Last semester, I taught a survey course in American film. Of course, when you have maybe a dozen three-hour slots to show films, you're limited. No Godfather II, for instance.
Aside from time limitations, I had a few guiding principles. I wanted to sample as many genres as I could. I was determined not to represent any director by more than one film. I wanted the films to reflect changing values in American life. And I decided not to show anything later than the Seventies. I also decided to track one movie star through three films (I chose James Stewart).
So here's what I ended up picking:
One Week (Keaton)
The Kid (Chaplin)
Singin' in the Rain (Donen and Kelly)
Sullivan's Travels (Sturges)
Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch)
My Darling Clementine (Ford)
Citizen Kane (Welles)
It's a Wonderful Life (Capra)
The Asphalt Jungle (Huston)
Vertigo (Hitchcock)
East of Eden (Kazan)
The Apartment (Wilder)
The Graduate (Nichols)
Klute (Pakula)
I was surprised by what they hadn't seen already. I hadn't initially chosen It's a Wonderful Life because I assumed that you couldn't be an American and not have seen it. Turned out I was wrong and this was new to most of them. And, of course, it's a law you show Citizen Kane and Vertigo. Kane they respected rather than liked. (Since the innovations Kane introduced have been thoroughly absorbed by the films that followed, they can't see Kane as the startling film it was when it first was released.) Vertigo, on the other hand, they mostly succumbed to, though the slowness of the beginning was difficult for them. Most of them knew who Chaplin was but had never seen his work. Few knew who Keaton was.
Truth to tell, if it was in black and white, they probably hadn't seen it. Nobody in the room had seen or heard of Sturges or Lubitsch.
The only film that seemed not to connect was Asphalt Jungle. If I teach this again, I'd probably look for another noir, though it would have to be one not directed by Wilder (which knocks out some of the best).
Few of them had heard of James Dean, but they mostly responded strongly to him and were interested in exploring his other stuff.
A few who watch Mad Men saw its roots in The Apartment. Also, The Apartment seemed to be the first of the films I showed that was part of a world they felt wasn't remote.
The Graduate went over like crazy. Mostly they identified with Benjamin's sense of terror at what to do after college. Curiously, the anti-materialist subtext and the hostility to the older generation didn't resonate much for them. Given the economics of the time, I think they don't see their parents as prisoners of corrupt values. (Maybe it's wise not to challenge your folks too much given how likely you are to end up having to live with them after you get out of college.)
Klute, aside from Fonda's startling performance, seemed most compelling to them because of its vision of Seventies Manhattan as a hellish, dangerous place. Indeed, Manhattan has changed. Well, much of it has.
And, yes, they seemed to be intrigued how a personality actor like Jimmy Stewart could shift from the naive romantic of Shop to the man contemplating suicide in Wonderful Life to the obsessive in Vertigo.
If I'd had extra weeks, I would have included Spike Lee's film bio, Malcolm X (I think it's a great American film), John Sturges's The Great Escape (my favorite popcorn movie), a Marx Brothers movie and something with Katharine Hepburn, Bogart, John Wayne, Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and ... No, I can't succumb to the temptation to list more.
I'd be interested in knowing the lists other people would make. Remember, no repeating directors, no films later than the Seventies, nothing more than two and a half hours long, and try to represent a variety of genres.
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