| Group1: American Society and Culture |
| Come See the Paradise. 1990. — Japanese Americans in the West during World War II. Dennis Quaid, Tamlyn Tomita. |
| Gentlemen's Agreement. 1947. — Investigating Anti-Semitism in America in 1949. Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire. |
| Mr. and Mrs. Loving. 1996. — An interracial couple in Virginia takes on the State of Virginia and winds up in the Supreme Court. Timothy Hutton, Lela Rochon. |
| Grand Canyon. 1991. — American society in the 1990s. Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Danny Glover, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard. |
| Inherit the Wind. 1960. — The Scopes (“Monkey”) Trial, 1925 Frederic March, Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly |
| October Sky. 1999. The West Virginia coal-mining town “rocket boys” win the state science fair. Chris Cooper, Laura Dern. |
| The Long Walk Home. 1991. — Civil Rights (Montgomery, 1950s) . Sissy Spacek, Whoopi Goldberg. |
| To Kill a Mockingbird. 1962. — Attorney Atticus Finch defends a Black man accused of raping a white woman in the 1930s South. Gregory Peck. |
| The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. 1956. — American Values in the 1950s. Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones. |
| A Beautiful Mind. 2002. The story of the eccentric John Nash whose theory of equilibrium won the Nobel Prize. Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connolly. |
| Grapes of Wrath. 1940. — The Great Depression. Henry Fonda. |
| The Right Stuff. 1983. — The story of the original seven Mercury astronauts. Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn. |
| Group2: Sports, Games and Other Pursuits |
| The Rookie. 2002. A 34-year-old high school coach pursues a dream of playing in the “Bigs.” Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths. |
| Remember the Titans. 2000. — The T.C. Williams High School football team gets integrated in 1971. Denzel Washington |
| Searching for Bobby Fischer. 1993. A young Josh Waitzkin and his father learn about competitive chess. Joe Montegna, Joan Allen |
*61. 2002. — NY Yankees Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle go after Babe Ruth’s record during the 1961 season. Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane. |
Eight Men Out. 1988. A John Sayles film about the Chicago “Black Sox” scandal in the 1919 World Series. John Cusack. |
Soul of the Game. 1996. The “Negro Leagues” provide a training ground for the integration of major league baseball with stars like Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Roy Campanella and others. Blair Underwood, Delroy Lindo, Mykelti Williamson, Edward Herrmann.
|
| Group3: Politics and Politicans: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly |
Abe Lincoln in Illinois. 1939. – The Young Abraham Lincoln. Raymond Massey. |
All the President's Men. 1976. — Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein help break the Watergate case. Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman. |
Citizen Cohn. 1992. — McCarthyism in the 1950s. James Woods. |
Truman. 1995. — Biography of the
33rd President of the United States based on David McCullough’s
book. Gary Sinise, Diana Scarwid. |
| Sunrise at Campobello. 1960. Ralph Bellamy. Greer Garson. Franklin D. Roosevelt battles the ravages of
poliomyelitis and makes a political comeback. |
Guilty by Suspicion. 1991. A 1950s film director finds his life turned upside down by the McCarthy Communist hearings. Robert DeNiro, Annette Bening. |
Group 4: The World War II Era |
The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell. 1955. — A courageous army officer sees the future of military aviation. Gary Cooper, Ralph Bellamy. Directed by Otto Preminger.
|
Patton. 1970. – The World War II general and his enemies, foreign and domestic. George C. Scott, Karl Malden. |
Tora Tora Tora. 1970. — The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Martin Balsam, So Yamamura, James Whitmore, Joseph Cotton. |
Command Decision. 1948. American Air Forces during World War II. Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson. |
MacArthur. 1977. — World War II and the Korean War. Gregory Peck, Ed Flanders. |
Nuremberg. 2000. — American Justice Robert Jackson presides over the war crimes trial of Nazi leaders. Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, Max von Sydow. |
Hiroshima. 1995. — A detailed account of Hiroshima and the end of the war from the American and Japanese perspectives. Large international cast. |
| Saving Private Ryan. D-Day, June 6, 1944 and after. Tom Hanks. |
| Twelve O’Clock High. 1949. World War II B-17 air crews in action. Gregory Peck. |
Varian's War. 2001. A wealthy American helps rescue Jews from Vichy France during World War II. William Hurt. |
| Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. 1994. — World War II —General Doolittle's 1942 Raid on Tokyo. Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson. |
| The Tuskegee Airmen. 1996. — African American Fighter Pilots in WWII. Laurence Fishburne, Andre Braugher, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Courtnay Vance. |
Group 5: The American Working Class: Labor and Laborers |
On the Waterfront. 1954. — U.S. Labor History (Longshoremen). Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger. |
Hoffa. 1992. — History of the American Labor Leader of the Teamsters Union. Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Armand Assante. |
Matewan. 1987. — The West Virginia Coal Field Wars, 1920s. Chris Cooper, Mary McDonnell, James Earl Jones. John Sayles, Director. |
The Molly McGuires. 1970. — Pennsylvania Coal Mines, 1800s. Sean Connery, Richard Harris. |
Group 6: Post World War II |
| The Best Years of Our Lives. 1946. — Aftermath
of World War II, the “Good War.” Harold Russell, Frederic
March, Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy. |
The Bridges at Toko Ri. 1954. — The Korean War. Frederic March, William Holden, Grace Kelly. |
We Were Soldiers. 2002. — The Vietnam War in 1965. Mel Gibson, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliot, Madeleine Stowe. |
| The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. 1956. — American Values in the 1950s. Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones. (Note: Also in group 1—you may use for either but not both.) |
Thirteen Days. 2000. The Cuban Missile crisis of 1962 is handled by JFK and his staff. Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp. |
Path to War. 2003. Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland and Michael Gambon. |
Bright Shining Lie. 1998. — John Paul Vann and the Vietnam War. Bill Paxton, Amy Madigan. |
Group 7: Early American History: The 18th & 19th Centuries |
Glory. 1989. — The 54th Massachusetts in the Civil War. Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman. |
Uncle Tom's Cabin. 1987. — History of Slavery. Based on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel. Avery Brooks, Edward Woodward, Bruce Dern, |
The Patriot. 2000. — American revolution in the South. Based loosely on Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox." Mel Gibson, Chris Cooper. |
Rough Riders. 1997 — Teddy Roosevelt and the Spanish American War. Tom Beringer, Sam Elliot. |
Last of the Mohicans. 1992. — French and Indian War, 1757. Daniel Day Lewis, Madeleine Stowe. |
Gettysburg. 1993. The Great Battle of the Civil War. Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen. |
| Amistad. 1998. A cargo of slaves rebel against their crew. Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Djimon Hounsou. |
| Group 8: The American West & Native Americans |
| The Alamo. 2004. Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton. Story of the Texas Revolution. Will be released on DVD in September 2004. |
| Broken Arrow. 1950. Apache Leader Cochise deals with white expansion into the Southwest. James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget. |
Tombstone. 1993. The Legendary Lawman Wyatt Earp and his family. Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer.
—or—
Wyatt Earp. 1994. Another view of the legendary Wyatt Earp. Kevin
Costner, Dennis Quaid
— or—
My Darling Clementine. Henry Fonda. This film and the one below are
two older versions of parts of the same story.
— or —
Gunfight at OK Corral. Burt Lancaster. Kirk Douglas.
(Select one only)
|
| Texas. 1994. — The Texas Revolution of 1835-6 based on James Michener's book. Stacey Keach, Patrick Duffy, David Keith. |
| Geronimo. 1993. — The United States cavalry campaign to capture the Chiricahua Apache Chief. Wes Studi, Jason Patric, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Matt Damon. |
| Updated
September 13, 2004 |