Back when schools taught civics (and penmanship), a common assignment was to write an essay titled “What America Means to Me.” And every July Fourth, newspaper editors assign similar essays to their reporters. In Friday’s paper, I have a column about the movies that best represent our country–not necessarily the most patriotic movies, or the best movies by American directors, but movies that allude to what we used to call “the American dream.”

Here’s the complete version of my syllabus for a month-long American Cinema 101 course, in chronological order.

“Modern Times”

“The Grapes of Wrath”

“Citizen Kane”

“The Ox-Bow Incident”

“It’s a Wonderful Life”

“Ace in the Hole”

“Giant”

“A Face in the Crowd”

“To Kill a Mockingbird”

“The Graduate”

“In the Heat of the Night”

“Easy Rider”

“Little Big Man”

“McCabe and Mrs. Miller”

“The Last Picture Show”

“The Godfather, Part One”

“Chinatown”

“The Godfather, Part Two”

“Bound for Glory”

“Days of Heaven”

“The King of Comedy”

“Tucker: The Man and His Dream”

“Norma Rae”

“Do the Right Thing”

“Boyz n the Hood”

“JFK”

“Smoke Signals”

“Erin Brockovich”

“Gangs of New York”

“The Aviator”

“Good Night, and Good Luck”

A recurring them in many of these movies (”The Grapes of Wrath,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Smoke Signals”) is that America sometimes does not live up to its ideals of equal rights and a level playing field. Another is that sometimes those who achieve the America dream discover that material success has hidden costs. (”Citizen Kane,” “Giant,” “The Godfather.”)

I feel fortunate to live in a country that has produced such movies. Perhaps this weekend, Mrs. Williams, Junior, Sis, Fido and myself will fire up the projector and the home-grown popcorn to work our way down the list.