I’m going to China. I’ve been building a DVD collection to take a bit of home with me, for when I get so culture shocked I have to curl in a corner and rock myself for a few hours.
I have been trying to focus on movies that scream AMERICA! for me. The Terminator, American President and Hellboy for instance. (Okay, Hellboy is included because I couldn’t survive without it in any environment.)
What are your movies? (Or ideas for me.)
Caddyshack
Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, Meet Me in St. Louis.
What?
Independence Day, Armageddon, Pulp Fiction
Superman.
Your Favorite John Wayne Movie(s).
Star Wars (the good ones).
American Beauty
My Cousin Vinny
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Singin’ in the Rain.
**Groundhog Day
X-Men
LotR trilogy (I know, jackson is a Kiwi, but I couldn’t do without them)
E.T.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers**
StG
The Godfather, parts I and II
Jaws
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Casablanca
Dr. Strangelove
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Dude, Where’s My Car?
American Pie
Alright, American teacher. Whatever. Still realisticaly captures a lot of stupidity found in Americans today.
Don’t forget the autobiographical portrayal of **Forest Gump./B]. That one man single handedly played a major role in American history from the late 1950’s until the early 1980’s.
I would be one of them. TEENAGER! Think damnit, THINK!
Clerks
Fight Club
Fargo
Raising Arizona
Smokey and the Bandit
Better Off Dead
The Clint Eastwood Collection - a few Man With No Name movies, a few Dirty Harry. Yeah, baby.
Oh, and The Blues Brothers.
Just in case you wanted to take a geographical tour:
Sleepy Hollow, The Witches of Eastwick – New England
Good Will Hunting – Boston’s South Side and Cambridge area
Jaws – Cape Cod
Mystic Pizza – Mystic, Connecticut
Crossing Delancey, Smithereens, I Shot Andy Warhol – Manhattan’s Lower East Side
Saturday Night Fever – Brooklyn, Manhattan
Annie Hall, Manhattan, Husbands and Wives – the Upper West Side
The Cotton Club – Harlem
The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three – the NYC subway system
Die Hard: With a Vengeance – NYC
Desperately Seeking Susan, Married To The Mob – Staten Island, the Lower East Side, and Miami Beach
Working Girl – Staten Island and Manhattan
Atlantic City – A.C., New Jersey
Clerks – suburban New Jersey
Trading Places, Philadelphia – Philly
Witness – Philly & Lancaster County, PA
Wonder Boys – Pittsburgh
Diner, Avalon, Pink Flamingos, Hairspray (and anything else ever directed by Barry Levinson or John Waters) – Baltimore
Out of Sight – Detroit, Souch Beach (Miami), and a couple of federal pens
Roger & Me – Flint, MI & Detroit
Hoosiers, Breaking Away – Indiana
The Last of the Mohicans – set in New York (I think), but filmed in Appalachian Mountains
October Sky – an Appalachian coal-mining town
Cape Fear – South Carolina? Louisiana?
Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil – Savannah, GA
Sunshine State – Florida Panhandle (NE corner)
Body Heat – Palm Beach county
Miami Blues, The Specialist – Miami
The Big Easy – N’awlins
Bonnie & Clyde – various points in the Southwest
The Last Picture Show – rural, neo-Dustbowl Texas
Slacker – Austin, TX
The Right Stuff – California, Houston, Cape Canaveral
The Maltese Falcon, Bullitt, Invasion of the Body Snatchers ['78 remake], Tales from the City [TV miniseries] – San Fran
Greed (1924) – San Francisco? and Death Valley
High Sierra – the Sierra Nevadas
Chinatown, L.A. Confidential, Who Framed Roger Rabbitt?, Devil In A Blue Dress,… (mid-20th-C. L.A.)
Animal House – Oregon-standing-in-as-a-NE college
Twin Peaks [miniseries] – either Oregon or Washington state
Singles – Seattle
A River Runs Through It – Montana
Grumpy (and Grumpier) Old Men – Wabasha, Minnesota
Fargo – Fargo, N.D.
Roger & Me – Flint, Michigan
North By Northwest – from Manhattan to South Dakota
Some Like It Hot, While You Were Sleeping, Barbershop, Chicago – Chicago
The Blues Brothers – various points around Illinois and Chicago
The Bridges of Madison County – Iowa
Flirting With Disaster – NYC, Detroit, Alabama?, New Mexico (and a very funny movie, too)
Diamonds Are Forever – Las Vegas, Baja (“Ba-ha-ha”) California (Mexico)
Goldfinger – Miami Beach, Kentucky (Fort Knox)
Mars Attacks! – Washington, D.C., Las Vegas
Key omissions: Kansas City (MO), Memphis, Atlanta (something other than GWTW?), Colorado, Arizona, Maine, Key West, Alaska, Hawaii, the Rockies, and a good movie set around the Grand Canyon (Kasdan’s “Grand Canyon” doesn’t cut it).
American subcultures, obsessives, workaholics, etc.: Clerks, Trekkies (documentary), Best In Show & A Mighty Wind, Freaks, Carnies, A Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Breakfast Club, Tucker: A Man and His Dream, Ed Wood, The Paper Chase, Dark Star, Escape From Alcatraz, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (documentary),…
Sports: Paper Lion, North Dallas Forty, Hoosiers, Slap Shot, Miracle, A League of Their Own, A Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Tin Cup,…
I think “American Movie”, I think Die Hard.
Which is kinda ironic…mixing Die Hard and thinking, but, ya know…
Pleasantville is about that mythic America that never existed but the extreme right wing is trying to ‘return us’ to.
Ah! the Grand Canyon reminded me of what I meant to say earlier (and sorry if I’m repeating anyone): Vacation
Has Thelma and Louise been mentioned?
Moving this from IMHO to Cafe Society.