American Cinema

I have a friend here at school from Moldova, which is according to the World Values Survey the unhappiest nation in the world. Somehow we have now come to call Moldova "The Dark Kingdom" and my friend was briefly "The Dark Prince," both of which are hysterically funny things to me, but maybe you had to be there.

Anyway. he picked up a DVD on the way to class today. It is a 1979 movie called "Stalker," which upon inspection turned out to be Russian, and in Russian. I have since learned it is on IMDB's Top 250 movies of all time.

Jokingly, I asked The Dark Prince if American cinema wasn't good enough for him. As sometimes happens, he interpreted this as an invitation to bash the good old US of A, which I always defend because I'm a patriot. He told me that American movies are all "cliched;" he had seen five this year, "and four were crap." After exposing his straw man argument (if you go to I Am Legend, it's your own fault), I have made for your viewing a list of American things, including the non-crap movie, that I know The Dark Prince truly approves of:

1. Metallica.
2. Professional Hockey (Carolina is in America and on local TV, so it counts).
3. Freshmen/sophomore girls.
4. The prevalence of trucks. Like, 18-wheelers.
5. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.