A few days ago, the New York Times ran a provocative listicle entitled “What Is the Definitive Movie About America?” Their writers came up with a couple of inspired choices, like “Dazed and Confused,” along with a handful of head-scratchers (“Disclosure Day”? “The Florida Project”?). Since no one asked, I thought I would offer five candidates of my own. They are:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). James Stewart, the quintessential American actor, plays a newly appointed senator who shows up in Washington, D.C., overflowing with schoolboy romanticism, only to learn that the place is a rigged game of corruption. In other words, things haven’t changed much. It’s shocking to see how cynically wised-up a Frank Capra movie could be — but, of course, the film is all about how Stewart’s fallen idealist goes to the mat and just about kills himself to save the system. The message: Sustaining the greatness of America is always a war.
The Godfather (1972). In the counterculture era, the wool came off of our eyes about America: how a lot of it really operated, the private values that undergirded our public morality. Francis Ford Coppola’s totemic gangster tragedy was the New Hollywood classic that most deeply channeled the perception of an underworld in control. It used the Mafia as a metaphor for the ruthlessness of capitalism, exposing the dark side of those who are pulling the strings.
