How does one characterize or classify the patriotic music in American films & TV?

Question

I am not a musician, theorist, or composer, so I don't have a lot of musical vocabulary at my disposal. But there's a certain kind of music in films about American bravery and freedom: I can recognize it instantly, but I can't articulate what it is or how it works. Examples include:

• The theme music from "The West Wing"
• The opening music from Saving Private Ryan
• This promotion for a short film about World War II, produced by the WWII Museum in New Orleans

What is this musical style, and why is it associated with American patriotism?

Answer 1

If you listen closely, behind the heroic-sounding brass instruments there are sneaky snare drums. These are all military marches, just played much slower and super poignant-like.

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band
...
The most important instruments are various drums (especially snare drum), horns, fife or woodwind instruments and brass instruments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_(music)

Here is one that is not so slow, and thus more recognizable as a march.

I can think of two reasons why these marches might feel patriotic to you. First, a lot of national anthems are marches, including the Star-Spangled Banner. Second, if you are US American, you probably associate marches with the revolutionary war, a period that is at the foundation of your patriotism.