The 30 Most Obscenely Patriotic Movies of All Time
Raise your glass, America. Today is the fourth of July. Independence Day. Your special day. Why not celebrate the occasion with an incredible, ultra-violent spectacle that celebrates the explosive spirit of the country we all claim to love? Do you know how long it lasts?
Patriotism means a lot to a lot of people, and these movies, God bless them, all at least try to illustrate the shining American ideals, albeit with mixed results and some, well, different ideas about what it means to love your country. They all have at least one thing in common: explosions. A lot of them. Wherever these films fall on the American political spectrum, they all largely align with the idea that rugged individualism must be backed by strong firepower. Considering it’s fireworks season anyway, why not sit back and enjoy a movie that lights up the screen with a love for the grand old US of A… as well as things that actually explode well? These are films that don’t just say “America!” They say: “America? Hell yes!”
Independence Day (1996)
Stupid aliens. Are you really going to blow up the White House just a couple of days before the Fourth of July? Do you think America will let this slip away? The aliens certainly didn’t count on the American Rebels to consist of several American rebels, including Marine pilot Will Smith, Gulf War veteran Bill Pullman, tech guy Jeff Goldblum, alcoholic Randy Quaid and Mr. Data from Star Wars. path ” that will resist them. defend our freedom to make stupid one-liners. This thing was such a huge success that it launched a massive disaster movie revival in the mid-1990s ( Armageddon , Vulcan , Deep Impact, etc.), but no one could top it fun and pure spectacle. (This includes the sequel released 20 years later, minus Will Smith .)
Where to watch: Hulu, digital rental.
Air Force One (1997)
In the pantheon of badass movie presidents, Harrison Ford’s James Marshall stands out. There’s a pretty solid setup here: just as Marshall has publicly and unequivocally stated that the US government will not negotiate with terrorists, a group of terrorists take control of Air Force One and threaten the resulting hostages, including the First Family. The villains think the President has been thrown out of the ship, but in fact he is hiding in the cargo hold and there is only one thing left for him to do: get them out of the plane! Look, this isn’t the way to choose a president, but to be honest, I’d probably vote for him.
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
When a North Korean terrorist group takes over the White House, the first thing they naturally do is rip the tattered flag off the roof of the building, stare at it disrespectfully (how dare they?), and then throw it off the roof. from where it slowly descends in all its poignancy and CGI-enhanced glory. The occasional great Antoine Fuqua directs this slightly cheap-looking Die Hard in the White House, starring Gerard Butler as a disgraced former Secret Service agent who becomes the only one who can save the President (and the country) from terrorists. A great cast (Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart and Angela Bassett) elevate this brutal, mediocre but highly entertaining action film.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Under Siege (1992)
The USS Missouri (the third US Navy ship of that name) had a long and distinguished career before being towed to Pearl Harbor and turned into a memorial. It also has a prominent (if eclectic) place in pop culture: among other things, it was featured in the 2012 film Battleship (more on that in a moment), and was also the setting for Cher’s slightly risqué video for “If” I Could Turn Back in Time.” But he probably got the most screen time in this 1992 Steven Seagal vehicle. Mirroring the ship’s true history, President George H. W. Bush decommissions it (true) just in time for terrorists led by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey to seize it for nefarious purposes (less true). Only Seagal, playing a brave ship’s cook, can stop them (completely untrue).
Where to watch: digital rental.
White House Down (2013)
Director Roland Emmerich appears on this list for the second time (after Independence Day ), and not the last. Following the President’s (Jamie Foxx) efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, a cabal of white supremacists led by James Woods launches an attack on the Capitol building (if you can imagine), sending DC into isolation. Luckily, a Marine veteran, a Capitol Police officer, and jersey star Channing Tatum are on hand as Woods and company try to kidnap the President and take over the White House to start a nuclear war with Iran out of revenge or whatever. . It’s a very solid action movie, but we didn’t come here for the plot: we came for the explosions and Channing Tatum’s ever-shrinking wardrobe. There was definitely something in the air when it came out around the same time as Olympus Has Fallen .
Where to watch: Netflix, Hulu, digital rental.
Street Fighter (1994)
Yes, technically Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Guile works for the Allied Nations and not the US Air Force (as in the video games), and yes, he goes through the entire movie with an impenetrable Belgian accent. However, by the time the camera zooms in on his American flag tattooed bicep during the climactic fight with Raul Julia, it’s clear that Guile is 100% a true American hero.
(By the way, this movie has a surprisingly impressive cast: JCVD, Julia, Ming-Na Wen… even Kylie Minogue. Street Fighter was without a doubt a big deal in the 1990s.)
Where to watch: digital rental.
Green Berets (1968)
John Wayne, best known as an actor and draft dodger during World War II, sat in the director’s chair for this film—a film he passionately intended to make to counter Lily’s anti-war sentiments. The careless cowards are becoming increasingly disillusioned with America’s role in Vietnam. David Janssen plays a reporter troubled by the conflict, at least until he becomes part of the fictional Colonel Wayne Beckworth. At this point, we go with them into the heart of the Vietnam War and learn that the conflict is not complicated at all. It’s more of a Starship Troopers- style battle between the good (the Americans) and the bad (the Vietnamese communists, led by a young, clearly not Vietnamese, George Takei). The bad guys don’t deserve our mercy or due process, so it’s better to just shoot them more often. As is the case with Native Americans in Westerns. The film was a decent success, but was almost universally panned, rightly judged to be offensive and laughable.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Gymkata (1985)
American Olympian Kurt Thomas stars in this 1985 film directed by Robert Klaus, best known for Enter the Dragon . Here, Thomas plays Jonathan Cabot, tasked by American intelligence to infiltrate the secluded, aptly named country of Parmistan. The country holds a so-called “Game” every year, and the winner receives a wish. The Americans hope that Cabot will be able to take part and win, after which his cherished desire will be fulfilled: an American satellite monitoring station on the territory of Parmistan. To help him, he will be trained in the unstoppable martial arts skills of gymnastics (The Thrill of Gymnastics! Karate Killing!), which he will need to defeat anti-American terrorists, win the heart of the country’s princess, and get us the satellite monitoring station we’ve always been talking about dreamed.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Battleship (2012)
You might not have guessed that a relatively simple tweak to Hasbro’s favorite board game could yield enough material for a movie. And you’d be absolutely right: they did have to start more or less from scratch to pull out an alien-centric plot from a non-alien guessing strategy game. While Taylor Kitsch is assigned to the USS John Paul Jones and Alexander Skarsgård commands the Sampson , an alien spaceship from “Planet G” threatens the world, but especially the waters around Oahu. It’s a reference to the game’s mechanics where the joint Japanese and American forces realize they can track invading warships with tsunami warning buoys, but basically the whole thing is an excuse for some Transformers -style naval action. However, it is a good sign of the times that Japanese and American ships are joining forces in the waters around Pearl Harbor.
Where to watch: Netflix, digital rental.
Rambo III (1988)
Rocky and Rambo , two beloved franchises led by Sylvester Stallone, had similar trajectories: each started on a relatively sensitive and thoughtful note, but in the opinion of the fanatical Reagan of the mid-1980s, subtlety was thrown out the window. The starting point in what would become the Rambo series, First Blood , focused on overcoming Vietnam-era PTSD, while the second sent Rambo after forgotten prisoners of war. Number Three sends him to Afghanistan to rescue an old friend, while taking sides in the long-running conflict between the Soviet Union and Afghan mujahideen rebels, cutting through Soviet troops with a machine gun and a rocket launcher. and creating a record number of victims (literally! Guinness World Records named it the most violent film ever made in 1990). This was not just a fantasy—support for Afghan militant groups had been a central element of US anti-Soviet planning for more than a decade; in some ways, it’s Stallone bringing dry government policy to life for kids who act out American imperialism through toys, comics, and video games based on the film.
And yeah, okay, many of those Afghan fighters went on to form the core of what would become the Taliban, so that element hasn’t aged very well yet. But the moment when Rambo blows up the helicopter with his bow and arrow is timeless, so everything balances out. Right?
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
James Stewart plays Jefferson Smith, a newly appointed senator whose naivety begins as a weakness and then becomes the basis of the ideals that prevent him from becoming just another corrupt politician. It may seem impolite to include this sweet, inspiring comedy-drama in the same breath as films like Rambo , but Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’s greatest conceit is that one good old American can clean up the entire crooked system by standing up for his rights. beliefs—seems less like a charming ideal and more like a depressing reminder that it’s virtually impossible to get anything done here.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Rocky IV (1985)
By the way, all the first Rocky films work on different levels, but by the third the formula got boring, and so the fourth took a risk, going too far (not to be confused with “Too” ) patriotically, and it bore fruit: the series collected the biggest box office receipts before or after. After boxer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren’s upcoming He-Man) literally kills Apollo Creed, who has the entire Soviet Union behind him, rugged maverick Rocky breaks down, forcing Drago to agree to an unsanctioned match in the USSR. It’s all presented in a great, unforgettable training montage for all time: while Drago trains with a whole team, modern equipment and the best steroids that communism had to offer, Rocky does it the old-fashioned way: chopping down trees. and pretending to be a dog, pulling Paulie on a sleigh. Like a damn man.
Without giving too much away, in the finale Rocky captivates the Soviet public and earns the applause of Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev himself. And this is the story of the fall of communism.
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
Miracle (2004)
As several Rocky movies have taught us so amply, the best way to defeat the Soviet Union and the treacherous threat of communism is through sports. What… given the choice between sports and global thermonuclear war… yes, let’s play sports. “Miracle” tells the roughly true story of the victory that became known as the “Miracle on Ice” when Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) and the United States men’s ice hockey team defeated the highly successful Soviet team at the 1980 Winter Olympics. in Lake Placid, thus ending the Cold War forever and ushering in a lasting era of peace with the USSR. This movie doesn’t break any new ground when it comes to inspiring sports movie imagery, but it is very nostalgic and inspiring.
Where to watch: Disney+, digital rental.
Missing (1984)
Made at the same time as Rambo: First Blood Part II , Missing in Action was probably the second most successful film of the 1980s to explore the issues of prisoners of war and missing persons potentially remaining in Southeast Asia (although these were not the only two films). The premise is similar: here Chuck Norris travels to Vietnam to investigate reports of American soldiers remaining captured in Vietnam. He finds them and then fights his way out. Resolving the fate of missing service members was a major issue in the 1980s (and rightly so), but it is unclear whether these popular spectacles helped raise awareness or simply satisfied a thirst for retribution.
Where to watch: Cinemax, digital purchase.
Live Free or Die Strong (2007)
Like any action movie worth its salt, the Die Hard movies tend to get bigger, louder and more ridiculous as they go along – and that’s certainly true of Live Free or Die Hard , which sees regular ex-cop John McClane entering superhero territory … but in fact it is. represents a fair balance between the earlier, (slightly) more grounded films and the over-the-top (and rather terrible) fifth installment. In this film, America’s entire cyber infrastructure is under threat from the vengeful Timothy Olyphant, and since the villain controls the computers, McClane will have to stop him the old-fashioned way . With weapons and so on. This one scored average in “Ra-ra-America!” scale, but a million extra points for the excellent title pun.
Where to watch: Paramount+, digital rental.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Look, I went to the Pearl Harbor Memorial – it’s an overwhelming emotional experience that doesn’t make you wonder if it would have been better if the focus had been on a campy, sitcom-level romantic triangle? But hey! This is a movie, not a history lesson!
Not even a little. It’s long and noisy, but certainly intense enough to make a great Independence Day time killer. Or you can just watch From Here to Eternity.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Despite being an incredibly witty metaphor for American military power, Captain America is pretty cool. It’s not as cool in the movies as the comic book version, which started its career by punching Hitler in the jaw, but the fights with the Nazis are still enough to root for.
Where to watch: Disney+, digital rental.
How the West Was Won (1962)
This sprawling, slightly silly epic is a big deal in every way: five directors, a giant ensemble of big Hollywood names (Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, etc.) and a three-lens Cinerama filming process designed for projection. on a huge curved proto-IMAX screen. It is also epic in time, starting in 1839 and continuing for the next half century. It’s a funny but completely unsophisticated look at American westward expansion, presenting the process as a series of family problems and setbacks for white settlers rather than a grim, complex, and brutal series of conquests for indigenous peoples.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Red Dawn (1984)
The culmination of the slogan “The Communists are coming for us!” The Red Dawn action subgenre became such a cult classic that there was even (somehow) a post-Soviet remake featuring the Chinese invasion of North Korea . The original became a cult classic thanks to its relatively simple production, Rambo , but with teenagers, is the perfect suburban fantasy that’s both timeless and 1980s- inspired . A foreign army has invaded, the government has collapsed, and only you and your friends can stop them! it’s a premise that works in any era. (But especially the ’80s.) It’s all done with incredible seriousness, which only helps sell the concept (and amp up the cheese factor).
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
Invasion USA (1985)
This Chuck Norris machine starts out fake: a boatload of Cuban refugees (or “refugees”) is greeted by the welcoming American Coast Guard… except it’s not the Coast Guard, but Latin American communists who are killing them for cocaine. that they were engaged in smuggling. Once on the mainland, the partisans team up with Soviet operatives and together plan attacks across America (for: reasons). Naturally, when they blow up Chuck Norris’ house, they find out they got the wrong guy. Norris intended this to be a message film about a real and current threat, but I’m not sure politics and social messages are ever a reason to watch a Chuck Norris film. Where to stream: Tubi, MGM+
National Treasure (2004)
The hunt for Lincoln’s gold has begun! Or something like that. For generations, family members of Benjamin Franklin Gates have passed on a secret – apparently there is a huge secret treasure that the spendthrift businessmen who ran the country around 1776 decided to hide rather than spend, a fact revealed to the ancestor of (real life) founder Charles Carroll. (We are assured that this accumulated wealth was transferred from ancient empires and had absolutely nothing to do with the 1,000 or so enslaved people Carroll kept to do his work for him). Historian Ben, played by true national treasure Nicolas Cage, realizes that there is a treasure map of sorts on the back of the Declaration of Independence ! Which he will have to steal! It’s an action-packed tour through something vaguely reminiscent of American history.
Where to watch: Disney+, digital rental.
300 (2007)
We love the Spartans. Love them. There’s even a name for it: laconophilia. So while Zack Snyder’s 300 (based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynne Varley) is set more than 2,000 years before the founding of the United States, it presents a distinctly American, Westernized fantasy of fighting righteously to the last. There’s a reason it was made during the Bush II era: Shot right in the middle of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s hard not to see the film’s East-versus-West themes as allegorical. In real life (perhaps surprisingly), it was the Spartan constitution and mixed government that had the greatest influence on the framers of the US Constitution, not the buttered chests: this ancient nation usually had two kings, one of whom balanced the power of the other; the kings controlled mainly military matters, while the national assembly and two elected legislatures made all day-to-day decisions and could usually overrule the decision of one or both kings. However, what we like most today is that they are in good shape and don’t let anyone take their guns. To broadly paraphrase the Athenian Pericles: our heritage is not carved in stone; it’s what others think about it.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Top Gun (1986)
In real life and in the movies, the TOPGUN program for Navy pilots is for the best of the best and, presumably, those with a thirst for speed. Although the film is heavily fictionalized, it pays tribute to naval aviators by following “Maverick” (Tom Cruise) as he undergoes training and spends time with flight instructor Kelly McGillis. Not only is it a fun Fourth of July movie, but it’s also a pretty good start to the long-awaited , less fun, but Best Picture-nominated(!) sequel.
Where to watch: Paramount+, digital rental.
Midway (2019)
In some ways, it’s hard not to see this film as an unofficial sequel to Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor, focusing instead on the pivotal Battle of Midway (though including Bay’s and the film’s director’s own take on the attack on Pearl Harbor). , Roland Emmerich, have many stylistic similarities. As raucous action films, they’re on about the same level, with Midway leaning even further toward video game-style digital set pieces. This film scores points for achieving a level of historical accuracy that the previous film did not, and it places a much greater emphasis on realism. It’s not the best film about the Pacific Theater, but it is one of the most accurate.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Ironically (at least in part), Quentin Tarantino constructs a violent alternate history fantasy about competing plots to kill Hitler. Tarantino’s films have such a level of prestige (and star power) that the pictures he pays homage to can’t compete, but there are still hints of exploitation classics that imagine righteous victories when real-life circumstances were a little more difficult. Here, a Jewish group of American soldiers pursue the Fuhrer, leading to an unexpected climax. Tarantino pulled a similar trick with 2012’s Django Unchained .
Where to watch: digital rental.
Commando (1985)
One of the defining figures of American style in the 1980s was, oddly enough, an Austrian bodybuilder. Yes, before proving his American bona fides by becoming governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger often portrayed American superhero soldiers. And also Conan. Here he plays a retired special forces colonel whose daughter is kidnapped by a Latin American dictator played, incredibly, by Dan Hedaya. It wouldn’t be much of a spoiler to say that President Hedaya Arius will regret this.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Uncle Sam (1996)
Horror’s hardest-working hack (with love), the great (very rare) Larry Cohen scripted this Fourth of July slasher in an attempt to fill the horror niche by creating a memorable villain around a holiday that has been largely neglected by horror. For a good ten to twenty minutes, this story about an American soldier in Kuwait who is killed by friendly fire and returns for revenge seems like it will lean heavily into anti-war and anti-militarist themes. But all this is quickly forgotten as our bloodthirsty Master Sergeant begins killing anyone and everyone, regardless of their political beliefs. And if that’s not the American dream, I don’t know what is.
Where to watch: Shudder, Tubi, Prime Video.
Patriot (2000)
Roland Emmerich’s career has tended to oscillate between spectacular action films ( Independence Day ) and slightly more thoughtful films (Shakespearean drama Anonymous ). “The Patriot” splits the difference by taking an emotional, action-movie approach to the Revolutionary War: Mel Gibson’s fictional Benjamin Martin becomes embroiled in the fight against the British, forming a guerrilla force to try to bring back his captive son. The film dances rather gleefully around ugly historical realities, including turning slave owners into egalitarians, but is nothing more than a typical American history textbook. The key here might be the scene where Benjamin uses the flag as an actual weapon, ending up impaling the horse on the flagpole (so it’s a British horse, so it’s okay).
Where to watch: MGM+, digital rental.
Invasion, USA (1952)
No, we haven’t done that yet: it’s primarily the 1952 Red Scare, unrelated to the Chuck Norris film, although they do share the theme of a communist invasion. Here a group of fools in a bar discuss the reasons why they don’t want to take on the communists: a manufacturer thinks tractors are more profitable than tanks; a cattle baron complains about high taxes; a fashion model moans that working in the war has ruined her hands. Well, let me tell you, comrade, they are all in for quite a big surprise when they are told on television that the Russians have just atomic bombed Alaska. If that doesn’t make them change their tune, an unnecessarily cool ending will.
Where to stream: Tubi, MGM+
GI Joe: The Movie (1987)
Not as successful or memorable as the animated Transformers film, which came out around the same time, GI Joe takes the team into battle against the Cobra’s predecessor, an ancient race of snake-men known as the Cobra-la. and their new leader Golobul. Instead of following all of this, you can probably just watch the opening scene that made me gay, a celebration of American fighters (and one woman!) that combines bazookas, sequins, aerial acrobatics and extended crotch shots in a musical . an extravaganza that, in my opinion, has no analogues in the history of patriotic cinema. Cobra isn’t just a ruthless terrorist organization, they’re also embroiled in flying dance battles. Go Joe!
Where to watch: Digital purchase.