What if it rains on the 4th of July?

I guess you could go to the movies, but how badly do you really want to see the new Transformers movie? I recommend grabbing a few DVDs instead.

We may be a nation of immigrants, but we do not all share the same story. Two films, The Emigrants and its sequel, The New Land, both from the early ’70s, tell the story of a Swedish group who settle in Minnesota in the nineteenth century. These award-winning films are staggeringly beautiful and seem to have been forgotten. It’s a shame. In America tells the story of a contemporary Irish couple who emigrate illegally from Canada to the U.S. It, too, won many accolades and is very worth checking out. Of course, for some, the most classic immigrant tale on film is contained in both parts of The Godfather. Look at those opening scenes of young Vito.

Some people would say a Western sums up the American spirit the best. My Darling Clementine has a beautiful sense of the openness of the West (and the shootout at the O.K. Corral). Red River and Rio Bravo both have John Wayne; the former is often described as Moby-Dick on a cattle drive, and the latter is about as laid-back as a Western can get, seeing that it most appropriately costars Dean Martin. And, if you’re looking for something poignant, Wayne plays a dying man in his last picture, the star-packed The Shootist.

In the category of “What are we fighting for?” I would recommend three musicals. Meet Me In St. Louis is about an average family at the turn of the nineteenth century; they’re named Smith, if you want a guarantee that they’re average. Footlight Parade gives you all the sass of a ’30s musical and shows that Jimmy Cagney was singing and dancing long before there was a part for him in a movie about George M. Cohan. And one of the best transferals of a big Broadway musical to film was this one:

Okay, I know you. You just want some fighting. Now, in Air Force One and Independence Day, you get to see a president of the United States get down and kick some butt. But when he’s not acting as president, I prefer the Harrison Ford action in this movie:

For my money, the most guaranteed entertainment for the day is Casablanca. What could be more American than expatriate Humphrey Bogart finding the hero within himself during wartime? There is no limit to the number of times you can watch this movie and love it. Let’s celebrate it, first, by going over to watch perhaps the most famous scene ever filmed. And, because this is the Internet and we get to mix and match whatever we want, you can watch a different version of the same scene.

Somebody put on some popcorn!