# What are your American Movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327 "2004-08-18T01:12:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Medea\_s\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/1 "2004-08-18T01:12:40Z")
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.) ---
**Author:** ![Carcosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@Carcosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carcosa)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/2 "2004-08-18T01:31:44Z")
> [@Medea's Child](#): > > What are your movies? (Or ideas for me.) Caddyshack ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/3 "2004-08-18T01:37:06Z")
**Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, Meet Me in St. Louis.** What? ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/4 "2004-08-18T01:43:21Z")
_Independence Day, Armageddon, Pulp Fiction_ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/5 "2004-08-18T01:43:28Z")
Superman. Your Favorite John Wayne Movie(s). Star Wars (the good ones). ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/6 "2004-08-18T01:57:26Z")
American Beauty My Cousin Vinny Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid Singin’ in the Rain. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/7 "2004-08-18T02:08:30Z")
\*\*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 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/8 "2004-08-18T02:09:46Z")
The Godfather, parts I and II Jaws The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Casablanca Dr. Strangelove Raiders of the Lost Ark ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/9 "2004-08-18T02:11:09Z")
_Dude, Where’s My Car?_ _American Pie_ Alright, American teacher. Whatever. Still realisticaly captures a lot of stupidity found in Americans today. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/10 "2004-08-18T02:12:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/11 "2004-08-18T02:12:13Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > _Dude, Where’s My Car?_ > > _American Pie_ > > Alright, American teacher. Whatever. Still realisticaly captures a lot of stupidity found in Americans today. I would be one of them. TEENAGER! Think damnit, _THINK!_ ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/12 "2004-08-18T03:02:17Z")
Clerks Fight Club Fargo Raising Arizona ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/13 "2004-08-18T03:07:40Z")
Smokey and the Bandit ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/14 "2004-08-18T03:16:26Z")
Better Off Dead ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/15 "2004-08-18T03:53:42Z")
The Clint Eastwood Collection - a few Man With No Name movies, a few Dirty Harry. Yeah, baby. Oh, and _The Blues Brothers_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/16 "2004-08-18T04:23:57Z")
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,… ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/17 "2004-08-18T04:49:48Z")
I think “American Movie”, I think _Die Hard_. Which is kinda ironic…mixing _Die Hard_ and thinking, but, ya know… ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/18 "2004-08-18T04:55:32Z")
Pleasantville is about that mythic America that never existed but the extreme right wing is trying to ‘return us’ to. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/19 "2004-08-18T05:27:36Z")
> [@The Scrivener](#): > > 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). 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? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327/20 "2004-08-18T05:58:22Z")
Moving this from IMHO to Cafe Society. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-american-movies/260327.md?page=2)