American Poll

Re3: Yes, that’s was my feeling too – ‘instant classic’ quickly downgraded when people realised that it was often laughable (the much-parodied plastic bag scene) or tedious (the whole of the main bloke’s midlife crisis and sexually fantasising, all very sub-Updike and Roth, as if those guys weren’t bad enough). And that people also realised that Mendes is a lousy film director.
But clearly not.

Re9: I occasionally feel I should give Updike another go now that I am middle-aged, but there’s always something more appealing to read first.

Yes, ‘American_______ ‘ titles are very odd. Filmmakers from other countries somehow manage to tell important stories without presuming or appending specifically national significance. Evidently since at least the revolutionary/founding fathers generation a big part of being American has been to bang on about being American, and this titling trend (which only really kicked off in the ’70s with ‘American Graffiti’, itself a lovely, unpompous title) manifests and continues that self-obsessed, self-mythologizing streak in the national character.

I do think that films with an article (definite or indefinite) before ‘American’ are innocent bystanders here – it’s descriptive rather than declamatory. Although in The American Friend, Ripley is far from incidentally American – he’s hyper-Yank, as seen through a German Pop Art-ish perspective.

American Gangster is the one I feel leans most on the heft it hopes that the adjective provides – this isn’t just another crime movie, it hopes we believe, this is a Godfather-weight epic, surely, otherwise why would you sit through 158 minutes of this? Whereas in American Hustle, American Splendour and American Movie, there’s irony at play in the title.

Also, as noted, a number of these titles had done the rounds – American Beauty is the name of a Grateful Dead album as well as the rose that’s on the cover of that record and in the movie. American Gothic, too, has had multiple uses.

Best of the bunch? I think The American Friend just shades it over American Psycho, although I’m perfectly happy with the current punters’ choice of An American Werewolf In London.