It’s been one of the stronger summers in recent memory, driven by three superb movies, all with an international flavor.

One of the three, The Golden Door, is little known. This Italian “art film” will crest $1 million in box-office grosses this weekend—a strong showing for a film with subtitles, but a drop in the bucket for most theatrically released films this summer.

The Golden Door is a gorgeously filmed tale of a Sicilian man, Salvatore, taking his children and mother on a journey to the United States. Salvatore’s hopes are anchored on little more than some photos, ostensibly from America, showing giant vegetables and money that grows from trees. Also on the journey to America is an Englishwoman, Lucy, whose mysterious past and alluring beauty attract the attention of Salvatore and the other men on the ship. The immigrants’ experience at Ellis Island comprises the final third of The Golden Door, and it’s blessed with some surprises.

As a picture of immigrant hopes, and the harrowing journey so many have undertaken to come to these shores, The Golden Door reminds us of another Home that Christians long for and imagine, and the ups and downs we experience during our own life journeys. If The Golden Door is playing in your town, catch it while you can.

Also obliquely pro-American is Rescue Dawn, another look at immigrants and their experience of the United States. Director Werner Herzog adapts his earlier documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, into a big-screen fictional film about Dieter Dengler, born in Germany but indebted to the United States, which, through military service, gave him the chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot. Shot down during his first mission, Dengler engineers an escape for he and his fellow POWs. His determination never flags, as he uses the jungle terrain to his advantage and manages to elude his captors. “Dieter Dengler embodied everything I love about America: courage, perseverance, optimism, self-reliance, frontier spirit, loyalty and joy of life,” says Herzog in the movie’s press notes. “He was the quintessential immigrant into America—a young man who arrived with a great dream and came to represent the best of the American spirit.”

Ratatouille, from Disney/Pixar, is one of the year’s best entertainments. The story of Remy and his knack for French cooking remind us that “anyone can cook,” and that the simple things in life, when combined with love, can have a great effect. It includes a speech from notorious food critic Anton Ego that should give any critic, of movies or otherwise, pause: “In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”

What a pleasure, then, that Ratatouille is no “average piece of junk,” but a great family film that deserves the highest praise.

Despite a glut in the number of films released in recent years, memorable movies are few and far between. In the past three months, we had three great movies. What a summer! One can only hope that the fall holds as many treasures.

Comments? Contact me at crosswalkchristian@earthlink.net.