xvi Introduction Chicago as much as Kevin’s in Home Alone and Los Angeles as much as all The Fast and The Furious’s. Recognizable American locations certify America for the moviegoer and become, for many, pilgrimage sites, made so on and by film (one wonders how many Instagram photos feature Times Square). Films also source our collective memory and form our national mythology. Again, Percy’s Binx Bolling waxes reflectively: The fact is I am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie. Other people, so I have read, treasure memorable moments in their lives: the time one climbed the Parthe- non at sunrise, the summer night one met a lonely girl in Central Park and achieved with her a sweet and natural relationship, as they say in books. I too once met a girl in Central Park, but it was not much to remember. What I remember is the time John Wayne killed three men with a carbine as he was falling to the dusty street in Stage- coach, and the time the kitten found Orson Welles in the doorway in the Third Man. In an increasingly digital age of paradoxical fragmentation and connection, our shared cinematic memory is what unites us more than physical experiences do. Percy’s audience of the ’60s would have recognized the alluded-to films, sharing both Bolling’s experience and its content. And while many Americans may be politically, racially, and religiously divided, “I am Iron Man” and “Life is like a box of chocolates” are literally scripts that run through all of our memories. Some of us have avoided the ocean for years because of Jaws and can never say “let it go” to anyone else without singing it. In sum, moviegoing is the great American pastime, and to understand Amer- ica, one has to consider its films—especially the ones that drew the largest crowds and made the most money: the blockbusters. BLOCKBUSTER AND GENERATIONS The movies in this volume represent just a slice of the films produced in a given period. The deciding criteria for which ones were included and which were not was relatively simple: money. Thus, the top-grossing films for the chosen time frame (discussed below) are featured. In some cases, a tie warranted including both. But here again, one must be cautious about falling into critical snobbery and the aforementioned notions of high and low culture. Simply because a film is a blockbuster and has earned significant profits does not mean that it is not signifi- cant as a cultural artifact through which America is refracted. America is its pop- ular culture, for the people, by the people. As “the pursuit of happiness” is enshrined in our national documents, we can echo as a truism Bolling’s self- disclosure: “I am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie.” The other criterion for the selections in this volume is related to the concept of generations. While a contested term in and of itself, most sources divide Ameri- cans into four and sometimes five cohorts with the following birth years: Greatest Generation: 1898–1927 Silent Generation: 1928–1945 Baby Boomers: 1946–1964
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