# Movies that have accurately represented your ethnicity. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831 "2007-02-04T22:05:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/21 "2007-02-05T17:21:18Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] Interestingly enough, my wife and I tried just last week (before I ever saw this thread) to think of a movie that depicts the Real South fairly. Couldn’t even get close. Too much stereotyping to be fair. [/QUOTE] What’d you think of [_Junebug_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418773/)? I thought it was really good, but I’m a Chicagoan who has family in the South - so I don’t know if it was an accurate portrayal of a Southern family, or if it was an accurate representation of a Southern family _as seen through the eyes of Northern family_. But I thought it captured the pride, love, despair and even defensiveness in the presence of Northerners well. But I’ll also note that my Kentucky family is totally different from my Georgia family, so some of the problem with finding a movie representative of “The Real South” is that there’s isn’t just one South. \*Junebug \*captured my Kentucky “type”, although it’s set in North Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/22 "2007-02-05T17:50:43Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] What’d you think of [_Junebug_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418773/)? I thought it was really good, but I’m a Chicagoan who has family in the South - so I don’t know if it was an accurate portrayal of a Southern family, or if it was an accurate representation of a Southern family _as seen through the eyes of Northern family_. But I thought it captured the pride, love, despair and even defensiveness in the presence of Northerners well. But I’ll also note that my Kentucky family is totally different from my Georgia family, so some of the problem with finding a movie representative of “The Real South” is that there’s isn’t just one South. \*Junebug \*captured my Kentucky “type”, although it’s set in North Carolina. [/QUOTE] Haven’t seen _Junebug_ yet, but will make a point of it on your say-so. You hit the nail on the head about there being too many “Real Souths” to go after one representative version. Even regions within the same state (as can be seen easily in maps that show how folks voted!) can be at least as different from each other as the state is from the next one over. The urban vs. rural versions, the college-educated vs. trade-school-educated vs. high-school-educated vs. even-less-schooling sectors add to the difficulty. Even though _The Big Chill_ was filmed in Beaufort, SC, it’s hard to find anything exclusively Southern about it, and unless you knew it was filmed there you probably would be surprised to know that. It’s more about the times than the place, anyway. That tends to be the pattern I’ve observed: if it’s about the place, the stereotypes abound; and if it’s about the times, the places are blurred. Perhaps _The Last Picture Show_ bridges this gap as well as any, but not being a Texas small town boy, I can’t really judge that. And if there’s a movie about Nashville that’s not bristling with Country Music, I don’t know about it. And even _To Kill A Mockingbird_ is overly stylized to be accepted by any true Southerner, even when you factor in the times, the acting styles, and the fact that it was written by one of the South’s favorite people. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/23 "2007-02-05T18:13:59Z")
_Revenge of the Nerds._ ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/24 "2007-02-05T21:49:47Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Really? Accurate? Oh, dear. I (not being Ukrainian or Russian, or having any familiarity with either culture or ethnicity) assumed it was a bit over-the-top and exaggerated. Really? That strange oddball played by Eugene Hutz isn’t a caricature? Weird. I thought he was about two notches below Borat on the “silly foreigner” memescale. [/QUOTE] He comes across as cheesy in America because no one can sound cool embracing MTV culture with a foreign accent. I haven’t been to any Russian country in a while, so I am not all that familiar with the youth culture there. But my guess is that Alex (Eugene Hutz) would not sound like an old ball using his native tongue. BTW, in Ukraine they actually greet people coming into the country with a band playing music, which is why Alex had a band with him when he met with Jonathan. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/25 "2007-02-05T23:02:51Z")
_Crooklyn_ nicely captures urban black American family life. I didn’t come from a huge family (just four siblings), but the dynamics between the kids and the parents seemed very real to me. The movie even gets the little details right, like the kids watching Soul Train and playing the dozens on the stoop, and the mother’s constant threats (the scene where the kids have to do the dishes at 3:00am in the morning…too real!) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/26 "2007-02-06T00:00:37Z")
_Ghost World_ got clever, bitter suburban white girls down pat. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/27 "2007-02-07T12:31:08Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Really? Accurate? Oh, dear. I (not being Ukrainian or Russian, or having any familiarity with either culture or ethnicity) assumed it was a bit over-the-top and exaggerated. Really? That strange oddball played by Eugene Hutz isn’t a caricature? Weird. I thought he was about two notches below Borat on the “silly foreigner” memescale. [/QUOTE] Well…it was over the top. But there can be truth in caricature. If there isn’t it has no point. My grandfather was a erudite, intellectual (if somewhat irritating) man who was nothing like the Hutz character. But somehow I could see him coming out of that society. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/28 "2007-02-07T16:37:53Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] _Revenge of the Nerds._ [/QUOTE] Hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/29 "2007-02-07T16:46:48Z")
Mary Poppins. ---
**Author:** ![Ludy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/30 "2007-02-07T16:52:59Z")
\*\* Strange Brew\*\* ya hosers Now take off 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/31 "2007-02-07T16:56:30Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] What’d you think of [_Junebug_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418773/)? I thought it was really good, but I’m a Chicagoan who has family in the South - so I don’t know if it was an accurate portrayal of a Southern family, or if it was an accurate representation of a Southern family _as seen through the eyes of Northern family_. But I thought it captured the pride, love, despair and even defensiveness in the presence of Northerners well. But I’ll also note that my Kentucky family is totally different from my Georgia family, so some of the problem with finding a movie representative of “The Real South” is that there’s isn’t just one South. \*Junebug \*captured my Kentucky “type”, although it’s set in North Carolina. [/QUOTE] Chiming in to say that I LOVED _Junebug._ I don’t have any family in the South, but it seemed to me to ring true. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/32 "2007-02-07T18:00:46Z")
Every time I watch [Gummo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119237/) I remember why I left home. If you ever want to see true redneck (not Southern. Straight-up redneck) culture, that’s the movie to watch. Even the houses remind me of my friends’ homes when I’d visit them what with all the junk everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/33 "2007-02-07T18:31:55Z")
_Fandango_ nailed my white, southern, privileged, moderate, coming of age culture right in the shorts. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/34 "2007-02-07T18:47:34Z")
Now that I think about it, _King of the Hill_ gets the whole Texas thing right more than I’d care to admit. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/35 "2007-02-07T18:52:52Z")
I think Moonstruck caught the NY-Italian feeling very well. My father loves this movie. I enjoyed it a lot. This movie really got the NY-Italian household feel of everything revolving around food and yelling conversations and making up again just as quickly. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/36 "2007-02-07T19:05:45Z")
I came in to mention _Junebug_. It comes pretty close to capturing present-day Appalachia. _Coal Miner’s Daughter_, _Matewan_, and _October Sky_ capture the days of yore in Appalachia pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/37 "2007-02-07T19:32:07Z")
[QUOTE=LifeOnWry] Culture-wise, then, **My Big Fat Greek Wedding** just about nailed it. Though I am Italian, I laughed through the whole movie at how much the family was like mine - even down to the regional dialect (“I was down at the Jewel…”) [/QUOTE] LOL – same here. My mom’s Greek. Her parents owned a diner. I married a man of Irish extraction. I know _exactly_ how Toula felt the first time she met her boyfriend’s parents :eek: The major difference is that my mom’s family was very small, as most of her parents’ siblings stayed in the “old country”. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/38 "2007-02-07T22:16:07Z")
Grew up in suburban Long Island, NY with my pretty secular, libaral Jewish family. My parents were both born in Brooklyn, and their parents were immigrants from Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland. That said, I’ll put my votes in for: - **Avalon** , directed by Barry Levinson. Takes place in the suburbs of Baltimore, I believe, but the family dynamics are very accurate. - **Crossing Delancy**. Fluffy comedy with Amy Irving and Peter Riegert about the ambiguous feelings Irving’s uptown Manhattanite character has towards the more “old school” Jewishness represented by pickle-seller Riegert and Irving’s adorable “Bubby” (Yiddish for Grandma), played by Reizl Bozyk. Bubby’s apartment is so perfectly rendered I can practically smell the pot roast and plastic covering. - **Fiddler on the Roof** and **Yentl** , believe it or not. Of course they’re sometimes over-the-top in places – they’re musicals, after all – but the tight family ties, the respect for learning, and passionate arguing over fine minutia all remind me of many a Thanksgiving or Passover dinner with my extended family. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/39 "2007-02-07T22:42:34Z")
[QUOTE=LifeOnWry] Culture-wise, then, **My Big Fat Greek Wedding** just about nailed it. Though I am Italian, I laughed through the whole movie at how much the family was like mine - even down to the regional dialect (“I was down at the Jewel…”) [/QUOTE] What worked so well about this film was that a spectrum of cultures could relate to most, if not all of it. I watched it in a cinema full of Dominicans, who were clearly identifying, with an Ashkenazi Jewish friend who (together with me, a Sephardi) was also chortling and cringing with recognition. [QUOTE=choie] - Crossing Delancy. Fluffy comedy with Amy Irving and Peter Riegert about the ambiguous feelings Irving’s uptown Manhattanite character has towards the more “old school” Jewishness represented by pickle-seller Riegert and Irving’s adorable “Bubby” (Yiddish for Grandma), played by Reizl Bozyk. Bubby’s apartment is so perfectly rendered I can practically smell the pot roast and plastic covering. [/QUOTE] The bit where “Bubby” folded the wrapping paper was what got to me. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831/40 "2007-02-08T00:18:19Z")
_Ordinary People_ nailed my background–except no boating for us! But the atmosphere, the constrained marriage, the huge boundaries and silences…yep, that is upper middle class Midwest living at its finest. As a WASP whose family has been here since the founding of Rhode Island Colony, I can say that I see my heritage everywhere and nowhere. When told to celebrate my ethnic roots at holiday time, I have to scratch my head…we already do. Then again, it is the background all other groups feel free to mock (and sometimes with good reason), so perhaps it all evens out in the end. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-accurately-represented-your-ethnicity/390831.md?page=3)