America’s nearly two-and-a-half century story is not all sunshine and rainbows. But hey, you’d probably make some mistakes too if you were 250 years old. While we have so much to be proud of, the shameful treatment of soldiers before, during, and after the Vietnam War is not one of them. The second film in Oliver Stone’s unofficial Vietnam trilogy, “Born on the Fourth of July,” tells this essential, if painful, story with a biopic of Vietnam veteran turned anti-war protester Ron Kovic. 

If you’re a young viewer who only knows Tom Cruise as the vampire man from the “Mission: Impossible” films who still does life-threatening stunts in his early 60s, it’ll be a revelation to see what a powerful actor he was in his late 20s. “Born on the Fourth of July” remains one of Cruise’s best performances, nearly four decades since its release, but he owes much of that to his director. Stone is a decorated Vietnam veteran himself, and imbues his war films with a pathos and authenticity that only a veteran can. “Born on the Fourth of July” isn’t an easy watch, but it is a necessary one, on Independence Day or any day.

Contrary to popular belief, America’s independence from the British Empire was not won by General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, or even the U.S. Army itself, but single-handedly by Mel Gibson. Glad I could clear that up. Okay, “The Patriot” does turn the entire Revolutionary War into an action-packed revenge pic, but y’know what … So what? Don’t watch “The Patriot” as a history lesson, but because it’s a really awesome way to spend two hours and 45 minutes. 

The master of disaster, Roland Emmerich, may hail from Stuttgart, Germany, but the dude loves the red, white, and blue, as he’s the only director with two movies on this list. Four years after he showcased humanity taking down space invaders in “Independence Day,” he celebrated America taking on Redcoats by way of Benjamin Martin (Gibson), a widowed farmer with a dark past (basically, Det. Martin Riggs from “Lethal Weapon,” but in colonial South Carolina) who discovers the best way to protect his family is to secure a young nation’s freedom. Hell. Yeah. If you love America, or really love shoot ’em ups, “The Patriot” is worth fighting for. 

America loves a comeback story, and few filmmakers in Hollywood have had a bigger one than Ben Affleck. The dude behind duds like “Reindeer Games,” “Jersey Girl,” and the most notorious bomb of all, “Gigli” was well on his way to being a “Jeopardy” category under “Guys Who Used To Be Famous,” but managed to go from “box office poison” to Academy Award winner in less than a decade. The reason was “Argo.” 

The 2013 Best Picture winner stars Affleck as Tony Mendez, a CIA extractor charged with rescuing six American hostages who escaped the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. Mendez comes up with the genius idea of posing as a Canadian film crew scouting locations in Iran for their cheesy sci-fi flick, “Argo.” If it sounds too crazy to be true, it’s not. “Argo” is worth a watch anytime, but especially merits inclusion during your July 4 movie marathon as it celebrates American heroism and ingenuity. While the director of “Gigli” saw his career unceremoniously ended, I’m certainly thankful Ben Affleck didn’t.

I’m putting any Rambo movie here because, well, you should watch any of the five John Rambo movies on the 4th of July. Or heck, you could just turn Independence Day into “John Rambo Day” and watch all of them, just like the Founding Fathers intended. That said, which one you watch depends on your mood. You could go with the somber and serious “First Blood,” the awesomely ’80s action pic “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” the one-man-army insanity of “Rambo III,” or the “badass old guy has still got it” legacy sequels “Rambo” and “Rambo: Last Blood.” 

Really, any (or all) of them will do. John Rambo was born from the brain of novelist David Morrell for his 1972 action-thriller novel, but Morrell was thinking too small and decided to *gasp* kill off his main character! While that ending was totally in line with the bleak worldview of the early 1970s, it was out of fashion by the early 1980s. “First Blood” director Ted Kotcheff and star and co-screenwriter Sylvester Stallone rightly believed killing Rambo would be a major bummer. Worse, it’d deprive us of sequels. While the first is obviously the best, each “Rambo” adventure is sweet.

The setup (and appeal) of “Air Force One” is summed up by the poster: “Harrison Ford is President of the United States.” Because even during times of division and discord, there’s one thing every red-blooded American can all agree on: Harrison Ford should be President. Or at least, his “America’s Dad” movie persona, in the form of President James Marshall. Alas, watching Ford, or anyone for that matter, sign legislation into law and make speeches to donors at $500-a-plate rubber chicken dinners would be pretty boring. 

Thankfully, “Air Force One” gives us President Ford fighting commie radicals who hijack his plane, kidnap his family, and hold the most powerful person in the free world hostage unless he frees some bad guy from prison. Too bad they picked the wrong POTUS. If that weren’t enough, the villain is played by Gary Oldman in one of his most underappreciated (but oh so hammy) performances. Also, “Air Force One” gave us one of the greatest Harrison Ford movie quotes. What more do you need? Just go watch “Air Force One” already!

“Saving Private Ryan” is one of the best movies of the ’90s and one of the greatest war movies ever made. It should also be a Best Picture winner, but that’s another story (sorry “Shakespeare In Love” fans, but come on!). In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, our culture lost perspective on just how bloody and brutal World War II was. Steven Spielberg managed to teach a new generation that just because World War II was a “good” war, it didn’t come without an incredible cost, one borne most deeply by the everyday men sacrificing life and limb to fight it. 

“Saving Private Ryan” famously features one of the most graphic (and thus effective) battle scenes in film history, and all in the first 30 minutes. While the film is rightly celebrated for the Normandy invasion, what follows is the criminally underappreciated rest of the movie, an old-school “men-on-a-mission” war movie, but one imbued with profound pathos. “Saving Private Ryan” honors the greatest generation who fought and died nearly a century ago; a great way to celebrate Independence Day.

“So-and-so was born to play _____” is a phrase thrown around to the point of cliche. But it certainly applies to George C. Scott’s Academy Award-winning performance in the title role of “Patton.” Numerous big names were rumored to be up for the part, including Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, Rod Steiger, and John Wayne. While I could maybe see Steiger pulling it off, I’m glad I live in a timeline where Scott plays the part. Rarely if ever has an actor better embodied his character’s personality and contradictions than Scott did in “Patton.” 

General Patton had a nickname as “Old Blood and Guts,” and he earned it. He was colorful, charismatic, a total bully, and indisputably one of the key reasons the Allies were victorious in the most consequential conflict in human history. Just because the good guys won doesn’t mean every one of them was a “good” guy, and “Patton” doesn’t shy away from showing the general’s darker side, such as slapping a shellshocked soldier with PTSD and sending him to the front lines. But “Patton” also makes clear we needed battle-hardened warriors like Patton to win World War II.

The Civil War was the bloodiest in American history, taking the lives of anywhere from 620,000 to 750,000 men. More Americans lost their lives in that four-year conflict than any other before or since, but that tends to happen when it’s brothers fighting brothers, in a clash to end the miserable institution of slavery. No film could possibly convey the enormity of the conflict, but few films come closer than “Glory.” 

Matthew Broderick stars as Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the young commander of the United States’ first all-Black regiment. While watching Ferris Bueller command men in the field of battle (“Glory” came out just three years after the John Hughes classic) seems like a stretch, Broderick serves as the film’s emotional heart. Meanwhile, Morgan Freeman does what Morgan Freeman does best as the movie’s moral center. But the movie’s spirit belongs to Denzel Washington in an Oscar-winning role as escaped slave Trip, an understandably angry man whose raw, feral energy hides a deep-seated bitterness. Add all of these elements, plus Edward Zwick’s sweeping filmmaking and James Horner’s powerful score, and you have one of the best Civil War movies ever made.

Apologies to Martin Scorsese, but we couldn’t have a summer movie list without including at least one superhero movie, now could we? The question is, which one? I considered giving props to the big blue Boy Scout who stands for “truth, justice, and the American way,” or maybe the yellow lasso-twirling, red, white, and blue-wearing heroine of Themiscyra. But I opted for a film with the superhero who literally has “America” in his name: “Captain America: The First Avenger.” 

I’ve lost count on how many Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (25? 30? 40? 400?) have come out since this 2011 flick, which was the fifth film in Marvel’s Phase 1 and the last before “The Avengers” broke all the records and changed everything. If you decide to rewatch “Captain America,” you’ll find it holds up, not only as an early entry in the long-running mega-franchise but on its own as an old-fashioned summer blockbuster. You don’t need to know what happens to enjoy Cap; you just need to love Steve Rogers’ heroism, idealism, patriotism, sense of right and wrong, and willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good.

Is there any story more American than Sylvester Stallone’s “rags-to-riches” tale? Rarely has a creator’s story paralleled their creations more than Stallone and Rocky Balboa. Similar to how “The Italian Stallion” was a journeyman pugilist who thought his shot at stardom had passed him by, Stallone was a young, but often out-of-work actor who wasn’t getting cast in the parts he wanted (or really any parts, period), so he wrote his own, making himself a movie star in the process. 

America loves an underdog, but it also loves a winner. Good thing the “Rocky” and “Creed” franchises are about both. You could do a six-film “Rocky” marathon, a three-film “Creed” countdown, or heck, if you feel like you can go the distance, just watch all nine to get the complete story. But if you’re pressed for time (or want to watch some of the others on this list), I recommend sticking with the 1976 original. Besides winning Best Picture, it set the stage for the entire franchise and introduced us to one of our country’s most inspirational cinematic heroes.

Jimmy Stewart is cinema’s all-American Everyman, while Frank Capra is the ultimate immigrant story. Together, the two became one of the greatest actor-director collaborators in movie history, despite only making three films. Their second film, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” is a big reason why. Of course, so is their third collaboration, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” but save that one for Christmas. 

It seems like every election season, some fresh-faced, bright-eyed up-and-comer heads to Washington, D.C., using Jefferson Smith (Stewart) as his patron saint. Invariably — and inevitably — the would-be Mr. Smith comes up short. But that’s kinda the point. Even in 1939, Jefferson Smith was an ideal whom cynical Washington colleagues considered to be a rube and naif. They thought nobody could be that innocent, that decent, that honest … and perhaps in the real world, they’d be right. But in the movies, a guy like Jefferson Smith can exist. So even if you never run for office, characters like Mr. Smith give us all an ideal to strive for.

At first blush, a British film about a Royal Monarch may seem like a strange fit for this list, but consider the subject matter — King George III, the last English King to rule over the American colonies. Some scholars speculate that King George’s “madness” was brought on by the blood disorder porphyria, which contributed to his erratic and eccentric behavior and tyrannical treatment of the American colonies. 

The 1994 dramedy biopic “The Madness of King George” stars Nigel Hawthorne as the titular tyrant, who goes back and forth between completely confused, totally temperamental, and downright daffy. While the doctors of the day attempt different cures, his wife, Queen Charlotte (Helen Mirren), strives to keep the King from having his throne usurped by the unctuously ambitious Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett). Okay, the movie mostly takes place after the Revolutionary War, and is a British period costume drama, but knowing what made “the last King of America” tick, and finally snap, is a fascinating part of America’s story.

“Sergeant York” finds Gary Cooper in front of the camera and Howard Hawks behind it, doing what both men did best: Telling a story of a simple, but courageous man who stands up for what he believes in. In an Oscar-winning performance, Cooper plays Alvin York, one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I. York starts as a hard-living, heavy-drinking good ol’ boy from the hills of rural Tennessee, but converts to Christianity and turns his life around, along the way becoming a prize-winning marksman. 

But when the Great War from overseas shows up on his front door, York’s devotion to his pacifist beliefs comes into conflict with his desire to serve his country. Released in 1941, just a few months before Pearl Harbor, the isolationist York being forced to fight in World War I provides a clear parallel to America’s situation on the eve of World War II. “Sergeant York” is not only a fascinating time capsule but also a quality entertainment that stands the test of time.

Watching Tom Cruise blow up stuff is as American as apple pie, so if you have a need for speed, grab yourself a big ol heaping slice of action-packed mayhem with the twin tales of Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The 1986 original is, of course, a classic, with a pop culture imprint that’s still being felt almost 40 years since it first flew across our screens from sea to shining sea.

Following in its legendary wake would be all but impossible, but Cruise knows a thing or two about that. “Top Gun: Maverick” manages to be an all-around better blockbuster than the original (and most summer movies for that matter), making it one of the greatest legacy sequels of all time. The first “Top Gun” is iconic. The second one is an action movie masterpiece. It’s pretty darn difficult asking me to pick between “Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” So y’know what? I won’t. Before you blow up fireworks, fly into the danger zone, and make sure you watch both “Top Gun” flicks for your 4th of July movie marathon!