# What are the movies that are most emblematic of the decade in which they were released?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 14, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006 "2011-07-14T13:23:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Roseanne\_Valerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roseanne_Valerie)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/1 "2011-07-14T13:23:45Z")
In other words, which one movie most embodies everything that, say, the 1970s was about? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the _best_ movie of any given decade, just the one that best sums up that decade. Myself, I have a rather pathetic, incomplete list, but I’m anxious to see what everyone else considers to be the movie most representative of the '60s, '70s, '80s, etc.
In the meantime, here are the movies I came up with fairly easily:
1960s - _The Graduate_; also very tempted to go with _Easy Rider_ or _The Sound of Music_.
1970s - _Dog Day Afternoon_; other real possibilities are _The Godfather_, _The Conversation_, and _Taxi Driver_.
1980s - No question, _Top Gun_. Or _Do the Right Thing_.
1990s - I’d unhesitatingly go with _sex, lies, and videotape_, except it was released in 1989. So I’ll put down _Reservoir Dogs_ instead.
2000s - No real clue, actually. Maybe _Iron Man_? The LOTR movies? I dunno.
As for the earlier decades, I’ll have to give this more thought.
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### Author:  [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/2 "2011-07-14T13:47:04Z")
First two that popped into my mind were _Back to the Future_ for the 80s, and _Pulp Fiction_ for the 90s.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/3 "2011-07-14T14:03:05Z")
How does the Sound of Music set in the late 30’s or early 40’s sum up the 60’s? Or the Godfather which was primarily set in the 50’s sum up the 70’s?
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### Author:  [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/4 "2011-07-14T14:10:24Z")
I’m wracking my brain, but I don’t understand how either **Pulp Fiction** or **Reservoir Dogs** sum up the 90’s. Not trying to be snarky, but could you explain the logic behind this, cause maybe I’m misunderstanding the point of the thread. Either of them seem like they could have been set in any time period and both often feel like they were.
When I think of the 90’s, I think of angst: Gen-X angst in **Reality Bites** , AIDS angst in **Philadelphia** , or suburban wasteland angst in **American Beauty**.
I think **Syriana** best encapsulates the '00s: from the sharp rise in international terrorism, urgency over oil, to attempts to modernize the Middle East which is struggling against fundamentalism. Even the method of story telling, [URL=“[Hyperlink cinema - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink_cinema)”] was very of the time.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/5 "2011-07-14T14:14:16Z")
> [@Crawlspace](#):
>
> When I think of the 90’s, I think of angst: Gen-X angst in **Reality Bites** , AIDS angst in **Philadelphia** , or suburban wasteland angst in **American Beauty**.
I’d go with **Reality Bites** and **Singles** - and possibly **Clerks**. \*\*Philadelphia \*\*is a good choice, but I’d take **American Beauty** out of it. Its “suburban wasteland” aspect better reflects the 2000s (and since it came out in late 1999, it was a bit prescient). (And if **American Beauty** is “suburban wasteland” is \*\*Crash \*\*“suburban guilty”?)
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/6 "2011-07-14T14:20:31Z")
There’s just one movie that completely captures the zeitgeist of the 1990’s - the internet boom, the rise of geek culture, Gen-X alienation, pervading narcissism and bogus spirituality - and that film is **the Matrix**.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/7 "2011-07-14T14:22:41Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> How does the Sound of Music set in the late 30’s or early 40’s sum up the 60’s? Or the Godfather which was primarily set in the 50’s sum up the 70’s?
Heh, I was going to say. A movie about a singing Nun in Austria being pursued by Nazi’s is only emblematic of the 60’s in that people did a lot of LSD in the 60’s
I like the suggestion of Back to the Future for the 80’s movie though. Even though it takes place in the 50’s, the whole movie is a running joke contrasting McFly’s “80’sness” with the time of his parents teenage years.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/8 "2011-07-14T14:23:43Z")
**The Graduate** is a great choice for the 60s, but **Woodstock** is too. And oddly enough, **2001: A Space Odyssey** fits as well.
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### Author:  [@Roseanne\_Valerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roseanne_Valerie)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/9 "2011-07-14T14:29:49Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> How does the Sound of Music set in the late 30’s or early 40’s sum up the 60’s? Or the Godfather which was primarily set in the 50’s sum up the 70’s?
Well, just that the '60s was the last decade where big Hollywood musicals were being made and making a profit; and _The Godfather_ similarly represents the auteur aesthetic that was prevalent in the '70s.
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### Author:  [@Roseanne\_Valerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roseanne_Valerie)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/10 "2011-07-14T14:31:22Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> There’s just one movie that completely captures the zeitgeist of the 1990’s - the internet boom, the rise of geek culture, Gen-X alienation, pervading narcissism and bogus spirituality - and that film is **the Matrix**.
Oh, yes. Completely forgot about this one. Good, good choice.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/11 "2011-07-14T14:34:13Z")
> [@Roseanne\_Valerie](#):
>
> Well, just that the '60s was the last decade where big Hollywood musicals were being made and making a profit; and _The Godfather_ similarly represents the auteur aesthetic that was prevalent in the '70s.
I guess, though at best that still seems like they’re just emblematic of the _movies_ of the decade, not really the decade itself (though I guess if you spend a lot of time in the 60’s and 70’s, maybe the two are equivalent).
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### Author:  [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/12 "2011-07-14T14:36:10Z")
> [@Munch](#):
>
> I’d go with **Reality Bites** and **Singles** - and possibly **Clerks**. \*\*Philadelphia \*\*is a good choice, but I’d take **American Beauty** out of it. Its “suburban wasteland” aspect better reflects the 2000s (and since it came out in late 1999, it was a bit prescient). (And if **American Beauty** is “suburban wasteland” is \*\*Crash \*\*“suburban guilty”?)
Yeah, I threw in **American Beauty** just to balance out the list to 3. To be honest, I had to double check that it wasn’t released in 2000.
I thought about **The Matrix** , but to be honest the movie bores me to sleep (on 3 attempts, I’ve never make it past the scene in the room that’s all white) and it’s set in the future.
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### Author:  [@Roseanne\_Valerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roseanne_Valerie)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/13 "2011-07-14T14:36:48Z")
I should clarify: I’m not just asking which movies best represented life in their given decade, but more along the lines of which movies captured the zeitgeist of that particular decade, in terms of not only what day to day life was like in, say, the '90s, but what sort of entertainment we were consuming, and what our attitudes were toward both what had come before (e.g., _The Godfather_, _The Sound of Music_), and what may lie in store for us in the near, or even not-so-near, future (e.g., _The Matrix_, _Starship Troopers_, _Total Recall_, _RoboCop_).
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/14 "2011-07-14T14:50:30Z")
> [@Roseanne\_Valerie](#):
>
> 1970s - _Dog Day Afternoon_; other real possibilities are _The Godfather_, _The Conversation_, and _Taxi Driver_.
Saturday Night Fever.
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### Author:  [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/15 "2011-07-14T14:52:10Z")
Here’s a few contenders that haven’t been named yet. Couldn’t just narrow it down to a single one:
1950s - _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_, _All That Heaven Allows_, _the Sweet Smell of Success_, _Rear Window_
1960s - _A Hard Day’s Night_, _Bonnie and Clyde_, _Dr. Strangelove_
1970s - _the Parrallax View_, _Nashville_, _Halloween_, _Fame_ (technically an 80s film, but definitely emblematic of the urban decay of NYC in the late 70s.)
1980s - _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, _Longtime Companion_, _After Hours_
1990s - _Swingers_, _Go_, _Being John Malkovich_
2000s - _Memento_, _the Hurt Locker_, _Closer_
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/16 "2011-07-14T15:07:28Z")
1930s - I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (only because The Grapes of Wrath wasn’t released until January, 1940 )
1940s - The Best Years of Our Lives
1950s - Rebel Without a Cause
1960s - Easy Rider
1970s - Saturday Night Fever
1980s - Wall Street
1990s - Singles
2000s- …I really have no feel yet for what the zeitgeist of that decade was.
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/17 "2011-07-14T15:12:42Z")
1980s - Any John Hughes movie.
2000s - Hesitantly, either _Iron Man_ or _Avatar_. Leaning toward _Avatar_ as being more emblematic, but that’s because I’m feeling cynical right now.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/18 "2011-07-14T15:14:07Z")
30s: _Gone With The Wind, Wizard of Oz_
40s: _Casablanca_ and John Ford westerns (_Fort Apache, Yellow Ribbon, Rio Bravo_)
50s: Howard Hawkes westerns and sci-fi thrillers; _Rebel Without a Cause_
60s: _2001: A Space Odyssey_; _The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly_
70s: _Coffy_, starring Pam Grier: classic blaxploitation with bell bottoms, afros, wocka-wow guitar, and large boobs. Also, _Saturday Night Fever_. Also _Close Encounters_.
80s: _Footloose_, _The Breakfast Club_
Oops, may have missed the mark on many of these.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/19 "2011-07-14T15:21:09Z")
For my 2000s pick - I’m going to go with an HBO film, _Recount_, unless I can think of another film that demonstrates how our society evolved during that decade from racially based intolerance to politically based intolerance.
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### Author:  [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-movies-that-are-most-emblematic-of-the-decade-in-which-they-were-released/589006/20 "2011-07-14T15:22:17Z")
90s: Can’t Hardly Wait
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