Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Your Take: What movie represents the best of American culture?

Your Take: What movie represents the best of American culture?

Graphic that reads Your Take with image of actor Tom Cruise in Top Gun movie.

With the summer’s heat doubling down in many places, Americans have been flocking to catch the season’s most popular films in movie theaters. One of the biggest blockbusters of the summer has been “Top Gun: Maverick” starring Tom Cruise and Miles Teller, a story about the Navy's most prestigious aviators that showcases camaraderie, courage, and resilience.

An argument could be made that the reason for its popularity stems from the talent of the actors or its action-packed storyline. However, the film’s real appeal comes from its inspiring story of seemingly normal people doing extraordinary things.


Politico puts it best: “No one would mistake ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ for social realism, or even (maybe especially) a lifelike depiction of Naval air combat. But rather than the hyper-masculine, Reagan-era militarism of Tony Scott’s 1986 original, this film’s appeal comes from the mere fact that it’s about normal people, doing things within the plausible boundaries of reality.”

On top of this, “Top Gun: Maverick” instills a strong sense of patriotism in its viewers. It depicts the elite nature of the U.S. military and highlights the commitment the aviators make to defend the United States country during times of turmoil. It is overall a feel-good movie that makes people proud of the American lifestyle and culture.

So we asked our readers: What movie represents the best of American culture? What are the blockbuster movies that define who we are? And has it held up until today?

American culture can be defined by many different things and it can be shown in film in many different ways. As one reader put it, these stories “speak to the experiences of members of the United States that are Americans [although] their experiences are not part of the dominant culture.”

Still, diverse stories that often focused on people who are underdogs, whether the movies are based on real life or fictional, were the most common replies. Think “12 Years A Slave,” “Hidden Figures,” and “The Florida Project.”

Following is a selection of reader responses, edited for length and clarity.

I think I would need the help of my wife or one of my sisters, both of whom have better memories of movie titles and their plots. However, off the cuff, I would start thinking about movies that depict large families gathering (e.g., large wedding weekend) in loving chaos of personalities achieving some expected and unexpected results, where at least a glimmer or a rush of love and insights appear, even if not at the ending of the movie. This might seem like more of a universal cultural experience and I think our large national family has many cultures from all around the world coming together at times in challenging ways that can lead to growth and happier endings. - Joe Healy

As it is now vorboten to be patriotic and patriotism is looked upon as a punishable offense; I cannot see how any writer will ever be allowed to show America as a great country. Division is accepted and demanded and shown by the separate award ceremonies that the pariah class (Americans) are not able to attend or receive awards. If this is the "new Diversity" it makes no sense. - Gloria Graham

Honestly, the single best film that helps move our story forward is "Get Out" by Jordan Peele. The opening scene, a take-off on how white people are supposed to feel scared in Black neighborhoods, flipping it so a Black guy is kidnapped in a white suburban street, simply does more to lay things out about our common humanity, and how our fears keep us from accessing it, than any amount of blockbusters. The ending of that film predicts a better future, a society more open to seeing truths laid out in front of it and the possibility of justice. Also there's a great dog. An incredible film. - Tod Davies

Either way, for most people, fiction films serve as a distraction from reality — a sort of escape from the mundane into a world where hours or even generations are collapsed into about two hours, inconvenient emotion inducing events are mostly resolved favorably, and once the credits roll, everything goes back to normal.

Given that perspective, I would say that — to a large degree — the effect that film has on American culture is in the mind of the beholder. The fact is that there can be more activity in a single action film than most humans will experience in an entire lifetime. Therefore, there is a potency to this medium that should not be ignored. - Pedro Silva

For me, two relatively recent movies captured contemporary American life. One is “Moonlight,” directed by Barry Jenkins and written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, a film about the fractured life of a queer Black man. The other is “The Florida Project,” directed by Sean Baker and co-written by Baker and Chris Bergoch, about a little girl and her struggling mother who live week-to-week in a motel near Disney World. Each film dramatizes the interlocking challenges and moral compromises required to live on the edges of American society — where so many Americans live — as well as the love and joy that exist there in equal measure, almost in retaliation against the systems that created the conditions of their struggle. The humanity of these films is aspirational, even countercultural. Not the plot arcs and tragedies, which are grounded in hard realities, but the portrayals of these people as people, their wholeness, their complexities. The love that radiates from the gaze of the camera. Could our country ever love them as completely or as deeply as these films do? - Daniel Pritchard

Read More

Could Trump’s campaign against the media come back to bite conservatives?

US President Donald Trump reacts next to Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, after speaking at the public memorial service for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on September 21, 2025.

(Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Could Trump’s campaign against the media come back to bite conservatives?

In the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’sapparently temporary— suspension from late-night TV, a (tragically small) number of prominent conservatives and Republicans have taken exception to the Trump administration’s comfort with “jawboning” critics into submission.

Sen. Ted Cruz condemned the administration’s “mafioso behavior.” He warned that “going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again — wins the White House … they will silence us.” Cruz added during his Friday podcast. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A stethoscope lying on top of credit cards.

Enhanced health care tax credits expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress acts. Learn who benefits, what’s at risk, and how premiums could rise without them.

Getty Images, yavdat

Just the Facts: What Happens If Enhanced Health Care Tax Credits End in 2025

The Fulcrum strives to approach news stories with an open mind and skepticism, striving to present our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, we remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.

There’s been a lot in the news lately about healthcare costs going up on Dec. 31 unless congress acts. What are the details?

The enhanced health care premium tax credits (ePTCs) are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress acts to extend them.

Keep ReadingShow less
Congress Bill Spotlight: No Social Media at School Act

Rep. Angie Craig’s No Social Media at School Act would ban TikTok, Instagram & Snapchat during K-12 school hours. See what’s in the bill.

Getty Images, Daniel de la Hoz

Congress Bill Spotlight: No Social Media at School Act

Gen Z’s worst nightmare: TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat couldn’t be used during school hours.

What the bill does

Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN2) introduced the No Social Media at School Act, which would require social media companies to use “geofencing” to block access to their products on K-12 school grounds during school hours.

Keep ReadingShow less
A portrait of John Adams.

John Adams warned that without virtue, republics collapse. Today, billionaire spending and unchecked wealth test whether America can place the common good above private gain.

John Adams Warned Us: A Republic Without Virtue Cannot Survive

John Adams understood a truth that feels even sharper today: a republic cannot endure without virtue. Writing to Mercy Otis Warren in April 1776, he warned that public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without [private virtue], and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” For Adams, liberty would not be preserved by clever constitutions alone. It depended on citizens who could restrain their selfish impulses for the sake of the common good.

That insight has lost none of its force. Some people do restrain themselves. They accumulate enough to live well and then turn to service, family, or community. Others never stop. Given the chance, they gather wealth and power without limit. Left unchecked, selfishness concentrates material and social resources in the hands of a few, leaving many behind and eroding the sense of shared citizenship on which democracy depends.

Keep ReadingShow less