Regular (non-experimental) color broadcasts on network television in the U.S. began in December 1953. In any case, Hollywood films of the mid-1950s were being shown in color, 70mm widescreen, with six-channel sound. Would a color television really be that amazing?
U.S. television had the same number of lines of resolution in 1984, when that Analog story was published, as it did in 1941.
Zebra, I like your answers. They are deliciously mischievous.
One could add The Killing Fields to this list. (and more of course, though I haven’t had my coffee yet this morning so I can’t think of more.)
How about
Woodstock
and
MASH
Well, I hope I didn’t insult you, either - it certainly wasn’t my intention. You don’t seem to have taken offense, so I feel a little better about it. Unfortunately, the Church of Christ seems to have two possible faces - the congregations led by an actual scholar who researches his Sunday services and bases his lessons on historical example and the text of the Bible (the kind I was lucky enough to be raised attending), or the ones led by a Bible-thumping hellfire-and-damnation reactionary who bases his Sunday services on his own personal prejudices and his lessons on ignorance and preconceived notions of what unfamiliar things “must be” because he hasn’t bothered to actually find out. Unfortunately, this sounds a lot like the situation at the church your family attends. Bigotry, including declaring the head of another religion to be the “Antichrist”, is generally frowned upon in the church I’m familiar with…
But let’s end the hijack before everyone else gets annoyed with us…thanks, by the way, for the very complimentary things you said about me. Nice to know I’m not coming off as a total prick around here…
I’m afraid we’ll just have to disagree about Tarrantino - I still think he got luck with Pulp Fiction and has yet to live up to his hype since then. Maybe a few of the flops he’s had since then will reign his ego in enough for his style to mature…time will tell.
Oh, and I came up with a few more movies to melt the minds of our visitors from the Eisenhower era…
American Beauty
Hellraiser
Any movie made within the last 15 years with Marlon Brando…“Yes, gentlement, that’s what happened to the young man from A Streetcar Named Desire…frightening, isn’t it?”
I think vibrotronica said it best when s/he suggest Pulp Fiction. I seriously doubt that they have seen anything like that - from drug use to the adrenaline shot to African-Americans in leading roles (and when I mean leading, I mean Marcellus ordering Bruce to toss the fight and Samuel giving up the life for religious reasons) to anal rape and subsequent spearing, to the music to, hell, to anything in the movie. It was revolutionary for 1995, I can’t imagine what it would be considered in 1955!
If I had to come up with one not mentioned (or unseen by me), I’ll go with Taxi Driver. That oughtta shake them up a little.
In the spirit of sheer perversity, I might be tempted to show them Basic Instinct, with an introduction along the lines of “this stars Kirk Douglas’s son, I understand he’s a very nice boy”, but probably would chicken out at the last second. 
Then again he could be a veteran of Omaha beach and might reply: “not very realistic is it?”
Yeah, those wacky 1950’s people, they know nothin’ about exploding heads, ha ha.
They really need to see Nixon.
We should show them the best movie of this millennium so far:
Shallow Hal !
DR STRANGELOVE 
Lord of the Rings, for changes in film technology.
Pulp Fiction, for changes in film and writing techniques and, uh, cultural mores (i.e. cussing).
For changes in pop culture’s depiction of society overall, I wouldn’t show them movies at all. I’d show 'em television. (Maybe The West Wing. Of course, it doesn’t accurately portray society, but then neither did TV in the 50s.)
Well . . . 
Peggy Cummins and John Dall were lovers who pull off a series of armed robberies in Deadly Is the Female (1949).
Frank Sinatra played a heroin addict in The Man With a Golden Arm (1955).
Sidney Poitier had leading roles in several movies of the 1950s, including ordering Tony Curtis around in The Defiant Ones (1958).
Sal Mineo was a victim of anal rape in Exodus (1960).
And from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, “Waitin’ in School”, “Lonesome Town”, and “Rumble” are all from the 1950s.
And Robert Mitchum was a psychopathic, Bible-quoting killer in Night of the Hunter (1955).
2001 was pretty futuristic when it came out in 1968. The “look and feel” of the movie was unique even at the time of its release and its content - “intelligent” computers, moon colonies, videophones, etc. - could never have been depicted in anything approaching the splendor of 2001 in the 50’s.
It would have blown people away in the 50’s.
. . . while Ralph Meeker had a briefcase whose contents glowed menacingly in Kiss Me Deadly (1955).
Right you are, and thanks for pointing that out. I was projecting backwards from today’s HDTV Just dug out the story again and this is the reaction as the protagonist from 1953 watches the opening to Star Wars:
The author also has the protagonist listen, on headphones, to Robin Trower’s “My Love (Burning Love),” to great effect. It’s a really great story.
You have it all wrong, If you want to see heads exploding, you should show em “Dude, Wheres my car?”
… and tell them it won Best Picture.
They could just as easily show you the latest Bowery Boys movie, and you’d be even.
Requium For A Dream … then a five-minute trailer for Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend as the cartoon … followed by Dead Alive.
As I haven’t yet determined my attitude toward my 50’s person, I’m trying to decide whether my desired reaction is “repulsed yet intrigued” or “frightened, nauseous and unhappy.”