"Favorite movie" is too vague, so: Best AMERICAN movie thread!

[Richard Steele]

I don't just mean films that were MADE in the USA...
I'm asking for films that are unique products;
films that could not have been produced BY or FOR any other culture.

Off the top of my head,
and in no particular order:

TAXI DRIVER

GONE WITH THE WIND

CROSSROADS

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

ANYTHING John Waters made before HAIRSPRAY

EASY RIDER

UNFORGIVEN

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

DIRTY HARRY

DEATHRACE 2000


Ok, that's 10, so I'll stop. Certainly not the BEST 10, just the first that come to mind.

What are your fave US films?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[rwenos]

2. Dr. Strangelove

I know I'm dating myself to the Cold War. I saw it when I was like 11 years old, in a movie theater. (Liberal parents.) I didn't realize it was a comedy until I studied it in college, 10 years later.

A brilliant, disturbing film. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, a Brit, but a quintessentially American plot.

"Mein Fuhrer! I can WALK!"

[Richard Steele]

4. D'OH! I wasn't kidding when I said my 10 were not the best!

How did I forget STRANGELOVE???

And that reminds me of:
M.A.S.H.

And just maybe:
CATCH-22

And for some reason:
FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF

[rwenos]

7. MASH

Hotlips (to Frank Burns, re: Hawkeye): "How did a lunatic like that get into the Army"

Burns: "He was drafted."

I had a Selective Service card in my pocket when I first heard that line, in 1971. Damn near died laughing.

[Name removed]

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[MissHoneychurch]

5. Schindlers List

n/t

[enigmatic]

6. Excellent question

"American Movie"

"Gates Of Heaven"

"Magnolia"

"Cool Hand Luke"

"Stranger Than Paradise"

[Richard Steele]

11. "What we have here...is a FAILURE to communicate!" (in my head)

The first ten that came to my mind are NOT gonna make the final cut!

First I overlooked STRANGELOVE, and now COOL HAND LUKE...truly a classic in anyone's book!

That reminds me:
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
Based on a true story, and tried to stick to the facts as we think they happened.

Also
BACHELOR PARTY
(completely USA AND completely 1980s; not to mention the BEST B-Movie Soundtrack EVER)

[enigmatic]

13. Escape From Alcatraz!

Damn, I forgot about that one; I just thought of another:

"Two-Lane Blacktop"

[rawtribe]

8. Super Size Me

The Last Picture Show
Animal House
APT Pupil
Latter Days

[Richard Steele]

14. Animal House for sure! (nice avatar BTW, rawtribe!)

And how could I forget:

THE BLUES BROTHERS

[rwenos]

9. Chinatown

Best movie ever made about Los Angeles, and also directed by a foreigner.

Jake Gittes: "Follow the money. Nine times out of ten, it'll take you to the truth."

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[rwenos]

16. Do I Sense a Theme Here?

Need some private time in the shower?

[Name removed]

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[jobycom]

18. Psycho, To Kill a Mockingbird

[punpirate]

19. This first one is going to sound weird...

... but any Busby Berkeley movie (the all-American fantasy, all glitter, no substance).

2. Citizen Kane (the emptiness of the American Dream).
3. The Parallax View (how the American Dream really works).
4. 10 (the major obsessions created by American advertising).
5. The Fortune Cookie (the absurd lengths to which people will go to beat the system).
6. The Thomas Crown Affair (having the American Dream and still wanting to beat the system... the high price of boredom with success).
7. Repo Man (cults, flying radioactive `64 Chevelles, convenience store managers and William S. Burroughs allusions... too American to be mistaken for anything else).
8. The Right Stuff (larger than life all-American characters made even larger).
9. Thief (the uglier side of dreaming America).
10. Red Sky at Morning (so many different sides of America in one film).

[Richard Steele]

20. That doesn't sound weird at all; "only in America" is the idea!

"Repo Man" and "The Right Stuff" make an interesting juxtaposition, don't they? Which one is more FICTIONAL, really?

[Kire]

21. I didn't know 'Deleted Message' was such a popular movie.

I'll have to rent it.

:sarcasm: (feel free to delete it mods, i wouldn't want to hijack the thread)

[Richard Steele]

22. "Deleted Message" was better than 'CATS'!

I'm going to see it again and again!

(A big "Thanks" to our quick-shooting MODS, btw...I love you guys!)

howzabout:
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

Raiders TOTALLY referenced all those low-budget US 'adventure serials' made from the 30s-60s.