Patriotism Through Different Lenses

Ask 100 people what epitomizes a turkey sandwich and you will get 100 different answers: ‘all white meat’, ‘all dark meat’, ‘smoked’, ‘broiled’, ‘with cranberries and stuffing’, ‘I’m a vegetarian’, ‘on a bagel’, ‘on toasted white bread with the little olive impaled on a toothpick sticking out the top’, ‘the one I got at a bus station in Canton back in 1981’.

Asking 100 people what defines patriotism will give you an equal number of answers and of varying passion. Contemporary culture seems to define patriotism as political partisanship, a mentality of finger pointing that paints anyone with conflicting viewpoints as “not wit’ us, but agin’ us.”

The word ‘unpatriotic’ is thrown around as willy nilly and with as little basis in fact as a group of 12-year old girls might call another a slut.

On the flip side, the standards by which someone is ‘patriotic’ are defined by the individuals needing to affix that label (a label, like the one on your mattress, that should not be removed under penalty of law) to themselves.

When newspapers dust off their top ten lists of patriotic movies to watch for the 4th of July, the movies are almost always war films.

Are we our most patriotic during times of war?

Is it that the US has become a military industrial complex? Suffice to say, war movies, like a cheap cake frosted red, white and blue, are patriotic by default.

In 1776, one man with a flag single-handedly turned the tide of the entire war… according to Mel Gibson, at least.

Filmmakers have made patriotic films for over 100 years and with different narratives and emotion.

During times of war, movies tended to build up the passions of the country, the pride of those at home and the sacrifice of the soldiers abroad.

Watching that small town guy on the big screen, the one with the baby face that writes home to his best gal, the one he plans on marrying once the war’s over and he can start his own farm where…

OH NO! The small town boy got shot.

But,… the letter, his gal back home, he was gonna… Awww.

The audience is saddened. But, hey, ya know somethin’?

Maybe we can’t be over there fightin’ them dirty *insert derogatory name for enemy* but doggone if we can’t buy war bonds and recycle our bacon grease.

At the end of a John Wayne film, the audience is sad that a character died, but they’re damn proud that those American soldiers are fighting the good and honorable fight. A fight with little to no blood to boot, so it’s fun for the boys to re-enact afterwards!

To counter what is seen as sugarcoating by studios to create a war film that is real, but not too real, there are those filmmakers that will show its audience the horrors of war. Walking out of an Oliver Stone Vietnam film, the horrors of the war and what the soldiers experienced haunts the audience and lingers with them well into the next day. Uh, Mr. Stone, your ‘I’m a Downer’ sign is ready.

Is the Oliver Stone film somehow less patriotic simply because it showcases the reality of war and the horrors committed by American soldiers?

Is the John Wayne film, by its nature of showing GI’s battling overwhelming odds and ultimately overcoming despite a number of wounds that would have slowed a lesser soldier from an inferior country?

“I’ll be damned if 40 bullets in my body will slow me down.”

Of course, the answer is that both are patriotic in their own ways.

One wants to raise the spirits of a nation, the other wants to be honest on behalf of the men that lost their lives for their country.

While war movies remind everyone that, among other things, war is patriotic, there are overlooked movies that should be held up higher in praise because it showcases America and its democracy.

The best example of this is Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

While not a default for many contemporary film lovers, this 1939 Frank Capra film shows what is best and what is worst about our democracy.

Jimmy Stewart’s portrayal of a man who loves his country without question is inspiring. The fact that Mr. Smith is forced to see the seedy underbelly of Congress is difficult even for the viewer. But this portrayal is meant to be a dose of reality to both Mr. Smith and the audience.

Cynicism of our government is standard practice in today’s post-Watergate society, but not in 1939. This was a bold move for its time and why it still resonates with viewers 70 years later.

“I-I-I just looked up the word ‘assholes’ and ya know what I found? I found all of you. Every single one of ya.”

Seeing crooked politicians running our government is not what makes Mr. Smith Goes To Washington patriotic.

No, what makes this film patriotic is that Mr. Smith, despite seeing the ugliness and an overwhelming lack of empathy for the problems of citizens, still believes in America. Mr. Smith refuses to give up on the idea that liberty and freedom and love of country are not just slogans for re-election campaigns. Mr. Smith believes these things to the end, but his view and love of country are simply more grounded in reality.

He looks at the country for what it really is, not what is one side of the coin.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington is the ultimate patriotic film.

The Descendents had a great song titled ‘Merican that puts these same ideas to music.

‘Merican

We flipped our finger to the king of england


Stole our country from the indians


With god on our side and guns in our hands


We took it for our own


A nation dedicated to liberty

Justice and equality


Does it look that way to you?

It doesn’t look that way to me


The sickest joke I know



[Chorus]

Listen up man, I’ll tell you who I am

Just another stupid american


You don’t wanna listen


You don’t wanna understand


So finish up your drink and go home



I come from the land of Ben Franklin


Twain and Poe and Walt Whitman


Otis Redding, Ellington,
The country that I love


But it’s a land of the slaves and the ku klux klan

Haymarket riot and the great depression


Joe McCarthy, Vietnam


The sickest joke I know

[Chorus]

I’m proud and ashamed


Every fourth of july


You got to know the truth


Before you say that you got pride



Now the cops got tanks ’cause the kids got guns


Shrinks pushin’ pills on everyone


Cancer from the ocean, cancer from the sun

Straight to Hell we go