WITH LIBERTY AND CLOSE-UPS FOR ALL OUR NATIONAL CHARACTER (AND PLOTS, TOO) ON FILM.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville came to the United States in 1831 in search of the American character or, as he put it, ``the image of democracy itself.''

Nearly two centuries later, we're still searching, still reassessing the ideas that the Founding Fathers laid down in the Constitution. The country remains a melting pot of concepts and character traits, certainly more a complex stew than the red state/blue state terminology currently dominating the news.

Movies, intentionally or not, have been mirroring this ongoing reappraisal since D.W. Griffith laid down the basics of narrative cinema in his problematic 1915 masterpiece, ``The Birth of a Nation.''

Griffith's movie certainly illustrates one facet of the American character, how people can hold onto wrongheaded ideas - in this case, romanticizing slavery and demonizing black people - as long as its suits their particular brand of prejudice.

Griffith, though, was a special (head) case.

Often we simply go to the movies looking to see ourselves in the larger-than-life characters up on the screen and come out with a line or two, like ``Go ahead, make my day,'' that we use to define ourselves - as President Reagan once did. Those definitions may not be true, but they're how we see ourselves. Myopia, too, is part of the American character.

Here are a few (but just a few) of those ``American'' traits and some of the movies that illustrate them:

POPULISTS

By and large, Americans have a deep-seated distrust of authority that dates back to King George III. Frank Capra's ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939) posits the common man as the true protector of democracy, with Jimmy Stewart's red-state country bumpkin exposing the greed and hypocrisy of Washington's ruling elite. Kevin Kline in ``Dave'' (1993) and even Warren Beatty in ``Bulworth'' (1998) were modern-day successors to Mr. Smith.

These days, of course, Mr. Smith would be co-opted by special interests before the paint dried in his newly refurbished Senate office. Mr. Smith would go to Washington and immediately begin thinking about his re-election.

BIG DREAMERS

America is the Land of Opportunity, for some people at least. There are thousands of movies about chasing the American Dream, with Los Angeles and New York usually serving as the Meccas for the most ambitious (or deluded) seekers. Some are immigrant stories (think of young Vito Corleone coming to America in ``The Godfather II'' (1974) or the Guatemalan siblings in the sobering ``El Norte,'' 1983), some seek power (``Wall Street,'' 1987), some seek fame (``All About Eve,'' 1950, and, in an odd way, ``Boogie Nights,'' 1997).

Since there's more drama when the dream curdles, Hollywood makes a lot of movies about shattered expectations - ``Midnight Cowboy'' (1969), ``Mullholland Dr.'' (2001), ``Boyz N the Hood'' (1991). For the other side of the American Dream, sing along with James Cagney in ``Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942), the ultimate flag-waving rags-to-riches story.

OPTIMISTIC

Europeans often (and often quite correctly) deride Americans for maintaining a brand of naive optimism that's peculiar to this country. If a Parisian or Londoner heard a voice saying, ``If you build it, he will come,'' he'd probably roll over and go back to sleep or, at the very least, wonder how many permits would be necessary to complete the task.

In ``Field of Dreams'' (1989), Kevin Costner plows under his cornfield and builds the damn thing, confident that everything will turn out OK. And of course it does.

DOGGED DETERMINATION

Whether it's winning a war (``Patton,'' 1970, another American dream movie) or ferreting out the truth (``All the President's Men,'' 1976), Americans are known for their resolve, even if it runs contrary to common sense (``Tucker,'' 2000) or common decency (``The Searchers,'' 1956).

CAN-DO SPIRIT

Need to blow up an asteroid (``Armageddon,'' 1998), save a high-rise full of hostages (``Die Hard,'' 1988) or create a movie armed with just a sliver of talent and funding (``Ed Wood,'' 1994)? American optimism translates into a boldness that believes that if you have ``The Right Stuff'' (Philip Kaufman's 1983 movie might be the perfect example of this), you can soar as high as the moon.

HARD-WORKING

All this can-do stuff requires work - and Americans are famously willing to put in the hours, no matter the cost to their personal lives or mental health. Albert Brooks, in the aptly titled ``Lost in America'' (1985) decides to hop off the hamster wheel, drop out and lead the ``Easy Rider'' (1969) life, forgetting, of course, that Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper died at the end of that movie.

OVERWEIGHT

Long hours leads to some unhealthy eating habits. This typically isn't reflected in movies because no one wants to pay good money to watch ``ugly'' fat people go about their Everyman lives. (What passes for an ``average'' person in a movie would typically stop traffic on most street corners.)

When they are seen in movies, overweight people are typically used as the butt of jokes (often literally butt jokes), even when they're supposedly being sensitive (``Shallow Hal,'' 2001, ``The Nutty Professor,'' 1996).

The best sense of Americans' need for instant gratification at mealtime came in Morgan Spurlock's frightening, enlightening documentary ``Super Size Me'' (2004). The sight of the rapidly expanding Spurlock vomiting up his fast-food meal was enough to put many off the Golden Arches until ... well, at least the next time they needed to eat on the run.

LOUD

If you've ever gone abroad, you've probably swallowed hard when confronted with the obnoxious behavior of travelers wearing the unholy combination of a Nike T-shirt, denim shorts, socks and sandals and complaining loudly about how things just aren't the same here as they are in the good old U.S. of A.

The Griswolds from ``National Lampoon's European Vacation'' (1985) come to mind. When Beverly D'Angelo tells Chevy Chase that he's driving on the wrong side of the road, Chase's reply - ``Yes, I know honey. I'm also on the wrong side of the car'' - pithily sums up the Ugly American syndrome and the reason why so many of us feel compelled to place the Canadian flag on their luggage when traveling.

SACRIFICING

There's obviously the sacrifices made at war (``Saving Private Ryan,'' 1998, ``Glory,'' 1989), but also those at home with the uprooted Oklahoma sharecroppers, leaving a land where everything's not OK, in John Ford's ``The Grapes of Wrath'' (1940), sharing what little they have with other Dust Bowl transplants.

Ultimately, Henry Fonda's Tom Joad makes a huge sacrifice, leaving his family behind so he can fight the good fight. His final speech - ``Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beating up a guy, I'll be there ...'' - is one of the most stirring moments in movie history.

TOUGHNESS

John Wayne. Clint Eastwood. Sylvester (gulp) Stallone. We like to think of ourselves as a nation of tough guys. Though Eastwood has been identified with ``Dirty Harry'' (1971), he has spent the better part of the last three decades deconstructing that image, most memorably in his great Western ``Unforgiven'' (1992), which shows the soul-scarring costs of violence.

ADAPTABLE

If given enough time (and enough facts raining down on our heads), Americans are willing to admit the error of our ways and say, ``Oops, my bad.'' Witness Vietnam architect Robert McNamara's mea culpa in ``The Fog of War'' (2003) His ``Eleven Lessons'' haven't exactly caught on with the current administration, but they were still fascinating, given the source.

It's like Joe E. Brown says at the end of ``Some Like It Hot'' (the great 1959 movie about go-with-the-flow adaptability): ``Nobody's perfect.'' Anyone looking to sum up America should keep those immortal words in mind.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

8 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) WHAT FILMS SAY ABOUT AMERIANS

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist

(2) ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''

(3) ``The Godfather II''

(4) ``Field of Dreams''

(5) ``Patton''

(6) ``Saving Private Ryan''

(7) ``Dirty Harry''

(8) ``The Nutty Professor''