My foray into American History

So, I've decided that I absolutely love my American history class. For much of the semester, I was still reserved about a lot of the method used in this class, and about why everyone I talked to said that this professor is ridiculously brilliant. I now join that chorus. I think every Canadian, or at least every Canadianist, should have to take this course.

This course is the intellectual and cultural history of the United States, and so we delve into the country's founding myths and into its main historical struggles. This course has entirely changed the way I watch movies. Chris and I were watching The Iron Giant the other night (birthday/Christmas hint: not only do I desperately want Lynn Trusse's Talk to the Hand, but Iron Giant Special Edition is out on DVD) and I suddenly had the realisation: the Iron Giant is the American Adam. It's perfect how much he fits into R.W.B. Lewis's paradigm, almost as if Herman Melville had written the movie. Cut off from his past (by a bump on his head), the Giant spends most of his time in the forest, to be harmed by his encounter with society, but is redeemed by sacrificing himself for that society. It's Billy Budd all over again!

So, these are the kinds of rants that Chris gets to hear, as a result of me taking this class. This week we dealt with the troubled history of the Civil War and race (taking from David Blight's Race and Reunion), and now I want to re-watch Remember the Titans, for the scene when they all stand on the battlefield in Gettysburg.

As I approach the end of the semester, however, I have a few problems. First, for next week I'm supposed to pick a movie that reflects the issues that we've discussed in the class (exceptionalism, success myth, frontier myth, Civil War and race), watch it and then discuss it with the class. Which one should I watch? I shouldn't have told the group about the Iron Giant as American Adam, because I really should watch something else, because I've made all my points already. Pick me a movie!

My other problem is picking the topic for my final essay. We have a choice between discussing the role of the Success Myth in American cultural and intellectual history, or reflecting on the usage of collective memory in the study of American history. I've never had a tougher choice.