1.
**American History X** one of the most powerful movies on racism in modern day **America.**  The setting here is not some remote small town in the Deep South, its a prosperous, well to do, suburb in California, one of the more liberal states. This is a movie that showcases racism in the US is well alive, Ed Norton was brilliant in the role of a Neo Nazi skinhead who undergoes a transformation after a term in prison. But he now has to deal with his younger brother, who has turned racist.

**To Kill a Mockingbird,** a powerful, often incisive look at racism in the Deep South during the 30's.  Gregory Peck deserved the Oscar for his compelling  performance as Atticus Finch, the man who stands up for the black man, Tom Robinson, wrongly accused of rape. The movie was a great look at the concepts of justice, the racism in the Deep South, how Black people were looked down upon.

**Little Miss Sunshine** was a brilliant satire on a whole lot of issues, the beauty paegant culture, the dysfunctional family trying to get it's act together, the American love for hopping across the country.  How a dysfunctional family gets it's act together to help out the smallest member in their family to win a contest, and in the process rediscovering themselves. The way the movie rips apart the American obsession with "winning" at any cost, and the memorable climax scene,  makes this one of the best.

More than the Godfather, to me Scarface  represented  the American culture as it was. Ostensibly a gangster movie, but the movie could as well have applied equally to the Wall Street traders or Hollywood moguls, with it's not so subtle broadsides on the get rich quick. The down at heels migrant from Cuba, rising to the top by hook or crook, getting the girl and money, but in the end losing his soul, addicted to drugs, a dig at the American dream, which can be an American nightmare at times.

With American Beauty being mentioned by most, I go for another favorite of mine in the "suburbia" genre, Ghost World. A quirky, satirical take on the American suburb, through the eyes of two teen girls, and their growing up angst, remains  one of the best movies in recent times. Two social outcasts Enid( Thora Birch), an aspiring art student, and Rebecca( a much younger Scarlett Johansonn), and their attempts to get along in the suburbia.

**Pulp  Fiction** is something that is quintessentially American, right from the title itself, that  refers to those cheap novels sold at bookstores with their lurid tales of women, sex, violence, thrills. I would call this movie a primer on American pop culture,  exploring every thing that the Yanks seem to love. The roadside diners, the Jack Rabbit Slims dance and those whole set of references to American pop culture. 

While any movie by the Coen Brothers could make it to the list, I recomended **Fargo** as it was the first of their movies that I watched. Not many directors have captured small town, rural America as well as the Coens have done, and Fargo is one of them. The husband wanting to do away with his wife, pair of bumbling crooks, and a pregnant cop, all set in a snow swept Mid Western town.

More than the 15 minute, opening battle scene, what impressed me the most was the very plot. The US Govt sending a team to locate the character, due to it's  policy of  each family having at least one surviving character, how much does it value the life of it's citizens.

While there have been many great sports movies down the years, Rocky was the best of all. The underdog, coming from nowhere, defeating the champion, going for glory, the kind of stuff, Americans love.