LOOKING FOR A ONE-STOP ANSWER

People in general look for shortcuts. Americans in particular invent them. We're busy, so we prefer quick headlines, abridged versions, captions, slogans, soundbites.

This helps explain why we look for instant-impact images to take the place of an entire era. We tend to perceive ourselves and our history in specific faces. Colonial America...? The Pilgrims at Plymouth, Washington on his white horse. The Civil War...? Lincoln in the White House, Grant or Lee on their field horse. Industrial America ...? Thomas Edison in his laboratory, Teddy Roosevelt charging on his horse.

By the 20th C, Hollywood provides some of its own faces. This time they come without horses. The Depression...? Along with FDR and his jaunty cigarette holder, there's Henry Fonda's gaunt face in "The Grapes of Wrath." World War II...? Along with Churchill and generals Patton and MacArthur, there's Van Johnson's grimy GI face in "Battleground." The Sixties...? Along with JFK in the White House, there's James Dean in "Rebel without a Cause."

Throughout these last 50 years, though, it's been harder to find single images that capture the mood of the nation. We've become such a diverse nation, we're busy emphasizing the "pluribus" far more than the "unum." Now the real and the cinematic jumble together: John Wayne...Marilyn Monroe...John Lennon...Neil Armstrong ...Bill Gates ...Rocky Balboa...the New York firefighters...Hillary Clinton...Dirty Harry. But these days, no two dinner parties are likely to agree on any one of these.

If we insist upon images to encapsulate our feelings and focus, to whom might we look in this new century?

Maybe the answer comes from those who see America from outside America. If so, international poll after poll, and list after list, suggest there is still one film and one set of cinematic images that best project modern America. Among young and old, male and female, rich and poor, here and abroad.

"Casablanca" starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman,

May not be your cup of tea, but the people polled agree on some interesting basics. Bogart is the pro-typical American male -- wise and cynical in the ways of the world, but vulnerable and sensitive in the ways of the heart. Bergman -- luminous in the eyes of any man, but in the end the key to the plot and its purpose.

No need to debate. Maybe just think about those images the next time you look at yours....