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Does the Fourth of July holiday put you in the mood for a patriotic film? Or perhaps it gives you the urge to see more of America the beautiful? Last week I asked readers to recommend their favorite films about American history. You might want to jot down a few ideas for video rentals on the holiday weekend.

The question posed a problem for some who responded. In his e-mail, Alan Wilcox summed up the dilemma. He asks, "What are historical movies? It is nearly impossible to do good history in print, never mind such a subjective medium as film. Is a movie historical if it takes place in the past? If it conveys historical ideas? Example: Platoon is not based on actual historical events, but it certainly deals with the historical themes relating to Vietnam. But if Platoon is historical, then why not Forrest Gump? Zorro? The Crucible? The Godfather?"

Among the "historical" films about America that have impressed him: The Best Years of our Lives, Bonnie and Clyde, All the President's Men, and a troubling drama about racism in the South, Mississippi Burning.

Peter T. Chattaway, film critic for Canadian Christianity and The Vancouver Courier, suggests "Thirteen Days—partly because it's recent and partly because the DVD includes commentary by the historians on whose work the film was based. (I love it when they point out places where the film deviates from the historical record!)"

Chattaway adds, "There is more to history than wars and politicians. Perhaps a true-story baseball movie like Eight Men Out might qualify as a 'historical' film? Or is that merely what we often call a 'period piece'? [Rich Kennedy thinks it qualifies: "John Sayles' Eight Men Out is not only a great baseball pic, but an excellent and mostly accurate account of the Black Sox Scandal."] And what about fiction? Gone with the Wind, From Here to Eternity, and Titanic all depict actual events—the burning of Atlanta, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the world's largest vessel—but in the context of clearly fictitious stories. For that matter, to return to the Cuban Missile Crisis (sort of), could Dr. Strangelove be considered a historical film, because it opens our eyes to certain aspects of the era in which it was made? Can we even call it a 'historical' film, since it was set in what was then the present day, and not further back in the past?"

As movie buff Danny Walter thought through his favorites, he realized: "It's hard to think of any good films about things that happened before the Civil War." (Mel Gibson's The Patriot stands as a notable exception—rather formulaic, but a beautifully filmed epic all the same.) Walter recommends films about recent military conflicts: Oliver Stone's Platoon, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, Frances Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Two Civil War movies made his list: Glory and the television miniseries Gettysburg. Also memorable: Fat Man and Little Boy, "about America's race to build the atom bomb."

Some of Walter's suggestions are about moments of America's more regrettable periods. Such stories can serve to remind of the fragility of our freedom, and the responsibility that comes with it. The Crucible, based on Arthur Miller's play explores religious fanaticism during the days of the Salem witch trials. The Doors reveals some of the cultural scandals that spurred many disillusioned '60s youth into self-destructive lifestyles. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid humanizes the legendary bandits of the Old West. Space travel buffs might get teary-eyed watching brave Americans in The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. And then there are his favorite films about influential Americans in the '60s, triumphant and tragic: Malcolm X and JFK.

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July (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46