Would Not Be My First Choice

One of the reasons I like to click through Google News every morning is not to see the big stories, but instead the smaller ones that fall through the cracks and would not make the local telecast. For example, this afternoon on Google Entertainment there was a story that North Korean television recently aired a movie made in Western Culture, a first for the country. This is a huge deal, as you can imagine, because it shows signs that the cold relationship between North Korea and the outside world may be starting to defrost. Therefore, which movie was chosen must have been a big and difficult decision. It's Western Civilization's first impression to a lot of North Koreans, after all. With all that pressure in mind, they went with... Bend It Like Beckham. Interesting. Now, I like Keira Knightley and I know that soccer is the most popular sport in the world, but, really? If put to a vote, I doubt Bend It Like Beckham would be the one movie many people would use to make an entire civilization's first impression. According to the story, North Korean officials wanted to use a British film to celebrate some sort of anniversary of trade relations with the Empire, but even if you are intent on sticking with that criteria, what about a James Bond movie (one of the ones where he is not fighting Communist Russia)? The weird part about this story (as if it wasn't weird enough already) is that Kim Jong-Il is reportedly a huge movie buff, with Wikipedia (so you know it's true) claiming he owns upwards of 20,000 movies. So, it stands to reason he's seen better stuff. I know I have. In fact, I bet I could come up with five films that would have been a better option.... so I did.

Now, I'm dropping the British film criteria, just because I'm not familiar with enough work from there. I would end up recommending Green Street Hooligans (it does keep the soccer theme...). Anyway, if you want to stick to that, you can do it on your blog. Also, I am aware that they wouldn't want any movie that makes Americans or America look too good. Relations between the nations might be better, but they aren't that good. With that in mind, I figure I should avoid most action movie and all Westerns. Also, I'm avoiding anything with Asian stereotypes, lest we undo any goodwill that has been built up. Here's what I went with:

-Casablanca. Cliche for me to pick this one? Sure. Dated? Maybe. Looks, it's just a good movie. I don't care how old it is. And (spoiler), she doesn't even end up picking the American.

-Hoosiers. The choice of Bend It Like Beckham shows that sports movies are universal. Well, this might be the best sports movie ever made. I would have selected Rudy for this spot, but I would hate to be accused of homerism.

-Anchorman. This way they would finally get all those "Sex Panther" references the world has been using for the past six years.

-Jaws. Even though an American man wins in the end, it is not our finest hour. Really, the shark is winning for like 98% of the movie. Not to mention it doesn't paint government officials in the best light or encourage tourism to any of our beaches.

-The Usual Suspects. Just a great, thinking movie. Plus, since a lot of people don't seem to get the ending the first time around, they would rise up and demand a second viewing. Suddenly airing a western movie is a common occurrence.