America's Most Influential Movies

Yale Professor Marc Lappadula (above) will explain how he put together his Big Six of important U.S. movies at the Chappaqua Library, Tuesday, May 29 (Yale photos)

Marc Lapadula, the popular film and media studies professor at Yale, has selected six films that changed America.  The Graduate, Easy Rider, and Jaws made the list, but his list might surprise some.  I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, a 1932 film that received three Academy Awards and tells the story of a convict who escapes to Chicago, appears on Lapadula's list.

Lapadula will explain to a Yale Westchester audience why certain movies changed America or altered how Americans watched and approached cinema.  As part of YWAA's ongoing lecture series, he will speak at the Chappaqua Library in Chappaqua, Tuesday, May 29 at 7 pm.  Yale alumni and the public are invited to attend the free event.

Lapadula's List of Six also includes Philadelphia and The Jazz Singer. His selections were based on film works that ultimately had long-term social impact on America. At Yale, where he has taught for 26 years, his courses include seminars in screenwriting, playwriting, and film analysis.  His plays have been produced in New York, England, and in other parts of the U.S.

A Penn graduate, Lapadula has also taught in adjunct roles at Columbia, Penn and Johns Hopkins.

The YWAA lecture series, dating back several years, has included other Yale professors in history, physics and political science in recent years.  Professor Paul Freedman discussed his new book Ten Restaurants That Changed America in Scarsdale in 2017.  Law Professor Akhil Reed Amar '80, '84JD, an acclaimed expert on the U.S. Constitution, spoke about the U.S. presidential election in 2016.

Board director Rich Fabbro '76 leads the YWAA lecture series.