Top 10 American Movies to Learn American Culture

We all know that learning a foreign language by watching movies in the original is a very effective way to learn the language. However, when such movies also teach the history and culture of the target language, the benefits are multiplied, and we kill two birds with the same stone, so to speak.

I have been teaching American Culture to ESOL learners for a few years, and watching the following movies has worked wonders: the confidence of the students has improved, and they have realized they can watch American movies and understand %70-80 per cent, while learning new vocabulary words, improving their listening and pronunciation skills, and, equally important, getting to understand American history and culture.

Here is a list of our favorites:

1. Constitution USA – is a four-part PBS documentary series. Learn about the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and how the U.S. government got its shape. These documentaries are fun to watch and are a great learning tool. All the documentaries are available for free here under Watch Online.  

2. We Shall Remain - is a five-part, 7.5-hour PBS documentary series about the history of Native Americans spanning the 17th century to the 20th century. You will learn about the relationships between Native Americans and first European settlers and how their relationships got sour over the years. All the documentaries are available for free here under The Films.

3. Dances with Wolves – A soldier sent to a remote western Civil War outpost makes friends with wolves and Indians, eventually falling in love with a white woman raised by the Indians. This movie will allow you to understand the relationship between Native Americans and Americans in the midst of the American Civil War. This is also a love story, so you will enjoy the movie on different levels. The movie can be rented or purchased on Amazon here.

4. Not for Ourselves Alone – is an outstanding PBS documentary about the professional and personal lives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Track the key events of the American suffrage movement, learn about the gender inequality of the mid 19^th- early 20s century, and ponder over the position of women in modern days. This three-hour documentary can be purchased here for $4.99.

5. Iron-Jawed Angels - tells the remarkable and little-known story of a group of passionate and dynamic young women, led by Alice Paul and her friend Lucy Burns, who put their lives on the line to fight for American women's right to vote. This movie will allow you to learn about the hurdles courageous women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns had to face and overcome to get us the long-postponed voting rights. You can watch the movie for free on YouTube. Simply click here.

6. The Great Gatsby – a romantic drama film based on the world-famous F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel of the same name. Learn about America of the roaring 20s, Prohibition with its bootleggers and speakeasies, the ever-evading us American Dream, and the social inequality persisting on the land originally created based on equal rights and justice for all. The 1974- movie-version is available on Netflix. The 2013 version with Leonardo DiCaprio is available on Amazon.

7. Eleanor and Franklin – a stunning 1977-2-part movie series chronicling the lives of Franklin and Elizabeth Roosevelt. You will learn about their childhoods, school years, courtship, and all the events that led up to FDR’s election. The second movie will focus on their lives when FDR was in office. Highly recommend for everyone interested in the U.S history. You can watch both parts on YouTube for free. Click here to watch the first part, and here – the second one.

8. The Butler – Filmmaker Lee Daniels tells the story of the life of an African-American butler who served eight presidents through the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s and the decades of the 1970s and 1980s. This is a great way to learn about the milestones of the American Civil Rights Movement. The movie is easy to follow and interesting to watch. It is available on Netflix and Amazon.

9. The Help – is a movie adaptation of the novel of the same name. The movie brilliantly depicts all the realities of racial inequality of the American south in the 1960s. Full of humor, it has all the potential to become a new favorite of yours. The movie can be rented or purchased here.

10. Spotlight – the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church all over the world. The movie portrays the events that unrolled in Boston prior to and in 2001-2002. The movie is a great evidence of the power of free and independent press. It is available on Netflix and Amazon.