Political Movie Recommendations

[Pryderi]

Inherit the Wind

Network

All the Presidents Men

3 Days of the Condor

"Fanaticism and ignorance are forever busy and need feeding. And soon, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward. Backward! Through the glorious ages of that 16th century when bigots burned a man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind" - Henry Drummond 'Inherit the Wind'

[Missy M]

1. It amazes me how 3 Days of the Condor relates to today....

...yet that great movie was made so many years ago.

[sweetheart]

2. "the corporation"

doctor strangelove

[katinmn]

3. The Manchurian Candidate

[kittenpants]

4. I like the original "Manchurian Candidate" a lot too.

the new one isn't bad either. also, "The Third Man" which isn't quite a political movie is a fantastic movie with a lot of political subtext.

[MrScorpio]

5. Paths of Glory

One of the most anti-war movies ever made.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and still banned in France to this day

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050825/

[Postman]

6. Reds, Bullworth, Grapes of Wrath

n/t

[LuPeRcALiO]

22. Grapes of Wrath -- classic

great adaptation by John Ford

[Missy M]

7. Bob Roberts..

..A Face in the Crowd, Enemy of the State

[pretzel4gore]

8. 'Missing' (mid 1970's)

you can catch a glimpse of nascent bush repukelicanism there; Jack Lemmon plays the perfect middle american 'republican' businessman who slowly becomes aware: these are murdering bastards!

[AP]

38. This movie is FINALLY out on DVD. Netflix has it.

[Coexist]

9. Judgment at Nuremberg

great movie about how people "let it happen" and can't be blame free.

To Kill A Mockingbird

not enough good things to say about this one.

[TahitiNut]

14. While I adore "To Kill A Mockingbird" ...

... I eschew it as a political learning tool. The caricature of bigotry is far too stereotypical, precluding recognition of the far more prevalent seductive bigotries extant in our culture. Such caricatures disserve us ... allowing hate-mongers like David Duke and Ted Bundy and George Bush to skate because, well, they just look "nice."

[Pryderi]

10. 12 Angry Men

[alarcojon]

11. Manufacturing Consent (Chomsky)

Outfoxed

The Corporation

The Hunting of the President

[TahitiNut]

12. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

Not political? Nonsense. It's a treatise on authoritarianism - how autocrats perpetuate and exacerbate a problem in order to exploit it for self-centered pathological purposes rather than (per the Catagorical Imperative) treat human beings as an end in themselves.

[gpandas]

13. network n/t

[James T. Kirk]

15. Inherit the Wind irony

It's hard to believe that William Jennings Bryan was a former Democratic secretary of state and presidential candidate! The part has come so far.

[Nay]

16. They Live.

[toddaa]

17. Brazil

Terry Gilliam's masterpiece. One of my all time favorite movies and quite relevant in these days of the Patriot Act and the War on (some) Terrorism.

[LuPeRcALiO]

18. Head of State

if you like Chris Rock.

[edhopper]

19. The Candidate

with Robert Redford. Ahead of it's time, or just timeless.

[ReverendDeuce]

20. Deterrence

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158583/

One of the best.

[CatholicEdHead]

21. Bob Roberts

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103850/

[kskiska]

23. Woody Allen's "The Front"

A tribute to the blacklisted of the McCarthy era.

Also, Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," and of course, "The Crucible."

How about "Being There," which could apply to dunces like Ray-gun or *?

[LuPeRcALiO]

24. JFK, Nixon

personally I thought Nixon (the movie) was better.

[GRLMGC]

35. It was good

but my favorite part was when Pat Nixon asks Nixon for a divorce and his response "What, divorce?" (or some variation of the phrase), delivered in a monotone way cracked me up.

[etherealtruth]

25. Dr Strangelove n/t

[Jade Fox]

26. "The Insider" -- true story of media caving to Corporate ownership....

by refusing to show a hard-hitting expose' of the tobacco industry.

[AP]

39. The Insider is great. (Crouching Tiger is great too)

[OilemFirchen]

27. Z

Heart-racing, blood-boiling, timeless masterpiece.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065234/

[FtWayneBlue]

28. Robert Redford was in another politcal-type movie,

I think the name of it was "Too Many Secrets"?
Where they had invented a device to break any type of encryption.

A couple of other good ones are "The Pelican Brief," and "Conspiracy Theory"

not to mention

"Mr Smith Goes to Washington"

"Legally Blonde (part 2 especially)

"Wag the Dog" and

"An American President."

[Jade Fox]

32. "Sneakers".... one of my faves. n/t

[Pryderi]

34. I always thought "Sneakers" could have been a cool TV series...

[MzShellG]

29. Enemy of the State...nt

[PurityOfEssence]

30. "Hail the Conquering Hero", "The Great McGinty", "State of Siege"

The first two are hysterical movies written and directed by the man I consider to be America's greatest screenwriter, Preston Sturges.

The first is about the son of a heroic marine who couldn't get into the service because of hay fever. He meets a bunch of marines on leave who convince him to go home to his Mother and pass himself off as having joined the service. The local reform party grabs him and runs him as the reform party mayor against the local business baron and the corrupt machine. This is one of the funniest skewerings of American politics ever.

The second is about an inherently dishonest man who ruins his life by one act of honesty. Chicago ward-heeling and ballot stuffing are given an hysterical treatment. He won the 1940 Academy Award for best screenplay for this one, and it was a dark horse hit.

State of Siege is about U.S. skulduggery in Uruguay. Sadly, some of the film crew was killed by the local fascists as retaliation.

[Aristus]

31. "The American President", written by the ferociously talented Aaron Sorkin

It's essentially a love story with a political setting, but it has some startlingly prescient things to say about modern American politics.

"We not only have a right, we have a responsibility to question our leaders! The people of America crave leadership; they're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through a desert to a mirage for it, and when they get there and find no water, they'll drink the sand."

"We've had Presidents of this country who were beloved even though they couldn't find their asses with both hands and a flashlight. The people will drink the sand, not because they're thirsty; they'll drink it because they don't know the difference."

This was written in 1995. Yes, amazingly prescient.

[Octafish]

33. Seven Days in May

John "Manchurian Candidate" Frankenheimer's thriller about a right wing coup against a president who decided to end the Cold War and the arms race. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy is said to have encouraged the director to complete the film. Great cast and story line.

[Itsthetruth]

36. "Reds" Starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton & Jack Nicholson

Warren Beatty won an Academy Award for directing Reds, a sprawling 1981 movie about the Russian Revolution (co-starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson).

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential video

Warren Beatty's lengthy 1981 drama about American Communist John Reed and his relationships with both the Russian Revolution and a writer named Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) is a compelling piece of little-known history told in a uniquely personal way. Beatty plays Reed as he did the title gangster in Bugsy and Senator in Bulworth, as a visionary likely to die before anyone fully recognizes the progressiveness of the vision, including those who are supposed to be on the same page. Jack Nicholson has an interesting part as fellow intellectual Eugene O'Neill, and the late author Jerzy Kosinski--himself a refugee from then-Soviet-controlled Poland--makes a strong impression as Reed's problematic Russian liaison. --Tom Keogh

[AP]

37. Spider Man and Spider Man 2. All the Matrix movies. The X-Men movies.