10 Films That Explain the United States on Its Birthday

The New York Times put a challenging question to 10 writers to mark the nation's 250th birthday: What is the "definitive" American movie? The result is an eclectic mix of films from 1932 to 2026, and it reiterates that nobody puts Baby in a corner: "A study of class divides, labor, identity, women's rights, healthcare, and more hiding in a frothy coming-of-age romance, Dirty Dancing has all the right moves for understanding postwar America—and a killer soundtrack," writes Melena Ryzik. Here are the 10 films, in no particular order:

• Killer of Sheep, 1978
• There Will Be Blood, 2007
• Dazed and Confused, 1993
• Scarface, 1932
• The Florida Project, 2017
• Nashville, 1975
• Dirty Dancing, 1987
• Zabriskie Point, 1970
• Nothing but a Man, 1964
• Disclosure Day, 2026

Read the full story for explanations of why each film made the cut.