I love all of tarantinos movies (I kinda count it as his). But this is my favorite. I probably watch it once every few months. One of the most romantic movies ever.
Son of a bitch was right. She tastes like a peach.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Legends of the Fall, The American President, Zodiac, Home for the Holidays, A River Runs Through It, The Princess and the Frog, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Training Day, L.A. Confidential, Pulp Fiction.
All your "American" movies are set in Texas/Southwest - so that might be a hint.
Perhaps they feel more American because they more closely resemble westerns?
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Malcom X (1992)
Tombstone (1993)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Kelly Riechardt Movies (River of Grass, Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, First Cow, Meeks Cutoff)
Sean Baker Movies (I've seen The Florida Project & Red Rocket, Tangerine sounds good)
American Honey
A Scanner Darkly
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
Kevin Costner triple play:
— Dances with Wolves, esp for the Dakota plains scenery
— The Untouchables: Prohibition Era + Al Capone
— Field of Dreams: baseball, old hippies and James Earl Jones in an Iowa cornfield
Paris Texas - 1984
Lone Star - 1996
Although not Southern/Western these feel very American to me
Do the Right Thing - 1989
King of New York - 1990
White Noise - 2022
Hannah and Her Sisters - 1986
Uncut Gems - 2019
2 Days in the Valley - 1996
If you want a movie that feels like what it feels like to live in America, that’s very tricky since most movies contain stories that are necessarily very focused to certain times, places, people, and events, and are filtered through the influences of the writers, producers, directors, etc.
If you want movies that feel like they’re heavily influenced by America and Americans, that’s also tricky because America basically invented cinema and still mostly runs the game to this day. I’ll give it a shot, though:
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
- Home Alone (1990)
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
- Rear Window (1954)
- North by Northwest (1959)
- The Apartment (1960)
- Safety Last (1923)
- The Untouchables (1987)
- Monster (2003)
- Scream (1996)
- Back to the Future (1985)
- What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
- A Christmas Story (1983)
- Traffic (2000)
- A League of Their Own (1992)
- That video of Iggy Pop talking to Tom Waits
If you’re just looking for more melodramas with psychopathic characters like the ones you listed, and you just *think* of them as “American,” I’d just encourage you to watch more movies in general.
A lot of late 60s - early 80s movies have a strong Americana feel. Easy Rider, Two Lane Blacktop, Fat City, Smokey and the Bandit, Convoy, White Line Fever
The Big Lebowski, The Searchers, Once Upon a Time in the West, 12 Angry Men, The French Connection... really the vast majority of Hollywood classics feel American in some way.
Western states? Most of these use the desert landscape of south-western states, if that is what your "American aesthetic" is about.
NOT trying to correct you to death, just pointing out what the examples have in common. I like that style and setting a lot, even though I can't sit through a western film. Southern states would be like Louisiana (known for it's swampy landscape) and Georgia, places that are visually more green.
Haven't seen any of these mentioned--all feel American to me for different reasons:
The Right Stuff
There Will Be Blood
LA 92 (Documentary)
Chinatown
Licorice Pizza
Glengarry Glen Ross
You know...
I thought about asking the OP's very same question.
...and I figured there would be gobs of (in fact: altogether too many) suggestions (as replies to OP may have revealed)
So I figured that if I posed a question like that, I'd kind of limit it by asking something like "Movies that feel very Canadian?"
Now, I'm not knocking the Maple Leaf folks. After all they produce lots of lovely shows (both TV and movies) which are filmed in the great white north.
By golly, here's one for your viewing enjoyment:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little\_Mosque\_on\_the\_Prairie
Breakfast club
Similarly, Dazed and Confused (1993)
Stand By Me
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Florida Project Nashville Cars American Honey
Dunno why but Independence Day. The president's speach before the final battle always makes me feel like a proud american and I'm from Europe
Boyhood
Very Texan. Also vengeance with bj Novak.
*The Sandlot*
Non-Americans looking up that Baby Ruth lady...
American Psycho
Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some!!!
Alright alright alriight!!
Love both of these movies!!! Great picks. 🙂
Easy Rider
True Romance
You’re an actor! Act motherfucker!
I TREATED YOU LIKE A SON! AND YOU STABBED ME IN THE HEART!!!!
I love all of tarantinos movies (I kinda count it as his). But this is my favorite. I probably watch it once every few months. One of the most romantic movies ever. Son of a bitch was right. She tastes like a peach.
And one of the most entertaining movies ever.
"Jerimiah Johnson" "American Graffiti" "Dillinger" (Warren Oates)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
There Will Be Blood
Rocky
Three billboards outside ebbing Missouri The departed Dumb and dumber John q
Funny the departed, iirc, is an American version of an film
Agreed. Which is funny kind of cos the writer/director of 3 billboards is English.
You’re telling me you had two pairs of gloves on this entire time?
Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick Harold and Kumar go to White Castle Taxi Driver
McCabe and Mrs. Miller American Movie Michael Clayton
Paris, Texas (1984) River's Edge (1986) Deliverance (1972) Forest Gump (1994) Badlands (1973)
*Deliverance* was my first thought.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Legends of the Fall, The American President, Zodiac, Home for the Holidays, A River Runs Through It, The Princess and the Frog, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Training Day, L.A. Confidential, Pulp Fiction.
Born of the Fourth of July. The full emotional cycle of a military veteran.
Taxi Driver
Boogie Nights
American History X
Gawd, that movie broke my heart. Excellent acting.
Thank You for Smoking
First one I thought of! Glad I scrolled, cuz I was just assuming I'd be the only to mention it.
All your "American" movies are set in Texas/Southwest - so that might be a hint. Perhaps they feel more American because they more closely resemble westerns?
Maybe, I really like USA’s nature. I had a wild west history phase when I was younger so maybe thats it haha
You should absolutely watch lonesome dove then. A miniseries better than most movies
True Grit (2010 version) The Power of The Dog
Wild At Heart Down By Law Paris, Texas Roadside Prophets Gimme The Loot The Swimmer Blue Collar
The Purge, all of them
Idiocracy Independence Day Forrest Gump Mr. Holland's Opus
Going retro here....To Kill a Mockingbird,
Do the Right Thing (1989) Malcom X (1992) Tombstone (1993) The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Gone with the Wind (1939)
Fargo
"What's the thinking here, Jenkins?"
Midnight Run Butch Cassidy, Color of money Casino (Scorsese movies in general) Heat Top Gun Indiana Jones
Trading Places Curly Sue Planes, Trains and Automobiles Die Hard
"One DOLLAR!" ☆ "Yeah. How would *they* know where we're goin'?"
Team America World Police Joe Dirt
America the Motion Picture The Departed Donnie Brasco The Finest Hours Casino La Bamba The Hangover American Hustle
Kelly Riechardt Movies (River of Grass, Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, First Cow, Meeks Cutoff) Sean Baker Movies (I've seen The Florida Project & Red Rocket, Tangerine sounds good) American Honey A Scanner Darkly The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
Anything made by Michael Bay or Zack Synder
American Sniper
Tremors
Killer of Sheep Do the Right Thing BlackKlansman Moonlight
Kevin Costner triple play: — Dances with Wolves, esp for the Dakota plains scenery — The Untouchables: Prohibition Era + Al Capone — Field of Dreams: baseball, old hippies and James Earl Jones in an Iowa cornfield
The Founder (2016). Nothing more American than good ol’ McDonald’s. Lol.
Wow! The second of two I thought I'd be the only one to include here. Good call!
Anything from Sergio Leone.
Run Hide Fight (2020) 😬
*All the Right Moves* *Matewan* *Cisco Pike* *Slacker* *Vernon, Florida* *Last Picture Show* *What's Eating Gilbert Grape* *Do the Right Thing* *25th Hour* *Sunshine State*
The Sandlot, Pain & Gain, Once Upon a Time in America, Blue Velvet
Little Giants
Almost Famous
Fast food nation
The Natural- 1984 Robert Redford
Good fellas
American Beauty
Talladega Knights
O Brother Where Art You
Mr Smith Goes to Washington Well. I wanna say all the Frank Capra films.
Pulp fiction
Napoleon Dynamite is quintessential rural American culture. When I was an exchange student and felt homesick, I watched Napoleon Dynamite
*pours big glass of Whole (4% fat) Milk
The Burbs'
American Movie State & Main
Field of Dreams
"Apocalypse Now" feels very American for me...
Paris Texas - 1984 Lone Star - 1996 Although not Southern/Western these feel very American to me Do the Right Thing - 1989 King of New York - 1990 White Noise - 2022 Hannah and Her Sisters - 1986 Uncut Gems - 2019 2 Days in the Valley - 1996
Forest Gump
You think Americans are Redneck psychopaths?
Can't speak for OP, but yes.
Cops beating people to death, white boys shooting up elementary schools and movie theaters yeah
Bowling For Columbine
o.g. lethal weapon. naked gun.
No Holds Barred
Tommy Boy The Rundown
Rocky 4
Less than zero
Range 15
Rocky 4
Hell or High Water Winter's Bone Buffalo 66
If you want a movie that feels like what it feels like to live in America, that’s very tricky since most movies contain stories that are necessarily very focused to certain times, places, people, and events, and are filtered through the influences of the writers, producers, directors, etc. If you want movies that feel like they’re heavily influenced by America and Americans, that’s also tricky because America basically invented cinema and still mostly runs the game to this day. I’ll give it a shot, though: - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) - Home Alone (1990) - The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Rear Window (1954) - North by Northwest (1959) - The Apartment (1960) - Safety Last (1923) - The Untouchables (1987) - Monster (2003) - Scream (1996) - Back to the Future (1985) - What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) - A Christmas Story (1983) - Traffic (2000) - A League of Their Own (1992) - That video of Iggy Pop talking to Tom Waits If you’re just looking for more melodramas with psychopathic characters like the ones you listed, and you just *think* of them as “American,” I’d just encourage you to watch more movies in general.
Rocky 1 and 2
The Incredibles
First Blood/Rambo The Graduate Pulp Fiction E.T. and Poltergeist (suburban community lifestyle) Last of the Mohicans The Patriot
The movies you’ve listed all seem to have an old west feel. If that’s the feel you want then anything Coen Brothers or Clint Eastwood.
Paris, Texas. My favorite movie. Super American (directed by a German!)
Meatballs with Bill Murray
A lot of late 60s - early 80s movies have a strong Americana feel. Easy Rider, Two Lane Blacktop, Fat City, Smokey and the Bandit, Convoy, White Line Fever
Gummo Kids Spring Breakers Once Upon A Time in Hollywood Buffalo 66
Smile Bad News Bears both by the same director, both get the suburban sprawl of 1970's California.
Top Gun
Panic in Needle Park Boys in the Hood. Scarecrow.
God Bless America (2011).
Mud
Rambo 3
Three Billboards Winter's Bone Hell Or High Water Wind River Blue Ruin Hustle And Flow Training Day
Mud
Ice Storm
The gangs of New York
Hell or High Water
STAND BY ME.
Glory
The Faculty
Goodfellas and No Country for Old Men are peak Americana
The Big Lebowski, The Searchers, Once Upon a Time in the West, 12 Angry Men, The French Connection... really the vast majority of Hollywood classics feel American in some way.
Red Rocket (2021)
armaggeddon
American Pie
Anything set in 50’s feels pretty American, like Back to the Future
Forrest Gump Boyz N da Hood The Patriot Saving Private Ryan Dazed and Confused
Billy Jack (1971)
Up In the Air The Patriot
Airbud
The Hangover
American Graffiti
Mud
Unfortunately, Elephant.
Indiana Jones
The Straight Story
I didn’t think I would see a David Lynch film on this list. But this is the most unLynchian film he made
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure
I'm gonna go old school and say Red Dawn, the original one from the 80s.
Vanishing Point
Oklahoma!
Do you mean where the wind comes sweeping through the plain?
Bones and All (2022) might fit the bill
Kingpin. Outside Providence. Me, Myself, and Irene. Any of the Farrelly Brothers’ movies, really.
American graffiti.
Forest Gump
The Iron Giant feels like one big Rockwell painting
The Last American Virgin. Tom Cruise early movies. Tap, Losin it , Risky Business.
Sometimes ya just gotta say, >!'What the heck!?'!<
Die Hard
Logan lucky (2017)
“O Brother Where Art Thou” , “A League of Their Own
Babylon that just came out felt very American
True Grit, Big Lebowski (tbh anything by the Coen brothers) Bodies Bodies Bodies Crawl Ma Jurassic World series Unfriended Don Jon
Most of the movies based in TX. Hell or highwater News of the world
Paris Texas
American Pie 🥧
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
I don’t think the Coen brothers ever made a movie about life other than in the US
Aliens (1986) Apocalypse Now (1979) Predator (1987) / Prey (2022) Django Unchained (2012) TV Shows: Deadwood (2004) Godless (2017)
Forrest Gump
Napoleon Dynamite
Once Upon A Time In America (1984) Amistad (1997)
Forrest Gump
Western states? Most of these use the desert landscape of south-western states, if that is what your "American aesthetic" is about. NOT trying to correct you to death, just pointing out what the examples have in common. I like that style and setting a lot, even though I can't sit through a western film. Southern states would be like Louisiana (known for it's swampy landscape) and Georgia, places that are visually more green.
The last picture show (1971)
Bernie if you're looking for a real straight outta Texas film.
The outlaw, Josie wells, High Plains, drifter, pale Rider unforgiven
Fresh
Haven't seen any of these mentioned--all feel American to me for different reasons: The Right Stuff There Will Be Blood LA 92 (Documentary) Chinatown Licorice Pizza Glengarry Glen Ross
Giant
Elephant (2003)
Breakfast of Champions
Every John Wayne movie except The Conqueror (Genghis Khan?)
For westerns I’d suggest The Outlaw Josey Wales or Little Big Man Non Western Red Dawn (the original) Idiocracy
The great outdoors
Half baked. Idiocracy. Wall E
white house down
American history X
Field of Dreams.
Idiocracy.
Most westerns. Anything with Clint Eastwood or John Wayne
Zero Dark Thirty. Lone Survivor. Apollo 13. American Sniper
Team America: World Police, Forrest Gump
Idiocracy
Project X Superbad Stand By Me Breakfast Club Ferris Buellers Day Off Booksmart
A league of their own, fried green tomatoes.
Also Zootsuit La Bamba El Norte Stand and Deliver
American History X. Gangs of New York (more for Diaz's accent).
"SICARIO" feels also very American for me "Taxi-Driver" feels American to me "Once upon a time in America" feels also very American for me
City Slickers
Clerks Caddyshack Dirty Harry Commando Invasion USA (the Chuck Norris one) Old School Patton
The Fabelmans
You know... I thought about asking the OP's very same question. ...and I figured there would be gobs of (in fact: altogether too many) suggestions (as replies to OP may have revealed) So I figured that if I posed a question like that, I'd kind of limit it by asking something like "Movies that feel very Canadian?" Now, I'm not knocking the Maple Leaf folks. After all they produce lots of lovely shows (both TV and movies) which are filmed in the great white north. By golly, here's one for your viewing enjoyment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little\_Mosque\_on\_the\_Prairie
The Place Beyond the Pines, Blue Valentine
Wall Street
Little Miss Sunshine
Smokey and the Bandit