Ah yes, because the events of that film did predate the invention of the color blue.

Dazed and Confused was a little too good of a choice to start this off, imo.

first thing that came to mind was Cinderella Man. I thought the acting was great and very believeable as characters from that time period and the sense of desperation they were going through really came across.

There will be blooooooooood

ew yeah No Country for Old Men was excellent in this regard as well

habra sangre

POTT

The War - young Elijah Wood
Wind that Shakes the Barley - completely excellent film
Gallipoli - lol Mel Gibson

American Graffiti - full immersion in the early 60's. Cars, music, costumes, slang - Lucas captured it all.

There are many excellent films that have come to pretty much represent eras in which they are set

1940's
Casablanca- classic love story about people's lives being torn apart by WWII

1950's
West Side Story- Ghey showtunes aside, this film was one of the first popular films to address the issue of race in America.

Dr Strangelove- One of the best satires of all times. Does a great job of illustrating the cold war paranoia that led to people building bomb shelters in their backyards.

The Manchurian candidate- another example of cold war paranoia. Watch the original Frank Sinatra version, not the horrible Denzel remake.

Vietnam era 60's / early 70's:

The graduate- Basically invented the "coming of age" film genre.

The Deer hunter- one of the 1st films to show how avereage everyday people were affected by this war.

Late 70's early 80's disco/ drugs era

scarface- what movie says "70's" better than this classic?

Blow-Great movie about an average guy growing into the biggest drug dealer in the country.

Saturday night fever- Not a great film by any means but still represents NYC during the disco era fairly well


Late 80's

Ferris Bueller's day off- i might be biased on thos one because it came out my senior year in high school but i think this movie represents the smart but unmotivated attitudes of a lot of my peers at the time.

Wall Street- Great movie about a fundamental change in business thinking that still is a problem today. Wall street's attitude is maximum profit today without thought to the future or the health of the country or economy as a whole.

90-s- Present day

Fight club- Does a good job of illustrating the frustration many people feel with thier boring rat-race lives.

American Beauty- Illustrates how "The American dream" is not all its cracked up to be and how its never too late to make changes in your life.

Is that a theme of our times?

I think a lot of people are dissillusioned by the american dream today yes

i think this film represents our era very well. The mother and father have everything they were told as children they could ever want. A house, nice cars. a child. Yet both are completely miserable. The kids are dealing drugs and are completely uninspired by the examples their parents are setting for them and are looking for ways to be happy themselves.

The reason this film is one of my favorites of all time is I love the changes Lester Burham ( Kevin Spacey) goes through when he realizes he is not happy with his life. It started the thought processes for me that led me to make some major changes in my life as well.

Nice pick - one of the all-time great movies.

On the similar WWII front, Best Years of Our Lives is an exploration of the immediate aftermath of the war. Idealized to some extent, but is probably a good example if you were trying to capture 1946.

Great movies PT, but I detect a theme - all are highly stylized and almost overwrought versions of their era. Cheer up man

"Zodiac" is amazing at this.

Great movie. And the remake was horrible, but most are by default, and especially one trying to replicate a classic film.

The Aviator? Wouldn't know as I didn't live in the 30's (or whenever that was). But I liked the environment and color filters.

la confidential

Miller's Crossing

That's what I liked about it. I knew it was the early eighties, but they didn't beat me over the head with it.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of the Crystal Skull

oh wait that one was also terrible

The sandlot.

8mm

Hell yeah

I'd guess a movie that was set in the 70s. The Mariel boatlift was in 1980.

I have barely skimmed the thread, but achieving verisimilitude (for the audience) in a movie about the 1950s, say, will probably require something different of an director in 2008 than it will of an director in 2038 or that it did of an director in 1978.

So why look outside of the era for something that captures that era, unless you are actually after a present day construction of that era as opposed to the era itself.