Posted on 07/05/2016 5:09:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
On the 4th of July, it’s always important to recognize the strength and resolve of the American spirit. At times, it may seem that Hollywood takes that idea for granted but despite that, filmmakers continue to create great patriotic features that remind us about what being an American is all about.
With that in mind, here’s a list of five movies — all from the past dozen years—that do a great job in capturing and celebrating American patriots.
Miracle (2004): Aside from the 4th of the July, there aren’t that many major events when thousands of people rally around our country and celebrate our nation’s victories. The Olympic Games is one of those occasions. That is especially true when our nation’s athletes face off against the athletes of a nation that is warring against us.
Such was the case in 1980 when the men’s U.S. Olympic hockey team faced off against the Russians in an intense match-up. The Russian team was favored (by a lot) but the U.S. men’s team defeated them in a historic upset and went on to win the gold medal. The 2004 Disney film Miracle chronicles how coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) defied expectations and led his team — and our nation’s spirit — soaring in the midst of the Cold War.
Lincoln (2012): In Steven Spielberg’s commendable historical drama Lincoln, the 16th President (played by a terrific Daniel Day-Lewis) faces a nation divided. The Civil War was ending but our country wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
Lincoln aligns himself with members of Congress — of both political parties — to ensure that former slaves cannot be returned to involuntary servitude after the war is over. Above everything else, Lincoln knew what was right for our country and pushed the United States, which had been divided for years, to embrace our best ideals.
Lone Survivor (2014): Based on the book Lone Survivor, this Peter Berg-directed war movie brings the heroic Marcus Luttrell’s story to life. The feature revolves around a military mission to target a Taliban leader in Afghanistan.
Although the mission faltered and the results were tragic, this patriotic drama showcases the sacrifices that our men and women make every day on the battlefield. Luttrell and his fellow officers were heroes who fought bravely for our country in a war that has cost thousands of soldiers their lives.
Selma (2014): Although our nation was founded on great ideals, we haven’t always lived up to them. Such was the case in the 1960s when African-Americas were fighting for equal rights. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought bravely against the status quo to make our nation live up to its most noble values.
Played by David Oyelowo, King takes center stage in Ava DuVernay’s remarkable 2014 drama, Selma. The feature captures King’s use of nonviolence protests to show the brutality that African-Americans faced in this country. The feature captures King’s obvious personal flaws but it also showcases his fight for a better America — an America that grants all of his citizens equal rights.
Bridge of Spies (2015): Director Steven Spielberg, who made this list earlier with Lincoln, has directed a great number of patriotic films. His greatest one was undeniably the classic Saving Private Ryan (1998) but in 2015, the Tom Hanks-drama Bridge of Spies offered a look at a different type of patriot.
The drama takes on the true story of James B. Donovan (played by Hanks). In the feature, Donovan is tasked with representing a Soviet spy in court. Despite a public backlash, Donovan did his best to represent the spy. He wanted to show that the justice that a Soviet spy faced in America would be fairer (and more humane) than the “justice” that American spies would face in the Soviet Union.
Donovan’s diplomatic skills — used effectively in the eventual prisoner swap here and in this leader’s eventual work in Cuba — helped the United States free thousands of prisoners who were being held overseas.
Looking for more films that celebrate American patriots? Click here for our full list.
The Lincoln movie was a joke at best, the key part missing was revealing that the south were democrats and the killer of Lincoln was a democrat if they had been republicans you can bet it would have been repeated over and over again.
“Do you believe in miracles!!!!???”
I was 12, and I did :)
Like I’m ever going to see F%$kin’ Selma!
How ‘bout ‘The Patriot’?
Absolutely, or “We Were Soliers”.
Johnny light Tremaine. Oldie, I know.
Sergeant York?
Yankee Doodle Dandy?
Otherwise the PC list of movies is complete...
Thema and Louise
Stand and Deliver
Based on Howard Fast's novel of the same name, it did show me how gut-wrenching it was to be at Lexington and Concord to face the professional soldiers of the King. People died and there was heartbreak and this is what I remember from the movie, that ordinary men, farmers & tradesmen, gathered at that "rude bridge" and started the AMEREXIT!
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
"Concord Hymn" - Ralph Waldo Emerson - July 4, 1837
All the movies about Lincoln are propaganda meant to justify his actions. I've never been much concerned about the Civil War, but I have been researching it this last year, and I've discovered it was not fought over slavery, it was fought over who was going to control the profits created by slavery.
New England was making a fortune off of Slavery, and an independent south threatened that money stream. What tipped me off to the real story is this map created by a anti-confederate website. (deadconfederates.com) It was a real eye opener.
See that pile of coins on New York? Those are the tariffs collected on European trade, so the dollars that went through the New York economy were much greater than that pile of coins indicates.
3/4ths of that money came from Slavery. When the South moved for Independence, the bulk of that money would be lost to New England, and *THAT* is why the power brokers of New England pushed Lincoln into launching a war to stop the South's move to become independent.
Southern independence threatened too many rice bowls of powerful men.
The "We were fighting to free the slaves!" spiel was just propaganda to misdirect the dupes regarding their real reasons. Lincoln clearly stated he was not going to end slavery if the Southern states would stop fighting and rejoin the Union.
Of course he wasn't going to end it, because his New York backers wanted to get that money stream going again, but after awhile, it became impossible to restore things to the way they were. They had spread that propaganda for too long, and now it was expected that they would live up to it.
That's what I was thinking when I read through the list.
After I posted that, I saw the author’s criteria of the last dozen years. Of that list, I’ve only seen ‘Lone Survivor’. Never heard anything good about ‘Lincoln’, and have no idea why the hell ‘Selma’ is on that list.
Actually, I have a place in my heart for “The Marine Who Lived 500 Years.”
(William Bendix)...as MGySgt Lou Diamond USMC!
Heard it on radio early in WWII, i think.
Never saw/heard it again.
Dick.G: AMERICAN!
aka: Gunny G
*****
(Old Corps!)
Semper FIDELIS
*****
“Bridge of Spies” is terrific and worth seeing just for Mark Rylance’s incredible,low-key performance.
That said,I find it an odd list.
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I remember the irony of this movie on TV when the anti-gunners first started DEMANDING a ban on all “A-s-s-sault Rifles”, something they had said for years they would never do (”We ONLY want to control HANDGUNS! Long guns would not be affected!”).
Political correctness. That drives a lot of propaganda nowadays.
Here you go
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