America In Ten Movies

Thank you, but i don't think i could do it, i feel i haven't seen enough movies to do the exercise, nor am i perceptive enough to do it.

The Rambo/Red Dawn thing was a joke, i haven't seen any of those movies, but know about their subject matter.

I think America already swamped my culture, almost all the movies shown here are americans, and many of the tv shows too.

Now Playing: Orishas: Ven y Calla.

Whether they're trying or no, it is undeniable that one of the ways Canadians define themselves is "not American". I liken it to the New Zealander tendency to distance themselves from Australians.

We have loads of Australians, Brits, and I know of at least one Luxembourgian and one Belgian on this site, who are all well-versed in American film. Critico or any of you others want to step forward?

Thanks.

It's on the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Casablanca is the best movie ever made about Jewish flight during the Holocaust. The displaced narrative about refugees and Rick's conversion from isolationist to full participant in World War II is truly and, yes, nobly American.

Richard Blaine moves from being a man who says, "I stick my neck out for nobody" to someone committed to fight Germany and the Nazis. And he gives up the girl. It is the best of America in the second half of the 20th century.

Rick is first seen signing a check and playing chess... alone. Before he even says a word he nods silently to Abdul to approve of those entering the gambling room. A representative of the Deutschebank is excluded even as a cut-rate parasite is allowed in.

Later, with another nod, Rick will join the effort against the Nazis and worldwide Fascism. He will leave behind the matter of writing checks and making strategy on his own.

Rick oversees a multi-cultural staff of those who resist and flee from the Nazis. Norwegians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Nederlanders, Russians, the French and refugees are all explicitly mentioned within Rick's Café Americain. Rick's best friend, Sam, is an equal in terms of their relationship to the outside world. But Sam still calls Rick "Boss" and it is Rick who says that, "I don't buy or sell human beings."

(I think that) People forget how isolationist America was prior entering World War II. "I'm not interested in politics. The problems of the world aren’t my problem. I’m a saloon keeper." And then with a nod Rick joins the noble, desperate struggle.

The Germans in the bar are at Sam's piano singing 'Die Wacht am Rhein' when Victor Laszlo tells the band to "Play the 'Marseillaise'! Play it!" The musicians glance at Rick, who nods. The anthem swells throughout the room as the trumpet starts and the people rise to their feet.

The Germans are drowned out by the impassioned patrons. It is highly significant that the music is followed by cries of "Vive La France! Vive la democracie!" Casablanca is the perfect displaced metaphor for the United States and democracy. The majority of actors in that scene were recent émigrés having fled Hitler themselves. If that scene doesn't give you the chills... then I cannot understand how.

Rick has gone from someone who doesn't want to know the details of Carl and Laszlo's attendance at a Resistance meeting to someone who will shoot Major Strasser. Laszlo's last words to Rick are, "Welcome back to the fight. This time I know our side will win."

All of this and more is why Casablanca still resonates and always will in the American psyche. It is how the United States thinks of itself and what it wishes to be. A cynical hard-bitten realist exterior surrounding an idealistic and sentamentalist core. Inarguably the best movie ever made.

And he gives up the girl.