. Yes, we red-blooded americans love watching the same story done over and over and over and over…But even better than the remake, there is the compilation! Yes, why go to the trouble to actually RE-SHOOT the movie when you can just assemble the best bits of a bunch of movies and charge people all over for the stuff? In that case: That’s Entertainment! Yes, with this movie we not only get the rehash, but we can pretend we covered all the old stuff that we like to think we are familiar with…
ok, nuff fun, I’m loopy from work and this topic was just too juicy…
Nemo, I think you have it right.
If we were to go beyond 5, I’d add these to your list:
6)ET
7)It’s A Wonderful Life
8)Singing in the Rain
9)A James Bond Movie
10)Psycho
Cultural Literacy, now there’s an oxymoron.
Arnold, you forgot:
Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
American Pie
Pretty in Pink
Risky Business
I have never let schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain
Just five. You do make it hard.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
CASABLANCA
STAR WARS
PULP FICTION
CITIZEN KANE
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
On the subject of the cultural impact of Citizen Kane: it’s almost non-existent.
Now don’t get all upset. I think Citizen Kane is a great film. And it had a tremendous impact on American filmmaking. But we’re talking its impact on popular culture.
When’s the last time you saw an ad that invoked Citizen Kane? Or heard a stand-up comedian do a joke based on it? Or saw some cartoon show do a parody of it? Or used a line from the movie?
Off the top of my head, I can think of only three references to the film: Saturday Night Live once did a skit based on the film; in the comic book parody Megaton Man, the President is an Orson Welles look-a-like named Charles Foster Lime; and you will occasionally here someone refer to the line “Rosebud”. Let’s face facts, Austin Powers has had more of cultural influence (“Yeah, Baby!”).
Whoops, now here we have a fine hullaballoo. I don’t think it’s possible to limit anything “benchmark” to 5 choices, and while I envied Little Nemo’s list there’s some wiggle room for “cultural literacy” left open.
Some movies typified their age and influenced pop culture in subtle ways. Some have snuggled down into the warp and woof just by way of stellar scenes, lines, scripts, etc. I’d put Wizard of Oz in that category.
Some of the “tag line recognition” movies of today–well, time will be the test on that one. (Watch some of the Cubby Goes to College hits of the past to get a handle on that one.)
So even though a lot of folks couldn’t quote a line or scene from Citizen Kane, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a cultural milestone. It’s hard to pick a current analogy: a totally new Sharon Stone taking on Time-Warner and Disney? Whatever.
So the movies there are movies that are memorable and those that pushed the art forward. (This isn’t making sense, is it?)
There’s a difference between what strikes clear notes at the time and what subtlely rewrites the whole damned score.
Oh, bullpucky. Enough and more than enough. I’ll go away now.
Veb
Posting for both myself and ChrisCTP, as we are currently lurking about together, we have come up with a collective 10 movies.
(in no specific order)
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- The Breakfast Club
- Grease
- Annie
- Nightmare on Elm Street
- The Magnificent Seven
- Dirty Harry
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
- Psycho
10.Stand By Me
Motive for using recent movies rather than using old ones: Intelligent, eclectic people watch old movies and are therefore familiar with them. Every other Joe/Jane probably has seen these or at least knows of their existance.
So there. Pffttt.
I have included a certain amount of filth to please the gentlemen of the press.
–Baudelaire
Every American should know about:
**The Princess Bride.
**Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
**Bambi. (Do you know of anyone who hasn’t heard of Bambi?)
**Schindler’s List
Plus all the other films that everyone else has mentioned, especially Godfather, and Star Wars.
Adam
“Life is hard…but God is good”
1)Birth of a Nation
2)Star Wars
3)Gone With the Wind
4)2001
5)The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or The Searchers
I have a hobby. I have the world’s largest collection of seashells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you’ve seen some of it.