Western Thought: Keepers

In personal news, I am planning on moving in a few months (20 min closer to work - not a huge move). This has meant looking around and seeing what I own that I may not need.

So, while rummaging through my stuff, I found a very interesting doc I'd forgotten about, where I justify which selections to include in my Western Tradition Compendium.

In a way it serves as a catalogue of the important contributions of Western Thought to the globe. What ideas, discoveries, ideals, histories, and epochs have been of value to the world, or, if not of value, have had a significant impact?

Many authors are outside of their comfort zone. Tolstoy is not presented in literature, as my selection of his work, War and Peace's second epilogue, is included as a work of historiography. So into the 'Social Sciences' it goes. While Austen's Pride and Prejudice is, undoubtedly, a great Regency novel, the reason it has a place in my compendium is to show, through literature, the arrival of The Middle Class in Europe. Many other examples follow.

The list was written some time ago, and is an interesting insight into the historical value of these selections. Below, I've grouped it based on category (which is not the case in the original list) and by date (which, again, is not original). I have also struck out those on the list which did not make the final cut, and highlighted those additions. Here goes:

Literature

Initial Epic Poetry - Homer
Initial Drama - Sophocles
Initial Comedy - Aristophanes
National Epic - Virgil
Saga - "Beowulf"
Chivalric Literature - "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
Vernacular - Chaucer
Elizabethan Drama - Shakespeare
Initial Novel - Cervantes
Metaphysical Poetry - John Donne
Satire - Swift
Romanticism - Wordsworth
Symbolic Poetry - Rimbaud
Philosophical Novel - Dostoevsky
Modern Prose - Joyce
Graphic Novel - Ernst
Modern Drama - Beckett
Modern Poetry - Ginsberg

Mathematics

Geometry - Euclid
Quantification - Archimedes
Algebra - Viete
Pure Mathematics - Hardy

Science (Physics, Biology, and Astronomy)

Epicurean Atomism - Lucretius
Modern Astronomy - Copernicus
Scientific Method - Bacon
Anatomy - Harvey
Kinematics - Galileo
Chemistry - Boyle
Classical Physics - Newton
Modern Atomism - Dalton
Electromagnetism - Oersted
Evolution - Darwin
Genetics - Mendel
Germ Theory - Pasteur
Radiation - Rutherford
Relativity - Einstein
Quantum Physics - Heisenberg
Modern Cosmology - Hubble
Thermodynamics - Schrodinger
Computing - Turing
Environmentalism - Carson

Social Science (Politics, History, Sociology, Economics, and Psychology)

Initial History - Herodotus
Historical Method - Thucydides
Political Speech - Cicero
Initial Biography - Plutarch
Julio-Claudians - Tacitus
The Crusades - Comnena
Initial Feminism - Pizan
'The Renaissance Man' - Castiglione
Renaissance Politics - Machiavelli
Exploration and Colonization - Las Casas
Monarchism - Hobbes
Colonial Evangelism - Ines de la Cruz
Civil Society - Rousseau
Capitalism - Smith
Federalism - Hamilton, Jay, and Madison
Modern Historical Narrative - Gibbon
Women's Rights - Wollstonecraft
The Middle Class - Austen
Irrationality - Mackay
Communism - Marx
Civil Disobedience - Thoreau
Defense of Democracy - Lincoln
Libertarianism - Mill
Historiography - Tolstoy
Abolitionism - Twain
Zionism - Herzl
Civil Rights - Du Bois
Crime and Punishment - Kafka
Psychology - Freud
Child Development - Piaget
Modern Economics - Keynes
Industrialism - Benjamin
Anti-Totalitarianism - Orwell
Second Wave Feminism - de Beauvoir

Philosophy and Theology

Judaism and Christianity - "The Bible"
Madness - Euripides
Initial Philosophy - Plato
Logic - Aristotle
Stoicism - Seneca
Autobiography/Confessions - Augustine
Monasticism - Benedict
Theology - Aquinas
Medieval Theology - Dante
Protestantism - Luther
Moral Relativity - Montaigne
Modern Philosophy - Descartes
Cynicism - La Rochefoucauld
Catholic Apologism - Pascal 

Empiricism - Hume
Enlightenment - Kant
'Progress' - Hegel
Self-Reliance - Emerson
Existentialism - Kierkegaard
Mathematical Logic - Carroll
Will Power - Nietzsche

Metaphysics and Ontology - Heidegger
Infinity - Borges
Absurdity - Camus
Linguistic Philosophy - Wittgenstein

Art

Art of Painting - Da Vinci
Art Criticism - Sontag

The Biggest Political Problem

In twenty years, 75% of the US population will live in only 15 states.

And that, sobering as it may be for real-estate, manufacturing, or our culture, is particularly terrifying with regards to our political system. By 2040 those 15 states will have 30 Senators – and 30% of this nation will have 70% of the Senators.

So if you think Mitch McConnell is a master obstructionist, just wait and think what tomorrow will bring…

The Senate is a particularly difficult knot to untangle, thanks to a particularly stupid aspect of our Constitution: Article 5. 

The brilliance of a nation founded in law is that our Constitution can be amended, with the founders recognizing that there was no way their document could be the final word in a changing world. Yet Article 5 has become a ticking time bomb, with no fuse or wires to cut to disarm it, with regards to those scary population projections in the next twenty years. The text of Article 5 states:

“…and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”

In other words, unless Wyoming agrees to it, they get to have two Senators, despite a state population that is less than that of San Francisco (and 30 other cities, ranging from Indianapolis to Louisville). This section, Article 5, is the only part of the Constitution which cannot be amended.

And in the next two decades that’s going to be a staggering problem. 1/3 of the nation will be able to determine the legislative agenda of the United States over the protests of the other 2/3. Or at least stymie it. A great example of this growing disparity came up recently, actually, with Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process in the Senate. The 11 Senators on the Judiciary Committee who voted for Kavanaugh – combined – represent 65 million people. The other ten Senators? The Democrats? They represented the will of nearly 10 million more people than the 'aye' votes. This played out again in the floor vote, with a majority of America, by population, not wanting Kavanaugh on the bench - and their Senators, despite their votes, were drowned out by a minority with outsize say in our government.

How do we fix this sort of minority rule, especially when it can have generational consequences?

Why not call a new Constitutional Convention?

The legal grounds of this are shaky. Our old friend Article 5 provides a couple of ways to do this, originating either in Congress or the Statehouses. But the language in those provisions deals with amendments – not a new convention, per se. The founders, though, didn’t seem to mind meeting purportedly to discuss the Articles of Confederation, merely to throw them out and create a new foundational document. That act does provide a precedent.

Once we have a Democrat in the office of the Presidency, and a Democratic majority in the House (and ideally Senate), you could take the following steps:

The President announces to a joint session that they have 60 days to pick their delegates for a new Constitutional Convention. Each member of the House and Senate (including the Territories) gets to pick at least one delegate – with each state having a proportional number of delegates based on population. This would roughly mean 680 or so delegates. As for the Senate, their chosen delegates would be the only ones eligible to be Chair, so they have that. This choosing of the delegates would fulfill any current Constitutional qualms about Legislative oversight.

The delegates would have a low threshold of entry to serve: 1) Having been found guilty of no high crimes, felonies, misdemeanors, or treason, 2) Having not worked in the service of any foreign nation’s government or military interests, excluding in diplomatic service, and 3) Not currently serving in an elected or appointed capacity in any Federal or State government. (If a Representative, say, wanted to resign to serve in the Convention, though, that’s totally fine.)

In another special joint session, overseen by the VP and once the 60 days were up, the Representatives and Senators would have 30 seconds to announce each of their nominated delegates on the floor – with full biographies being posted in a single, online, government site for in-depth analysis. The document of delegates would be sent to the President, who could veto the list in toto or could veto specific State delegations – but only if:

1)      The delegates submitted did not fit the criteria listed above (eg. a felon from Georgia or a current Senator from Delaware)

2)      The delegate list of a state is not proportional to the State’s population on a basis of gender and ethnicity.

In general, there should be a push to get a broad coalition of folks. Delegates should represent agriculture and law, commerce and education, faith and science, medicine and the armed forces, diplomacy and technology, and all other major walks of life.

Assuming the President signs off on the list, then the delegates have a month to pack their bags and head to Philadelphia. Or maybe Denver. Wherever. The Chair will be voted on by the Senate-nominated delegates, and have a single vote, as well as a paid staff. Every delegate, including the Chair, will be paid $75,000 for a term of one year, starting with the Convention’s being gaveled to order. No other paid or contract work of any kind can be done during their service as delegates, nor can they take any positions lobbying at the State or Federal level for a period of ten years after their service.

Whatever document they come up with will require a simple majority to ratify, and must contain the following three aspects:

1)      Equitably handle the problem of the Senate, with a solution on the grounds of a proportional-to-population basis.

2)      Keep all laws not directly repealed by the new Constitution. (We don’t want to rewrite all of America’s laws, after all – so a provision is needed that states all US laws that were passed, both at the State and Federal level, including the First Constitution, still apply unless directly contravened by the provisions of the new Constitution.)

3)      Protect human dignity for all.

This document would be presented to the President to sign off on. If the President vetoed the new Constitution, or the Convention was unable to create a document in the year assigned, then the process begins anew automatically, with the selection of an entirely new set of Delegates, including Chair. Assuming that doesn’t happen, though, and the President signs off on it, then it goes to the Statehouses to ratify, requiring 2/3 to ratify (34 in total) to become law – and with no stated time limit in which to do so. Then it would be up to the American people to compel their statehouses to ratify the new Constitution. 

Then, and only then, we would have fixed the problem, quick approaching in the next twenty years, of a Nation even more divided and more partisan than our current mess.

NaNoReMo 2019

Some years ago, John Wiswell, of the fabulous Bathroom Monologues, came up with the idea of NaNoReMo - National Novel Reading Month. You pick a novel you have meant to read for some time - a classic, something that's been sitting on your shelf for too long - and you commit to finishing it before the month is out.

I used to get through a lot of French novels this way, but in recent years have turned to more contemporary classics. 2019 will therefore mark a return to form - I will be taking on a book long on my to-be-read list, which I recently received as a gift: Flaubert's Madame Bovary. My experience of Flaubert is limited only to A Simple Heart, so this will be a significant addition to my literary mental map of France.

It's lengthy, but I'm starting it today, and since every other NaNoReMo I've done has been a success I hope this one will be too. Wish me luck!

The Best Songs?

I found an old sheet of paper with a genre break downs of songs - I guess an essentials list? - that I must have made. It comes out to 111, so I suppose it was finished. It also seems to be exclusively 20th century, and definitely all American. Anyway, here it is:

Hip Hop

Bring the Noise - Public Enemy
Walk This Way - Run DMC ft. Aerosmith
The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Stan - Eminem
Straight Outta Compton - NWA
Gangsta's Paradise - Coolio ft. LV
Tell Mama - 2Pac
Juicy - Notorious B.I.G.
High Plains Drifter - Beastie Boys
Rapper's Delight - Sugarhill Gang
Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill
Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa

R&B and Soul

What'd I Say - Ray Charles
Respect - Aretha Franklin
A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag - James Brown
P. Funk - Parliament
When Doves Cry - Prince
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - The Platters
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson (??? - Not R&B...)
I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston

Rock

Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones
Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
Hotel California - The Eagles
Purple Haze - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley and the Comets
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns n' Roses
You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling - The Righteous Brothers

Popular

Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Edward Meeker
God Bless America - Kate Smith
Stardust - Hoagy Carmichael
Blue Skies - Irving Berlin
You Are My Sunshine - Jimmie Davis
This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
White Christmas - Bing Crosby
The Charleston - James P. Johnson
People Get Ready - The Impressions (This should be switched with MJ, above)
You Keep Me Hangin' On - The Supremes (Also hard to justify...) 
Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees
Moon River - Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini
Ain't Misbehavin' - Fats Waller

Musicals

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland
There's No Business Like Show Business - Ethel Merman
Oklahoma! - Rodgers and Hammerstein
America - Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim
The Way You Look Tonight - Fred Astaire
People - Barbara Streisand
One - Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban
When You Wish Upon a Star - Cliff Edwards
Luck Be a Lady Tonight - Frank Loesser
Ol' Man River - Paul Robeson
Singin' in the Rain - Gene Kelly
Toot Toot Tootsie - Al Jolson
Anything Goes - Cole Porter

Jazz

Sing Sing Sing - Benny Goodman
In the Mood - Glen Miller
Giant Steps - John Coltrane
Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Mood Indigo - Duke Ellington
Milestones - Miles Davis
Yardbird Suite - Charlie Parker
The Entertainer - Scott Joplin
Lonely Woman - Ornette Coleman
Take Five - Dave Brubeck
Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

Blues and Folk

Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground - Blind Willie Johnson
In the Pines - Leadbelly
Hoochie Coochie Man - Muddy Waters
Hellhound on My Trail - Robert Johnson
Everyday I Have the Blues - Memphis Slim
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Bessie Smith
I've Got That Old Feeling - Alison Krauss
House of the Rising Sun - Clarence Ashley
We Shall Overcome - Pete Seeger
Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Flatt and Scruggs
The Thrill is Gone - BB King

Country

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams
Crazy - Patsy Cline
Blue Moon of Kentucky - Bill Monroe
In the Jailhouse Now - Jimmie Rodgers
Mama Tried - Merle Haggard
Pancho and Lefty - Townes van Zandt
Coat of Many Colors - Dolly Parton
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain - Willie Nelson
Can the Circle Be Unbroken - The Carter Family
I Walk the Line - Johnny Cash
Man of Constant Sorrow - The Soggy Bottom Boys

Ethnic (Um...)

Mardi Gras in New Orleans - Professor Longhair
Volar a Puerto Rico - Willie Colon
El Cantante - Hector Lavoe
Ya Ya - Buckwheat Zydeco


All in all... Not a terrible list, really. Maybe even not bad.

2018 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts

What an odd year. Not bad, but odd. First off - spoiler alert as I get into the plots of all of these.

Usually I would do these in order of screening, but for reasons soon to become apparent, I'm grouping them differently this time. So here goes.

Category: Humorous* Short

Animal Behavior

*This wasn't very funny. I sort of hope it doesn't win, but it landed a few decent jokes, so it's not totally egregious if it does... The premise is that animals are in group therapy. It feels like an early 1990s nominee that somehow got lost and ended up here thirty years too late, after shorts like Bob's Birthday and Aardman's Creature Comforts (which is much better) already covered this ground.

Category: Parents with Dementia

Late Afternoon

And we're back to this theme. This theme, the aging parent who forgets your name or can't express their love, or what-have-you, has come up again and again in the past few years. Ever since I started watching these screenings it feels like there's one of these every year or two. Late Afternoon is good - it has nice visuals, and a nod to Proust. I won't mind if it wins, but it's relatively forgettable.

Category: Navigating Difficult Relationships with Your Asian Parents

The other three nominees are all in this category which is why I started this post by saying things were odd.

Two, I think, take place in San Francisco (one does explicitly, one is suggested). So lets start with those.

One Small Step

A young girl grows up in SF wanting to be an astronaut while her dad mends her shoes. It's got a typical Pixar-esque emotional punch. I think 70% of the sweetness is invoked from hearing a little girl laugh for half the film. This is my second-least-favorite. Interesting note: This was a joint US-China venture, in keeping with China's space exploration ambitions and trying to break into other American markets.

Bao

Bao is Pixar's fourth nominee in a row - and four nominees ago they had a short about an Indian boy trying to bond with his parents over their traditions. This time its a similar story from a Chinese mother's perspective. The usual plastic texture we've come to expect from Pixar accompanies a smallish twist. It is better than One Small Step, but not as good as Late Afternoon.

Weekends

And finally, the film I want to win: Weekends. This was poignant, visually stunning, funny but also moving and even frightening: capturing the wonder and experience of childhood through the wide eyes of our protagonist. Set in Toronto, and, while not most technically proficient, easily the best characters and story.

Ranking
Weekends
Late Afternoon
Bao
One Small Step
Animal Behavior

As always, with these shorts screenings, there was also a "Highly Commended" section at the end. The two selections, in brief:

Wishing Box

A forgettable little short about a pirate and a monkey in a 3D style that was trying to look like claymation. Predictable plot, and no character development - that said I actually chuckled once or twice.

Tweet Tweet

A Russian short about a bird with an inordinate lifespan walking along the tightrope of Russian tragedy with a young girl as she grows up and dies. If that sounds weird... yeah. Imagine Piper blended with the Russian-ness Peter and the Wolf  via the story of a life in La Maison en Petits Cubes.

So there you have it, this year's nominees, all wrapped up. I really hope Weekends wins.

The Rapid Death of American Cringe

There’s been an element of American society which is pretty cringe-inducing to the rest of the country: Vulgar, racist, faux-patriotic, proudly uninformed. What Obama described as the people who take pride in being ignorant, or Hillary’s ‘deplorables’. A significant portion of Trump’s base. And yet, the past two years have seen a rapid escalation of the destruction of their world.

Two years ago, a fella I’m going to stereotypically call ‘Bubba’, could pull into a store and get an NRA discount on his purchase while browsing a copy of the National Enquirer in line, calling the guy in front of him a ‘fag’ and then leaving for his rally at a Confederate monument.

But if there’s a (small) silver lining to the Trump administration, it is that such a scene is increasingly unlikely.

The Confederate statues are coming down in record numbers all over the country.

The NRA is on the ropes – weaker than it has been for ages, filing for bankruptcy with dropping enrollment.

The National Enquirer, after the latest felony-level scandal, may finally be disappearing from your supermarket checkout aisles.

The number of states that ban “gay conversion therapy” has gone from 5 to 15 since Trump took office. The largest demonstration in American history was the Women’s March.

The abominable practices that have been swept under the rug for too long – sexual harassment and continued racism like blackface – are being dealt with in the open with real repercussions.

The “lying media” is doing great (NYT has doubled readership in two years), as, meanwhile, in Fox world, Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes are finally gone, and InfoWars has been broken. MSNBC beat Fox News for the first time in viewership in 17 years.

Things are bad for Bubba. He’s worse off than he was before this Presidency.

America’s cringe avatar, Donald Trump, is seeing all of his scams be shut down, from his University to his “charitable” Foundation. The gross, unseemly part of our nation – the Michael Cohen grease slicks and Manafort mafioso wannabes – are getting their comeuppance.

Maybe, when all is said and done, and Trump is merely a nightmare of our memories, we can at least take some solace in the fact that he accelerated the decline and death of American cringe. It would be a small balm to the otherwise disgraceful and damaging legacy he has scorched into our nation’s historical record.

20th Century American Movies

If you wanted a basic introduction to 20th Century American Cinema, here's a chronological list of 100 films I'd suggest watching.

Note: I don't like all of these - it's not a personal list. Some I think are really pretty lousy. That said, I have seen nearly every film included (with one exception). Instead of personal favorites, this list is a collection of American films ranging from the experimental to the classics to the blockbusters, and across a wide variety of genres. Oscar-winners and cult flicks. Anything I would consider "essential" to a century of film-making and film history in America.

 Ready? Here goes:

The Great Train Robbery, 1903
Dir. Edwin S. Porter for Edison Manufacturing Company

This roughly 12-minute story tells of bandits robbing a train, and then getting their comeuppance. It had more of a plot than previous films, and innovative camerawork.

The Land Beyond the Sunset, 1912
Dir. Harold M. Shaw for Thomas A. Edison Inc.

From the Edison corporation we get another film, but this one may genuinely tug at the heart-strings. The purpose of the film was to promote the Fresh Air Fund - and so an important new role in cinema for explicitly changing public opinion.

Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life, 1913
Dir. Mack Sennett for Keystone Film Co.

A mustachioed villain ties a damsel in distress to the railroad tracks as her sweetheart tries to save her in time. The style is fairly goofy, a la the Keystone Cops.

Birth of a Nation, 1915
Dir. D.W. Griffith for Epoch Producing Co.

A repugnant, blatantly racist pro-vision of the Klan from the first American director to create epics (clocking in at over two hours in length). It was, predictably, very popular, and was influential for cinematography.

Where Are My Children?, 1916
Dir. Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley for Universal

In an era when even discussing birth control was a crime, this 65-minute film deals with both birth control and abortion arguments. The melodrama was also an early female-directed work.

The Poor Little Rich Girl, 1917
Dir. Maurice Tourneur for Artcraft Pictures Corporation

Mary Pickford was one of America's first movie stars, winning hearts (along with Lillian Gish) during the silent era. The 25 year-old depicts an 11 year-old in an adaptation of a popular play.

Safety Last!, 1923
Dir. Fred C. Meyer and Sam Taylor for Pathe Exchange

A comedy starring Harold Lloyd in a slapstick set of routines. Lloyd was a great stuntman, as seen in the famous scene hanging from the clock, and was in other popular 1920s films such as Speedy.

Sherlock Jr., 1924
Dir. Buster Keaton and William Goodrich for Metro-Goldwyn Pictures

The great comedian Buster Keaton provides amazing laughs and stunts along with fabulous cinematography. The last film on the list shorter than an hour.

The Gold Rush, 1925
Dir. Charlie Chaplin for United Artists

Chaplin thought this was some of his best work, with his Little Tramp character going to the Klondike. Like his other comedies it has a standard boy-meets-girl story with a happy ending.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1927
Dir. F.W. Murnau for Fox Film Co.

From the same mind as 'Nosferatu' comes a gentle story of compelling visuals and allegory. It won the Oscar for Best Artistic Picture in the first year of the awards - a category that only last the one ceremony.

Wings, 1927
Dir. William A. Wellman for Paramount

The aerial shots, to modern viewers, aren't that special, but they represent a major breakthrough in cinematography for the time. Clara Bow is also fun as the main character in this WWI film and the Oscars' first Best Picture win.

The Jazz Singer, 1927
Dir. Alan Crosland for Warner Bros.

Al Jolson stars - often in offensive blackface - in the first film with synchronized sound. This is the one film on my list I've not seen.

The Last Command, 1928
Dir. Josef von Sternberg for Paramount

Emil Jannings won the Oscar for his performance as a Russian general who flees the Revolution and ends up a Hollywood extra. William Powell plays an excellent villain at the start of his career as well.

Grand Hotel, 1932
Dir. Edmund Goulding for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

A classic from the Classic Hollywood era with an all-star ensemble cast that won Best Picture. Greta Garbo (who wants to be alone) loves John Barrymore, while Joan Crawford and Lionel Barrymore end the movie on a touching note.

Duck Soup, 1933
Dir. Leo McCarey for Paramount

The zany antics of the Marx Brothers is at their best in this tale of Groucho becoming the leader of a small country. One of the first great sound comedies.

King Kong, 1933
Dir. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack for RKO

A great monster movie, with now-hokey stop-motion special effects (and now-disturbing racism). Fay Wray screams her head off, and, unlike the earlier precursors, such as 1925's The Lost World, King Kong features a new-to-audiences plot.

42nd Street, 1933
Dir. Busby Berkeley and Lloyd Bacon for Warner Bros.

The cinematography of a Busby Berkeley film is just surreal - but highly influential in using the camera in novel ways. The film is a vaguely meta story of Depression, where if the main character's show isn't a hit then they're all in trouble.

Top Hat, 1935
Dir. Mark Sandrich for RKO

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at their peak. It's a fairly blase story, and clearly filmed in a sound studio, but the songs and dances are fun examples of those popular 1930s musicals.

Modern Times, 1936
Dir. Charlie Chaplin for United Artists

The final mostly-silent film on my list, and the end of Chaplin's Little Tramp. That said, he exits on a high note, with a powerfully funny and inspiring film about alienation and the human struggle.

Showboat, 1936
Dir. James Whale for Universal

Less than 10 years after its Broadway debut, America's most important early musical got made into a film (although a lousy hardly-an-adaption came out in 1929). Paul Robeson has the show-stopping number of Ol' Man River.

Dodsworth, 1936
Dir. William Wyler for United Artists

Hollywood dramas were usually over-the-top affairs, but Dodsworth is a quieter, more nuanced film. It marks the rise of Wyler's excellent directing career as American films start to mature.

Bringing Up Baby, 1938
Dir. Howard Hawks for RKO

For those who only know Katharine Hepburn for her regal roles, or Cary Grant from Hitchcock, here they are in a screwball comedy. The pair must keep track of a leopard and fall in love in the process.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939
Dir. Frank Capra for Columbia

The first, but not last, Capra-Stewart pairing on this list, wherein Jimmy Stewart plays an everyman-type who goes to Congress. Heartwarming and, of course, quintessentially American.

Ninotchka, 1939
Dir. Ernest Lubitsch for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Lubitsch specialized in light comedies. The story tells of a Soviet woman who melts in the romantic world of Paris.

The Wizard of Oz, 1939
Dir. Victor Fleming for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

The incomparable Judy Garland stars as Dorothy in the American fantasy musical spectacular. And while color films will be reserved for spectacle well into the 1960s, it marks an important watershed in popular color films (all apologies to Robin Hood the year before).

Gone with the Wind, 1939
Dir. Victor Fleming for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Epic and sprawling (clocking in at just shy of four hours and starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable) Mitchell's best-selling book became a blockbuster movie and won Best Picture. The Civil War and Reconstruction tale is far less problematic than The Birth of a Nation which preceded it, but still a product of a more racist time - offset slightly by Hattie McDaniel's Best Supporting Actress win.

His Girl Friday, 1940
Dir. Howard Hawks for Columbia

Cary Grant returns in another screwball comedy, lampooning the newspaper business and fast-paced New York lifestyles. Rosalind Russell provides the romantic foil in an excellent performance.

Fantasia, 1940
Dir. lots of folks for Walt Disney

Meanwhile, in animation, Disney had been revolutionizing cinema in different ways (from feature-length animation to inventing the multi-plane camera). Fantasia was the boldest of these beautiful experiments.

Citizen Kane, 1941
Dir. Orson Welles for RKO

Long-lauded as one of America's, and the world's, finest films. An unflattering but sympathetic portrayal of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, with a significant innovation in camerwork, story-telling, and superb acting by Welles.

Sullivan's Travels, 1941
Dir. Preston Sturges for Paramount

A Hollywood screenwriter is tired of comedies and wants to write about real life. He ends up on the road getting more real life than he bargained for, and learning the value of comedy.

Casablanca, 1942
Dir. Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros.

A patriotic story about America's choices which coincided with America's entry into the Second World War. Humphrey Bogart gives the performance of his career in the frequently-quoted, Best Picture-winning, film.

Stormy Weather, 1943
Dir. Andrew L. Stone for 20th Century Fox

Of course, with most of Hollywood focused on the War, there came as a result a brief surge in African-American musicals, of which Stormy Weather is the best. Lena Horne leads an all-star cast including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (whose life the movie is about), Fats Waller and the Nicholas Brothers.

The Lost Weekend, 1945
Dir. Billy Wilder for Paramount

Winning both Best Picture and the Palme D'Or (a rare feat for an American film) Wilder's movie tells of an alcoholic's struggle. Ray Milland's performance is for the ages.

It's a Wonderful Life, 1946
Dir. Frank Capra for RKO

The second feel-good Capra-Stewart pairing, this time with Christmas. One of America's most beloved films.

The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946
Dir. William Wyler for RKO

Deserved winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, this post-WWII film tells of the troops coming home - and how that is not as easy as one expects. It's not all ticker-tape and parades.

Out of the Past, 1947
Dir. Jacques Tourneur for RKO

During a decade of lots of film noir, Out of the Past stands out as an archetypal film. Robert Mitchum stars as the good guy, Kirk Douglass as the baddie, in a detective story of California and secret pasts.

White Heat, 1949
Dir. Raoul Walsh for Warner Bros.

A brutal crime movie starring Jimmy Cagney as the ruthless gangster. A very influential gangster film and shocking in its violence despite being post-code.

All the King's Men, 1949
Dir. Robert Rossen for Columbia

Based on Robert Penn Warren's novel from 1946, which tells of a Huey Long-style potential American dictatorship.Won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Actor.

All About Eve, 1950
Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz for 20th Century Fox

Bette Davis and Anne Baxter are phenomenal as the actress and her understudy who will do anything to get ahead. Scathing and captivating story of show business and winner of Best Picture.

The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951
Dir. Robert Wise for 20th Century Fox

The 1950s were a great era for science fiction - and this is one of the classics. The then-novel trope of more-powerful-than-human space visitors provide a cautionary warning for a planet.

A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951
Dir. Elia Kazan for Warner Bros.

And so Marlon Brando explodes into American film history as the dangerous Stanley. Vivien Leigh, sticking to the Southern Belle but with a tragic twist, gets her second Oscar.

Singin' in the Rain, 1952
Dir. Gene Kelley and Stanley Donen for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

One of America's favorite movie musicals, and often-considered Gene Kelley's best work. The plot tells of the foibles of a Hollywood company transitioning from silent films to talkies, with many classic songs.

High Noon, 1952
Dir. Fred Zinnemann for United Artists

Gary Cooper stars in this high-drama Western told in real time. As the suspense builds towards the climactic shootout the aging hero finds himself alone in a lawless West.

Carmen Jones, 1954
Dir. Otto Preminger for 20th Century Fox

A very peculiar entrant in the legacy of African-American cinema: an all-black cast retelling of Bizet's Carmen, where Carmen Jones makes parachutes for the War effort (with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II). Dorothy Dandridge stars alongside Harry Belafonte, and made history as the first black woman nominated for Best Actress.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956
Dir. Don Siegel for Allied Artists

Much of the sci-fi of the 50s was hokey monsters in drive-through b movies. But Invasion goes much deeper, creating a true sci fi horror masterpiece of anti-McCarthyism.

The Searchers, 1956
Dir. John Ford for Warner Bros.

Ford's swansong, and one of the most famous pairings of the director with John Wayne. The Monument Valley shots are great - the depiction of Indigenous Peoples (in this case, the Comanche) not-so-much.

12 Angry Men, 1957
Dir. Sidney Lumet for United Artists

The ultimate courtroom drama stars Henry Fonda as the juror trying to save a boy's life. The cinematography, and suspense, make it a classic.

Sweet Smell of Success, 1957
Dir. Alexander Mackendrick for United Artists

One of those movies that film buffs love and no one else has heard of - starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis in a film noir based on the dangerous influence of columnists like Walter Winchell of the bygone newspaper era. A gripping psychological drama of the first order.

Vertigo, 1958
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount

Recently crowned the greatest movie of all-time, Vertigo is the apex of Hitchcock's thrilling dramas. Set in San Francisco it is awash in innovation.

Some Like It Hot, 1959
Dir. Billy Wilder for United Artists

Considered one of the great romantic comedies, starring the comic duo of Tony Curtis (poking fun at Carey Grant) and Jack Lemmon. Marilyn Monroe is the girl, and there's a quantity of cross-dressing and mistaken identity not often seen outside Shakespeare.

Psycho, 1960
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount

A new type of psychological horror film required newspaper ads to tell audience members not to spoil the surprise ending. So begins the slasher genre, with cinematography to rival all others in that category.

West Side Story, 1961
Dir. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for United Artists

The Best Picture-winning remake of the Broadway musical by Bernstein and Sondheim. As the 1960s became a popular decade for movie musicals West Side Story led the way with its Romeo and Juliet story of New York street gangs.

Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961
Dir. Blake Edwards for Paramount

Prior to directing more madcap stories, Edwards created a romantic comedy with greater subtlety. Audrey Hepburn's portrayal of Holly Golightly became her signature role.

Judgement at Nuremberg, 1961
Dir. Stanley Kramer for United Artists

Spencer Tracy stands as the judge against Oscar-winning Best Actor Defendant Maximilian Schell, based on the trials at the end of World War II. A courtroom drama that simmers and boils with tension.

To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962
Dir. Robert Mulligan for Universal

The American literary classic was adapted into the classic film. Gregory Peck shines as Atticus Finch in the beloved movie.

The Manchurian Candidate, 1962
Dir. John Frankenheimer for United Artists

A fever-pitch political thriller of the Cold War with sleeper agents starring Frank Sinatra. Innovative narrative structure and cinematography make for a compelling hit.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964
Dir. Stanley Kubrick for Columbia

One of the all-time great black comedies about the Cold War mentality run amok. A sort of sarcastic Cuban Missile Crisis and cult hit.

In the Heat of the Night, 1967
Dir. Norman Jewison for United Artists

Sidney Poitier, one of the best actors of 1960s, stars in a movie that deals with southern racism which won Best Picture. The drama mystery reflects the ongoing struggle for recognition and civil rights.

Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
Dir. Arthur Penn for Warner Bros.

The unofficial end of the Code era is a violent telling of antihero bank robbers during the Depression. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star in the New Hollywood classic.

The Graduate, 1967
Dir. Mike Nichols for Embassy Pictures

Dustin Hoffman is introduced to the American public in a counterculture-ish landmark. The ending is one of the best in America's canon.

Night of the Living Dead, 1968
Dir. George A. Romero for Continental Distributing

A horror classic which spawned the zombie genre. An indie film that produced an outsized legacy on American cinema.

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
Dir. Stanley Kubrick for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Not everyone's cup of tea, but an incredibly innovative sci fi film. The HAL 9000 ranks as one of the great villains in all of cinema.

Easy Rider, 1969
Dir. Dennis Hopper for Columbia

While Europe was developing the New Wave, America was far behind - Easy Rider helped to address that. Heavily indebted to Goddard, and a counterculture fixture.

The Godfather and The Godfather II, 1972 and 1974
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola for Paramount

Taken together, the crime epic of Brando, Pacino, and De Niro as three generations of Italian Mafiosos runs 370+ minutes. Both halves of the film won Best Picture and numerous other Oscars.

Chinatown, 1974
Dir. Roman Polanski for Paramount

Jack Nicholson's best role as the detective in 1930s Hollywood. Often regarded as one of the best films of all time.

Blazing Saddles, 1974
Dir. Mel Brooks for Warner Bros.

One of America's funniest comedies, and one of the first to address race in a new way. The Little and Wilder pairing is hilarious.

Jaws, 1975
Dir. Steven Spielberg for Universal

The blockbuster that started the blockbuster. A young Spielberg made his initial mark on creating a new type of thriller, and changed how we view movies.

Network, 1976
Dir. Sidney Lumet for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

A prescient drama of television and mass media in America and how corruptible it could (did) become. Great performances by an all-star cast including multiple acting Oscars.

Rocky, 1976
Dir. John G. Avildsen for United Artists

The quintessential feel-good sports story starring Sylvester Stallone as the eponymous Philadelphia boxer, who also wrote the script. Winner of the Oscar for Best Picture.

Taxi Driver, 1976
Dir. Martin Scorsese for Columbia

Dangerous psychopath Bickle (De Niro) shocks in the violence of this gritty New York neo-noir. Scorsese begins his influential career directing crime movies and won the Palme D'Or.

Star Wars, 1977
Dir. George Lucas for 20th Century Fox

The space opera that redefined science fiction, and launched numerous careers. The John Williams score, the special effects, the quotability - all define a watershed film.

Grease, 1978
Dir. Randal Kleiser for Paramount

Consistently voted one of America's favorite movie-musicals. The soundtrack and goofy adults-as-high school kids performances charmed the country.

Animal House, 1978
Dir. John Landis for Universal

The college comedy could arguably be traced back to Harold Lloyd, but the modern cottage industry of frat comedies starts here. John Belushi is the main comedian in this early comedy that meant to shock the audiences in new (soon to be stale) ways.

The Muppet Movie, 1979
Dir. James Frawley for ITC Entertainment

Jim Henson's lovable Muppets take a road trip to try and make it in Hollywood. Fun songs like "Rainbow Connection", cameos from top comedians and actors, and funny gags all make it a delightful watch.

Apocalypse Now, 1979
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola for United Artists

This film is the definitive cinematic statement on America's involvement in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Another rare Palme D'Or winner.

Airplane!, 1980
Dir. David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams for Paramount

One of the funniest movies, line for line, ever filmed, Airplane! is a hilarious spoof of disaster flicks like Towering Inferno, Airport 1975, and Zero Hour!. Leslie Nielsen and Lloyd Bridges provide some of the best comedy in the surreal slapstick masterpiece.

My Dinner with Andre, 1981
Dir. Louis Malle for New Yorker Films

An indie movie of the first order - Wallace Shawn meets Andre Gregory for dinner, and... they talk. Making that entertaining for two hours is a feat of film brilliance.

Blade Runner, 1982
Dir. Ridley Scott for Warner Bros.

Landmark depiction of an LA sci-fi noir that would be copied for the next two decades. Harrison Ford stars, and Rutger Hauer gives a career-defining performance - see the Final Cut version that Scott got to control.

Koyaanisqatsi, 1982
Dir. Godfrey Reggio for New Cinema

Arguably this is a not a narrative film, but a documentary. Maybe so, but I think there's a narrative in the experimental structure, and while there aren't characters, per se... aren't there?

The Big Chill, 1983
Dir. Lawrence Kasdan for Columbia

What happens when the boomers grow up and enter their late 30s? This great drama has Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, and Jeff Goldblum starring, to mention a few of a terrific ensemble.

El Norte, 1983
Dir. Gregory Nava for PBS

Latinx heritage has been mostly absent from American cinema, with a few, vaguely troubling exceptions (Charleton Heston's portrayal of a Mexican lawyer in Touch of Evil, for example). As such El Norte provided an important watershed in bringing new narratives to American audiences.

The Terminator, 1984
Dir. James Cameron for Orion

Cameron's scary post-apocalyptic time travel film launched a major franchise. But the original is a gritty vision coupled with a good performance by Schwarzenegger as the killer assassin robot.

Back to the Future, 1985
Dir. Robert Zemeckis for Universal

"And he's friends with a disgraced nuclear physicist..." A very weird movie, as John Mulaney points out, but it ended up being an American favorite.

The Princess Bride, 1987
Dir. Rob Reiner for 20th Century Fox

Another beloved favorite and one of the best rom coms ever. The high fantasy story has produced some of the decade's most quoted lines and scenes.

Die Hard, 1988
Dir. John McTiernan for 20th Century Fox

This movie became a watershed action flick. Bruce Willis stars in everyone's favorite Christmas movie (or maybe not) about a cop taking out a building full of terrorists, with lots of explosions.

Coming to America, 1988
Dir. John Landis for Paramount

The 1970s were a...troubled time for African American cinema. After the blacksploitation of that decade, new stars like Eddie Murphy were a welcome relief - and this fish-out-of-water story about an African prince coming to NYC might be his best of the decade.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988
Dir. Robert Zemeckis for Buena Vista Pictures

A landmark of animation and special effects. The combination of Disney and Warner Bros cartoons in a 1940s Los Angeles creates a surreal, excellent film experience.

Do the Right Thing, 1989
Dir. Spike Lee for Universal

The highlight of Lee's career is a tour de force of racial conflict in Brooklyn. Veteran black film stars like Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis share the screen alongside newcomers like Samuel L Jackson.

Goodfellas, 1990
Dir. Martin Scorsese for Warner Bros.

The best crime movie since The Godfather and one of the best films of all-time. Joe Pesci got his Oscar for his violent outbursts in a genre re-defining work.

Unforgiven, 1992
Dir. Clint Eastwood for Warner Bros.

A new type of Western distinct from John Ford came along with this tale told from the point of view of an aging outlaw, Eastwood, who directed the work. Winner of Best Picture at the Oscars.

Jurassic Park, 1993
Dir. Steven Spielberg for Universal

Before it became a franchise, the original was the apotheosis of Spielberg's blockbuster movies. The blend of early, believable CGI with real effects made for a fantastic sci fi adventure on scary dinosaur island.

Groundhog Day, 1993
Dir. Harold Ramis for Columbia

Bill Murray's best performance in a small-town rom com. At turns witty, charming, and darkly humorous.

Pulp Fiction, 1994
Dir. Quentin Tarantino for Miramax

Tarantino's novel narrative structure made this pulp an instant classic, and won him the final Palme d'Or on our list. An all-star cast depicts the seedy underbelly of 1970s L.A.

Clerks, 1994
Dir. Kevin Smith for Miramax

In a decade of slacker pride, no film better captured, in surveillance camera black-and-white, the lives of young guys going nowhere, working the retail shifts at convenience stores. Smith also wrote the film, and it is chock-full of quotable moments.

The Shawshank Redemption, 1994
Dir. Frank Darabont for Columbia

Another American favorite, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. A feel-good classic of two prisoners getting justice after being long denied.

Toy Story, 1995
Dir. John Lasseter for Buena Vista

Animation hadn't changed too much since the 1950s - Disney put out a new film every few years, and they were of mixed quality going into the 90s. Then all of a sudden animation became popular again, and Toy Story heralded the start of a new 3D animation movement and a company called Pixar...

Titanic, 1997
Dir. James Cameron for Paramount

One of the biggest blockbusters of the decade. The Best Picture winner also brought Leonardo DiCaprio to a wider audience than teen fans.

The Big Lebowski, 1998
Dir. Joel Coen for Gramercy Pictures

A highlight from the Coen Brothers canon. Set in the early 90s, Jeff Bridges' Dude has to solve a noir-style caper when he'd rather want to go bowling.

The Truman Show, 1998
Dir. Peter Weir for Paramount

An eerily prescient precursor to reality television (when "The Real World" was only a few years old on MTV). Mixing humor with real pathos Jim Carrey gives an excellent performance.

The Matrix, 1999
Dir. the Wachowskis for Warner Bros.

After trying to make cyber dystopias since at least Tron, Hollywood finally got it right with the last big hit of the decade. The franchise immediately went off the rails, but the first remains a late-90s touchstone.


And so there it is. Those are The 100 Essential 20th Century American Movies. Superlatives:

15 directors with two films: James Cameron, Frank Capra, Charlie Chaplin, Francis Ford Coppola, Victor Fleming, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, John Landis, Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Billy Wilder, Robert Wise, William Wyler, and Robert Zemeckis.

14/15 Best Picture Winners: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Wings, Grand Hotel, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, The Lost Weekend, The Best Years of Our Lives, All the King's Men, All About Eve, West Side Story, In the Heat of the Night, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Rocky, Unforgiven, and Titanic.

Palme d'Or recipients: The Lost Weekend, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, and Pulp Fiction.

How many have you seen?