Hollywood produces a lot of liberal, anti-American films. But, occasionally, filmmakers get things right, offering movies and TV shows that showcase the best about our country. In honor of Independence Day, we at NewsBusters compiled five of the most patriotic movie or TV scenes.
They can be serious classics, like the Academy Award-winning Patton. But even schmaltz-y popcorn movies like movies Red Dawn and Rocky IV captured a time when Hollywood actually portrayed the U.S. as a force for good and not evil.
If you are making up a patriotic movie/TV marathon for the long weekend, here's a good place to start.
Rocky IV
"Ludmilla:" (Brigitte Nielsen): You call him a killer. He's a professional fighter, not a killer. We are getting death threats. We are not involved in politics. All I want is for my husband to be safe, and to be treated fairly. You have this belief that you are better than us. You have this belief that this country is so very good and we are so very bad. You have this belief that you are so fair and we are so very cruel.
"Nicoli Koloff" (Michael Pataki) : It's all lies and false propaganda to support this antagonistic and violent government.
"Paulie" (Burt Young): Whoa. Violent? Hey, we don't keep our people behind a wall with machine guns.
"Koloff": Who are you?
"Paulie": Who am I? I'm the unsilent majority, bigmouth.
Red Dawn
"Robert" (C.Thomas Howell) [After stopping the attempted slaughter of Americans by Soviet Union troops.]: Wolverines!
Independence Day
"President Thomas Whitmore" (Bill Pullman): Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!
Patton
Patton (George C. Scott): Men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war... because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.
John Adams
"Abigail Adams" (Laura Linney): [Reading the Declaration of Independence.] And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
[Editor’s note: This article was first published July 4, 2014.]
