Over the Fourth of July weekend Turner Classic Movies devoted a good portion of air time to movies with patriotic themes.
TCM’s offering spanned the breadth of our nation’s existence. The list of movies below is my estimation of the best movies set during colonial times, be they in America, India or Africa.
Yes, parts, if not all, of some films are not politically correct by today’s standards. Nevertheless, they are grand cinema. Enjoy them for what they are, not for what our current woke sensibilities demands them to be:
Drums Along the Mohawk
Allegheny Uprising
1776
The Crucible
Last of the Mohicans (1936 and 1992 versions)
Unconquered
Northwest Passage
The Devil’s Disciple
Captain Blood
Mark of Zorro (1940)
Mask of Zorro (1998)
Zorro, The Gay Blade
The Four Feathers (1939)
Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Gunga Din
The Man Who Would Be King
Ghandi
A Passage to India
Out of Africa
The English Patient
The African Queen
The Battle of Algiers
Morocco
Beau Geste (1939)
