TR: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1997)

America may now be the world's only superpower. But it has only been an important player on the global stage for about a century. President Teddy Roosevelt started it all with his “walk softly and carry a big stick.” This gunboat diplomacy led to the building of the Panama Canal and other nationalistic ventures. TR was also a dedicated protector of our natural resources and a trust-busting regulator of big-business excesses. He took on Wall Street and robber baron monopolies while at the same time preserving the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Valley and millions of acres of forest lands.

TR: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt, from PBS “The American Experience” series, is a four-hour documentary that intelligently captures the contradictions of this controversial personality. TR believed that virtue and strength were not incompatible. Producer David Grubin shows us how this credo benefited the nation despite TR's larger-than-life flaws and failures. The film skillfully combines photographs, movies, diaries and letters with interviews with family members and scholars like David McCullough.

Henry V (1989)

Patriotism can be either a virtue or a vice, depending on the character and the purposes of the nation that embraces it. Shakespeare made the subject one of his primary themes. Henry V, directed by Kenneth Branagh, is a tough-minded, modern interpretation of the bard's most definitive statement. It focuses more on the personal and political coming-of-age of the young sovereign (Branagh) than the pageant or the spectacle. The warrior-monarch turns his back on Falstaff (Robbie Coltrane), the carousing crony of his wild youth, to pursue the complexities of state-craft and courts the French princess, Katherine (Emma Thompson), to advance British interests.

Shakespeare describes Henry as “the mirror of the Christian king,” and the movie re-creates the era's deep religious beliefs. The climax is the famous Battle of Agincourt in 1415, where the French outnumber the British five-to-one.

On the morning before the combat, Henry delivers his “once more into the breach” St. Crispin's Day speech — a sublime evocation of patriotic virtue and trust in the Lord.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Two of the three biggest box-office hits of 2001 were animated features (Shrek and Monsters, Inc.). Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs invented the genre and, unlike many of his “edgier” imitators, Disney believed that there could be no good without a clearly defined sense of evil.

The Grimm's fairy tale on which this masterpiece is based is well-known. The orphaned princess Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) has been raised as a servant by the wicked Queen (Lucille La Verne). When the Magic Mirror (Moroni Olsen) tells the sovereign that Snow White is “the fairest one of all,” the jealous queen orders her rival killed. But the innocent girl escapes to the woods and the cabin of the seven dwarfs.

There Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful and the others protect her until Prince Charming (Henry Stockwell) comes to the rescue. The movie's magic still works. Who can forget Snow White warbling the lovely “Some Day My Prince Will Come,” or the dwarfs singing the jolly “Whistle While You Work”?