I just saw Ebert and Roeper's recommendations for Fourth of July movies, among them, "Born on the Fourth of July," the story of Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, and "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
Me, I'm going to go all uber-patriotic in a different way and watch my new DVD copy of "All the President's Men" so I can remind myself what the MSM used to be capable of doing when it discovered criminal behavior at the highest levels of government. (And given the unveiling of the real identity of Deep Throat, it's timely in other ways, too.)
More below the fold...
There's a scene near the end of the movie that always gives me goosebumps. It takes place (as does at least 75% of the film) in the Washington Post newsroom. Woodstein are the only two reporters working. On a nearby TV, the networks broadcast Nixon's second inauguration.
As Nixon takes the oath of office, the camera dollies in slowly, until the screen shows only two images -- on one side, the only president to resign in disgrace saying words he has no intention of fulfilling, and on the other, two guys at typewriters plugging away without fanfare or ceremony at a continuing story that will eventually bring that same president down and make the name of Nixon, in HST's words, "synonymous with shame, corruption and failure."
One man swearing under oath "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," and two journalists who, by doing their jobs, were actually fulfilling that oath via the First Amendment.
So, what movies would you watch this Fourth of July if you had copies in your DVD libraries? What movies best explore what it means to be patriotic, and how? And what scenes in said movie(s) crystallize that spirit, as the scene I described above in ATPM did for me?
Happy Fourth. May this country experience "a new birth of freedom" in ways that go beyond our current administration's empty and cynical abuse of that word.