After Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush pledged to use every resource available to defeat global terrorism, declaring that freedom and fear are at war. Americans are responding to Bush’s call, and to the cries for help from New York and Washington. We’re showing our national pride by wearing red, white and blue, sporting flags on our homes and cars, and turning out in droves to aid the victims of the terrorist attacks.
In this patriotic spirit, we present some films that capture America at its best.
Steven Spielberg directs this masterful re-creation of WWII’s D-Day invasion. James Ryan (Matt Damon), who has parachuted into France during the allied invasion of Europe, has just lost three brothers in combat. Since government policy dictates that he should return home so that his family will not be deprived of all its male offspring, a team of soldiers led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is assembled to find and save Private Ryan. The film is based on a true occurrence in Stephen E Ambrose’s 1994 bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944.
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A former hero of the French-Indian War, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) has renounced fighting forever to raise his family in peace on a sprawling plantation. But another conflict with Britain is brewing and the recently widowed Benjamin is still haunted by the horrors of past combat. His oldest son Gabriel (Heath Ledger) is ready for combat when the British arrive. Soon, Benjamin realizes that he must join the nation’s war to protect his family and oldest son. Filmed in South Carolina and made with the cooperation of the Smithsonian Institute for historical accuracy.
“Houston we have a problem.” This is the story of the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, the third manned moon launch. After three days in space, Apollo astronauts are finally approaching their destination when their spacecraft’s power and guidance systems go down–and the supply of oxygen begins to dwindle. With their crippled capsule stranded 205,000 miles in space and time running out, the courageous crew and thousands of others, including flight director Gene Kranz, brave near-impossible odds in a daring attempt to guide the capsule earthward.
Berkeley graduate student Finn (Winona Ryder) spends the summer at the home of her grandmother and great aunt in California, intent on finishing her latest thesis on the rituals of women’s handiwork in tribal cultures. She also needs to think over a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Sam. Her eyes are about to be opened thanks to the Grasse Quilting Bee, a group of remarkable women who gather to make her wedding quilt. The women tell Finn tales of true love, betrayal, joy and heartbreak in scenes that span from 1860 to the present.
The film, a reconstruction from both sides of the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, demonstrates how governmental errors on both sides added to the upheaval. After internal differences in the government, the Japanese mobilize plans for the deadly assault. Meanwhile, key American personnel ignored warnings of the possibility of a Japanese attack. The first part of the film divides scenes from both countries while part two contains striking battle scenes of the bombing that destroyed the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii.
It’s the U.S. vs. the USSR in this third Rocky Balboa sequel littered with Cold War patriotism.
Now the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) is brought out of retirement to go up against the Soviet Drago (Dolph Lundgren), a seemingly undefeatable one-man killing machine. After Drago defeats Rocky’s now good friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), the boxer vows revenge against the Russian for both Creed and the United States. Rocky is invited to the Soviet Union for a match-up, where he spends his days training in the harsh Russian elements.
Fearful that the Russians are fluoridating America’s drinking water, General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) unleashes a B-52 H-Bomb attack on the Soviets, and a frantic President and Joint Chiefs of Staff must somehow find a way to stop it. Meanwhile, the Russians have developed a Doomsday Machine that will destroy the world if they are attacked. The best part about this black satire is Peter Sellers‘ appearance as group captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and Dr Strangelove, George C Scott as General “Buck” Turgidson and Slim Pickens as Major TJ “King” Kong.
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Are we alone in the universe? Apparently not. In Independence Day, an ordinary summer day turns into an extraterrestrial one as an enormous shadow falls across the land. In a matter of minutes, the lives of every person across the globe are changed forever as aliens pose a hostile threat. An unlikely group of individuals band together to fight the aliens, including a computer genius (Jeff Goldblum), a jet pilot (Will Smith) and the president of the United States (Bill Pullman).
Chuck Norris plays Matt Hunter, a retired CIA agent living in the Florida Everglades. When an army of Eastern Bloc mercenaries invades Miami on Christmas day, it’s up to tough loner Norris to come out of hibernation and fight his evil nemesis Rostov (played by Richard Lynch). Norris must now bring the communists down. Filled with extreme nationalism and a sadly chauvinistic patriotism, this better-dead-than-red low budget action movie is bound to bring out the flag-waver in anyone.
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