10 Best Fourth Of July Movies, Ranked

Strike up the band and set off a bottle rocket; it’s almost the Fourth of July. Whether you’re in a frame of mind to express your patriotism or simply want to kick back and have a good time watching an old star-spangled favorite in the air-conditioned comfort of your own home, watching a flick is a great way to spend part of the day.

Over the years, films have taken hundreds of different points of view on American life, turning their productions into holiday classics. There’s the flag-waving, stars-and-stripes worship of the “Rocky” series; the arch, knowing character portraits of films like “Miss Firecracker;” and worshipful looks at American heroes like “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” 

This list spans a wide variety of Fourth of July-related movies. While some of them take place during the holiday, others have become major staples that are enjoyed on cable channels, in revival theaters, and are even screened publicly by some towns due to their sheer American can-do attitudes. Here are 10 films that will liven up any Fourth of July barbecue — or set off some sparks for the home viewer. 

This one’s a rarely-discussed hidden gem of a movie; while others might conjure films like “The Patriot” to mind when thinking of movies that depict the American Revolution, “Revolution” is an interesting, if largely critically panned, take on what it is to go from self-interested observer of history to an actual participant in current events. Not only does its Revolutionary War setting make it a perfect movie to rewatch on the Fourth of July, but its very nature — which questions what it means to be American, and points out that fervent patriotism has major drawbacks — is unique enough to make this list but isn’t quite perfect enough to reach the top. Yet, if one gives it a try, they might find that it’s much better than its Razzie-winning reputation suggests.

A lot of the brickbats that greeted the film were conjured by Al Pacino’s casting as fur trapper Tom Dobb, who throws himself into the conflict to rescue his teenage son. Ned (Dexter Fletcher) has been conscripted into the British army by the nasty Sergeant Major Peasy (Donald Sutherland) as a drummer boy. It’s a gesture of personal cruelty and revenge since Peasy already had it out for immigrants like Ned and Tom. Though Tom is anything but patriotic, he’s willing to climb a mountain to save his kid. Along the way, both Tom and Ned find love and must cope with the rigors and horrors of the war.

“Revolution” was notoriously the victim of a rushed release and has since begun to regain a cultural appreciation. While some elements of the story — its odd casting choices and some of the actor’s accents, among others — may not have aged well, it’s a much better watch than one would anticipate.

• Cast: Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, Nastassja Kinski 
• Director: Hugh Hudson
• Rating: PG-13
• Runtime: 124 minutes
• Year: 1985
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 10%

Set across two Fourth of July weekends a year apart, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” is an iconic ’90s slasher for all seasons. That said, it’s undeniably a lot of fun to watch on the same day and in the same season through which Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her friends are forced to suffer.

Julie, her boyfriend Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), and their close friends beauty queen Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the obnoxious Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe) are having a wild Fourth of July night together when they accidentally run over a man in a fisherman’s outfit. They shove him into the water and leave him for dead. One year later, everyone has tried their best to survive but is undeniably scarred by what they’ve been through.

When Julie returns to town from college, she receives a note declaring that the person knows what she did last summer, referring to the murder. Her estranged friends receive similarly ominous warnings, which turn to violent action. Soon, the group must band together to save themselves before it’s too late. The slasher is getting a direct sequel this July, so now might be the best time to rewatch the adventure before heading back to the theater.

• Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr. 
• Director: Jim Gillespie
• Rating: R
• Runtime: 101 minutes
• Year: 1997
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 48%

Every Fourth of July, AMC holds a marathon of the “Rocky” films on their network, playing every outing in the series from the very first all the way through to “Rocky V.” But if you only want to watch one “Rocky” film on the holiday, why not make it the most star-spangled of the whole roster? “Rocky IV” was so “go America” that it broke box office records, made Thanksgiving weekend openings a thing, and has turned theaters into James Brown-filled singalongs. 

The premise sees a happily self-satisfied and rich Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) wallowing in excess. He’s startled from his stupor when Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), a super-engineered-for-success Russian boxer, beats Rocky’s friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) to death during an exhibition match right before cornerman Rocky’s eyes. Rocky agrees to represent his home country, battling Drago in an America-versus-Russia fight on Christmas Day. But he has to get back in shape and will have to survive a whole lot of internal and external pressure to make it through Drago’s challenge.

This is the “Rocky” film that sets up the future of the franchise; without Apollo’s death, there is no “Creed,” and without Drago, definitely no “Creed II.” It’s not only a monumental part of the “Rocky” world, it’s an in-your-face celebration of America.

• Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers 
• Director: Sylvester Stallone
• Rating: PG
• Runtime: 91 minutes
• Year: 1985
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 39%

“You’re killing me, Smalls!” For a lot of people who grew up in the 1990s (or were still young enough then to appreciate a good children’s yarn), “The Sandlot” is the ultimate summertime movie. (And one character was loosely based on a real-life person, to boot — though not the person who sued 20th Century Fox for the way he was depicted.) Set in the hazy summer months of 1962 and centered on America’s favorite pastime, it’s quintessentially summer — and its most important scene takes place on the Fourth of July. 

Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) is brand new to his San Fernando community. He’s coping with his mother’s remarriage, and is dealing with being uprooted from all he’s ever known into a new life. With summer dawning, Scotty makes friends with a group of kids who play baseball games at a local sandlot. One problem: Scotty loves the game but has zero playing aptitude — but both his stepfather (Denis Leary) and the quiet but mega-talented team MVP Benny Rodriguez (Mike Vitar) step in to help him out.

Now able enough to serve the team, Scotty and his friends have a number of adventures — including playing baseball on a firework-laden Fourth of July night. They ultimately have to face off against the fearsome-seeming dog named the Beast, who has claimed every foul ball the team has ever whacked over the fence line of the sandlot. But surprises await them, as they do every viewer who’s tried this film out.  

• Cast: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Karen Allen 
• Director: David Mickey Evans
• Rating: PG
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Year: 1993
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

If you can’t get tickets to “Hamilton” when it breezes through your town, or travel to see the production on Broadway, you shouldn’t fret. Thanks to Disney+ — and the Covid-19 pandemic — there’s a professionally shot version of the musical ready to roll on demand at any time. Now you can enjoy some founding fathers-flavored angst at your leisure, between a hot dog and a slice of apple pie. “Hamilton” is full of lines that are much more meaningful than you might’ve realized, and plenty of small details that should start a lively conversation among dinner guests. 

“Hamilton,” naturally, took Broadway by storm in 2015. A stylized retelling of the life of politician Alexander Hamilton (Lin Manuel Miranda), it reviews his personal life, his professional life, the scandals and foibles he faced — and counts down the fateful hours and minutes until he meets with political rival and fellow founding father Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.) on the field of honor in a duel. Only one man will survive — and the other will enter permanently into legend. The Tony award-winner became a huge cultural phenomenon, and its score will keep toes tapping until the fireworks arrive. 

• Cast: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Phillipa Soo, Leslie Odom Jr. 
• Director: Thomas Kail
• Rating: PG-13
• Runtime: 160 minutes
• Year: 2020
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

This is a slightly more obscure recommendation, but in its quiet, summer-warm ways, “Miss Firecracker” is just as worthy of attention as Rocky Balboa. It’s a personal tale that lets fans see a different side of America’s national holiday — and takes them into the heart of one woman’s quest to become the center of a town’s attention.

Carnelle Scott (Holly Hunter) has only one ambition in life: to succeed her lovely cousin, Elain (Mary Steenburgen), as Yazoo County’s Miss Firecracker. The pageant takes place every Fourth of July and Carnelle is bound and determined to do well. However, she is everything your traditional pageant winner is not — brash, tomboyish, and free-wheeling. She’s not going to let that stop her from winning, though.

As the pageant grows nearer, Carnelle must deal with Elain’s presence in town, and the fact that she might not have a place to live if she doesn’t scare up that prize money. At turns romantic and heartbreaking, self-affirming and laugh-inducing, “Miss Firecracker” is a little slice of America at its most tender and wild.

• Cast: Scott Glenn, Holly Hunter, Tim Robbins
• Director: Thomas Schlamme
• Rating: PG
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Year: 1989
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Not every cinematic Fourth of July tradition takes place back in 1776. “Independence Day” is the kind of blockbuster that thrilled summertime audiences back in the 1990s.To this day it’s a popular annual Fourth of July watch, not just because of the title but because of its tale of a bunch of little guys battling against a bossy, deadly, hectoring overlord — that also wants to colonize their planet.

The film strongly resembles a classic disaster movie in shape and format, from its star-studded cast to its effects-heavy storyline and its general themes of community, fellowship, and worldwide community. It’s about an alien invasion that threatens humanity’s future survival, forcing all sorts of people from all walks of life to work together to protect the planet.

From the military to scientists, government officials and even retired pilots, the movie’s cast of hundreds all must do their parts or face instantaneous death, extinction, and eradication — even if the virus they use to even the score makes no sense. What’s more patriotic than killing something that was already trying to kill you? Even if “Independence Day” is worse than you realized at first, it’s still a good time.

• Cast: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman 
• Director: Roland Emmerich
• Rating: PG-13
• Runtime: 145 minutes
• Year: 1996
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%

There’s nothing more rousing than a good biopic, and “Yankee Doodle Dandy” brings life and verve to the story of patriot ne plus ultra George M. Cohan (James Cagney). Filled with tunes like “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and the title song, it stuns with flag-waving razzle-dazzle and bursts with life and glitter.

The movie explores a neatened-up version of the composer and playwright’s life that stretches all the way back from his vaudeville-influenced childhood to his marriage to dancer Mary (Joan Leslie), and the moment he became a toe-tapping, banner-waving theatrical superstar. The wraparound segments require Cagney to age dozens of years, portraying an elderly version of Cohan as he gets his roses during World War II, when anthems he’d written like “Over There” for World War I became popular again. 

A banner performance for Cagney, for which he won an Oscar, this is an unforgettable and seminal performance. He later played Cohan once more in “The Seven Little Foys,” but his time in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” was a real standout. 

• Cast: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston 
• Director: Michael Curtiz
• Rating: G
• Runtime: 126 minutes
• Year: 1942
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

A scary score. The sight of a shark rearing its head out of churning ocean waters. Puddles of blood littering a shining deck. These are just some of the reasons why “Jaws” has become such a memorable summer movie — but more importantly for this list, it’s a Fourth of July film, and not just because it takes place during and around the holiday. Keeping the beach safe and shark-free during the popular celebration is a huge motive of Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), who puts a lot of pressure on Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) to guarantee that.

Naturally, the shark refuses to make life easy for Amityville. That means plenty of jump scares, a whole lot of spilled blood, and an Ahab-like quest into the middle of the sea for Brody and his men Quint (Robert Shaw) and Matt (Richard Dreyfuss).

“Jaws” was the first summer blockbuster, and it’s become a frequent subject of big screen revivals and even poolside and beachside screenings every summer since its release. Fire it up alongside your grill on the fourth and enjoy some seafaring goodness.

• Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss 
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Rating: PG
• Runtime: 124 minutes
• Year: 1975
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Very few films are completely synonymous with the Fourth of July, but “1776” comes pretty close. Since it’s about the founding of the country, complete with songs about the writing of the Declaration of Independence and all of the figures who participated in its creation, that makes perfect sense. It also has a major Broadway pedigree, being from the Tony-winning stage show. And if you’re worried it’s too staid, this is a movie that managed to stir up so much controversy at the Nixon White House that Nixon demanded a whole scene be cut before it released in America because he thought it was making fun of him.

It’s the summer of 1776, and John Adams (William Daniels) is determined to fully declare America’s sovereignty from King George. The war between the colonies and Britain rages onward, and it’s time they stand up for truth and liberty. How will they do this? By officially declaring America its own country. But they need someone who’s less “obnoxious and disliked” as Adams is to write the declaration. Enter artful writer and congressman Thomas Jefferson (Ken Howard), who yearns to return home to his new bride. Jefferson and Adams battle over this and a whole lot more while Benjamin Franklin (Howard da Silva) watches amused from the sidelines. The end result is a spirited and high-stepping musical that’s fun for everyone.

• Cast: William Daniels, Howard da Silva, Ken Howard
• Director: Peter H. Hunt
• Rating: G
• Runtime: 141 minutes
• Year: 1972
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%