MSNBC: America on Film

In time for the Thanksgiving holiday, MSNBC has posted this article by Erik Lundegaard on his top picks for American epics, defining his criteria as a grand, romantic, or nostalgic story about Americans set in America. Here is an edited version of his list:

5. “Dances with Wolves” (1990) “Lawrence of Arabia” topped AFI’s list of great epics, and, in terms of story (if not greatness), “Dances” is an American “Lawrence”: the rebellious white man going native.

4. “Malcolm X” (1992) The most powerful of his conversions is the one in prison. Malcolm’s knowing hustler smile runs into the blank wall of Brother Baines’ (Albert Hall) certitude until, forced to question why he straightens his hair, and why black is always negative and white is always positive, his knowingness crumbles and he admits he doesn’t even know his own name.

3. “The Right Stuff” (1983) True, most epics are nostalgic and this one’s cynical — cynical about the way heroes are sold to the public — but it doesn’t mean the men who are sold, the seven Mercury astronauts, aren’t heroes. It’s the process the movie is cynical about.

2. “Gone with the Wind” (1939) The most popular movie of all time (adjusted for inflation) is a story between a callow woman and a cad, in which the abolition of slavery is mourned . . . Yet somehow it still works. Maybe because, despite the abundance of dashing silhouettes against red skies, the movie is too smart to believe in such romance.

1. “The Godfather – Parts I and II” (1972-74) This usually gets dumped into the gangster genre, but there is no better example of the American epic than these two films . . . If the tragedy of the first film is that Michael becomes his father (he becomes Godfather), the tragedy of the second film is that Michael isn’t enough like his father . . . Did it have to wind up this way? Vito traveled west to New York but carried something with him the entire time. Michael traveled west to Nevada but lost something in the process — if he ever had it.

Lundegaard explains American epics that didn’t make his list here.

After looking at Lundegaard's suggestions, here are some other contenders for American epics that ought to be considered:

• Gangs of New York
• Goodfellas
• There Will Be Blood
• Roots (mini-series)
• John Adams (mini-series)
• Forrest Gump
• Birth of a Nation
• Nixon
• The Best Years of Our Lives
• The Wild Bunch
• Stagecoach

Any other suggestions?