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Political Movies Review Thread- The American President (1 Viewer)

timschochet

timschochet

Footballguy
Similar to the novels thread, here is a list of the most famous political films:

Absolute Power

All the President's Men

All the King's Men (either version)

American History X

The American President

Advise and Consent

Amistad

Bananas

The Battle of Algiers

Being There

The Best Man

Brazil

Bobby

Born on the Fourth of July

Bulworth

The Candidate

The Confession

The Contender

Conspiracy (TV movie)

Darkest Hour

Dave

The Death of Stalin

Downfall

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Zhivago

Election

Elizabeth

A Face In The Crowd 

Fail-Safe

Frost Nixon

Game Change (TV movie)

Gandhi

Good Night and Good Luck

In the Name of the Father

Inherit the Wind

JFK

Judgment at Nuremberg

The Killing Fields

The King's Speech

The Last Emperor

The Last King of Scotland

Lawrence of Arabia

Lincoln

The Lion In Winter

Malcolm X

A Man for All Seasons

The Manchurian Candidate (either version)

Milk

Miss Sloane

Missing

Mississippi Burning

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Munich

Network

Nixon

On the Basis of Sex

The Parallax View

The Pelican Brief

The Post

Power

Primary Colors

Recount (TV movie)

Reds

Salvador

The Seduction of Joe Tynan

Seven Days In May

Sophie Scholl

Spartacus

State of the Union

Thirteen Days

The Tin Drum

Traffic

Under Fire

V for Vendetta

W

Wag the Dog

The Wave (TV movie)

Z

1984

 
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Here are my personal favorites from this list:

All the President's Men

American History X

The American President

The Battle of Algiers

Election

Frost/Nixon

Game Change

Inherit the Wind

Judgment At Nuremberg

The King's Speech

The Last Emperor

Sophie Scholl

The Wave

 
timschochet said:
Similar to the novels thread, here is a list of the most famous political films:

Absolute Power

All the President's Men***

All the King's Men (either version)***

American History X

The American President

Advise and Consent

Bananas***

The Battle of Algiers

Being There***

The Best Man

Brazil***

Bobby

Born on the Fourth of July***

Bulworth***

The Candidate

The Confession

The Contender

Conspiracy (TV movie)

Dave***

The Death of Stalin***

Downfall

Dr. Strangelove***

Election***

Elizabeth***

Fail-Safe***

Frost Nixon***

Game Change (TV movie)

Gandhi***

Good Night and Good Luck***

In the Name of the Father

Inherit the Wind***

JFK***

Judgment at Nuremberg***

The Killing Fields***

The King's Speech***

The Last Emperor***

The Last King of Scotland***

Lincoln***

The Lion In Winter***

Malcolm X

A Man for All Seasons***

The Manchurian Candidate (either version) ***

Milk

Miss Sloane

Missing

Mississippi Burning***

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington***

Munich***

Nixon

The Parallax View

The Pelican Brief***

Power

Primary Colors

Recount (TV movie)

Reds***

Salvador***

The Seduction of Joe Tynan***

Seven Days In May

Sophie Scholl

State of the Union

Thirteen Days***

The Tin Drum

Traffic***

Under Fire

V for Vendetta***

W

Wag the Dog***

The Wave (TV movie)

Z

1984***
Click to expand...
Indicated with an ***. - I can't say I haven't seen more of these, but really some of them are so bad I am sure I didn't finish them. Also some to many of these are not political. JFK is pure trash.

 
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timschochet said:
In terms of content, sure. Wholly fictional. But in terms of entertaining filmmaking, I don't think its that bad. It kept me riveted.
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I have a hard time watching something that pretends to be real which isn't. It's closer to Bananas than the other ones you have there.

 
SaintsInDome2006 said:
I have a hard time watching something that pretends to be real which isn't. It's closer to Bananas than the other ones you have there.
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As I recall, Tommy Lee Jones gave a particularly memorable performance as a gay CIA guy- again, I'm sure it was wholly fictional.

 
Can I count Downfall even if my only exposure to that film is the meme where Hitler is really mad about something going on in our modern world?

 
SaintsInDome2006 said:
It's funny - you have To Kill a Mockingbird on your list of political books but not on your list of political movies.
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Somebody else made that list of books. I should remove it, doesn't belong.

This list I made out of several lists I saw on line, but I rejected some films because they're more spy thrillers than anything else.

 
I've seen American History X and Lincoln. Historical films are something I've been meaning to get into a lot more. Next on my list whenever I get to it is All The Way with Bryan Cranston.

Edit: I also found Amistad pretty good (and disturbing) when I watched it recently.

 
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Also Dr. Zhivago. - I actually think that book and movie is a better portrayal of the stark struggle between the individual and state than 1984.

 
A lot of good movies on that list. Dr. Strangelove is my all time favorite movie. Battle of Algiers is also outstanding. Network should be on that list IMO.

 
Good list but one you omitted which I really enjoy is 13 Days. My father was in a missile silo in the Air Force during the Cuban missile crisis and he said they were certain they were going to war.

 
Tim, have you ever seen None Shall Escape? It's believed to be the first Hollywood film to depict the Holocaust. It was made in 1944, but set after the war where Germany is defeated and Nazi officials are on trial like Nuremberg.

It's not easy to find but one of my local theaters does a Jewish Film Festival every year and they screened it last year. Very good film, and powerful. 

 
Murph said:
Tim, have you ever seen None Shall Escape? It's believed to be the first Hollywood film to depict the Holocaust. It was made in 1944, but set after the war where Germany is defeated and Nazi officials are on trial like Nuremberg.

It's not easy to find but one of my local theaters does a Jewish Film Festival every year and they screened it last year. Very good film, and powerful. 
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No. I've heard of it though.

I actually debated whether or not to add Judgment at Nuremberg or Sophie Scholl. Are these political movies, or legal dramas? (Inherit the Wind is another example.) They're somewhere in between.

 
Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and Amistad are all historical epics. I realize there are some historical epics on this list like The Last Emperor and Gandhi. I'm not sure what the distinction is. I feel like they belong and the first 3 do not. But now you've got me unsure.

Screw it, I will add all 3. 

 
timschochet said:
Here are my personal favorites from this list:

All the President's Men

American History X

The American President

The Battle of Algiers

Election

Frost/Nixon

Game Change

Inherit the Wind

Judgment At Nuremberg

The King's Speech

The Last Emperor

Sophie Scholl

The Wave
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I've probably seen most. The Distinguished Gentleman is underrated and Murphy's last good comedy unless you count Shrek. 

 
Fail-Safe was supposed to come out way before Dr. Strangelove. But delays caused it to released after Stranglove. I really like Fail-Safe, just got lost.

 
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I’ve seen most and my favorites would be 

Z

Being There

A Face in the Crowd

All the Presidents Men

The Battle of Algiers

Malcolm X

The original Manchurian Candidate

Network

Dr Strangelove

 
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Absolute Power (1997)

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney 

Plot: Eastwood plays a master thief who breaks into a billionaire’s home, only to discover the President (Hackman) getting it on with the billionaire’s young wife; he gets violent and she stabs him with a letter opener, the secret service shoot her to death and then try to cover up the whole thing. The rest of the film is whether honest cop Ed Harris can figure out what really happened before the bad guys can kill Clint. Screenplay by William Goldman based on the David Baldacci best seller. 

Political accuracy If your idea of politics comes directly from the TV show Scandal, this is for you. On the other hand if you’re skeptical that the Secret Service is going to help the President commit murder and cover it up, you may find this a little over the top. 

Grade Almost anything Clint Eastwood is involved in is usually professional and entertaining, same for William Goldman. But the plot of this film was so ludicrous that I had trouble sitting through it. Still Clint basically plays himself and that’s always fun to watch. C+

 
Hiroshima Mon Amour, Ikiru, and Night and Fog are all foreign films that have a sociopolitical element to them, two of them being overt war movies or docs, Ikiru being a movie about society and a failing governmental bureaucracy. I think any of these three rate higher than the American films that are listed, actually. They're subtler. 

Night And Fog is a graphic depiction of the Nazi Holocaust seen in many classrooms and usually requires a permission slip to see it (ahem, @Ilov80s, there's your old-fashioned trigger warning). 

 
rockaction said:
Hiroshima Mon Amour, Ikiru, and Night and Fog are all foreign films that have a sociopolitical element to them, two of them being overt war movies or docs, Ikiru being a movie about society and a failing governmental bureaucracy. I think any of these three rate higher than the American films that are listed, actually. They're subtler. 

Night And Fog is a graphic depiction of the Nazi Holocaust seen in many classrooms and usually requires a permission slip to see it (ahem, @Ilov80s, there's your old-fashioned trigger warning). 
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Hiroshima Mon Amour is beautiful. It is semi-political for sure. Night and Fog is a straight-up documentary so I am not sure that is what Tim was going for. 

Tim did miss The Year of Living Dangerously and I do suppose The Passion of Joan of Arc, Day of Wrath and Metropolis are political movies given how broad Tim has cast his net. 

 
All the President’s Men (1976) 

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Jack Warden

Plot: Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein uncover the truth about the Watergate break in: that it was planned by Nixon’s re-election committee, and Nixon himself tried to cover it up. 

Political Accuracy Follows the book pretty closely, so if the book is accurate this is too. There are some timeline discrepancies; with only 2 hours to tell a story things move faster. Now that I’ve seen 2017’s The Post, I have questions in my mind about editor Ben Bradlee; in the latter film, Tom Hanks portrays him as an affable, jovial, inviting sort of guy (much like Tom Hanks), whereas in the earlier movie Jason Robards plays him as cynical, tired, ascerbic (much like Jason Robards) I doubt he was both. There is also an emphasis in the later movie (which deals with the Pentagon Papers and takes place some months before) on Kathleen Graham, the publisher; she is heavily involved. Yet in this movie she is nowhere to be seen, it’s all Bradlee making every editorial decision. 

Grade This is another movie written by the great William Goldman and here he shines- the entire film is riveting. Of course the actors are all superb, top of their game. Cinematography by Gordon Willis of Godfather and Annie Hall fame, so it’s obvious Hollywood put their best into this effort and it shows. Actually it’s really more of a journalism movie than a political film. A+ 

 
timschochet said:
All the President’s Men (1976) 

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Jack Warden

Plot: Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein uncover the truth about the Watergate break in: that it was planned by Nixon’s re-election committee, and Nixon himself tried to cover it up. 

Political Accuracy Follows the book pretty closely, so if the book is accurate this is too. There are some timeline discrepancies; with only 2 hours to tell a story things move faster. Now that I’ve seen 2017’s The Post, I have questions in my mind about editor Ben Bradlee; in the latter film, Tom Hanks portrays him as an affable, jovial, inviting sort of guy (much like Tom Hanks), whereas in the earlier movie Jason Robards plays him as cynical, tired, ascerbic (much like Jason Robards) I doubt he was both. There is also an emphasis in the later movie (which deals with the Pentagon Papers and takes place some months before) on Kathleen Graham, the publisher; she is heavily involved. Yet in this movie she is nowhere to be seen, it’s all Bradlee making every editorial decision. 

Grade This is another movie written by the great William Goldman and here he shines- the entire film is riveting. Of course the actors are all superb, top of their game. Cinematography by Gordon Willis of Godfather and Annie Hall fame, so it’s obvious Hollywood put their best into this effort and it shows. Actually it’s really more of a journalism movie than a political film. A+ 
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Not just a great political movie but great period.  

And has Tom Hanks ever been in a movie where his character wasn’t at least mildly affable?  He could play Hitler and make it seem like he was sorta nice.

 
timschochet said:
All the President’s Men (1976) 

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Jack Warden

Plot: Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein uncover the truth about the Watergate break in: that it was planned by Nixon’s re-election committee, and Nixon himself tried to cover it up. 

Political Accuracy Follows the book pretty closely, so if the book is accurate this is too. There are some timeline discrepancies; with only 2 hours to tell a story things move faster. Now that I’ve seen 2017’s The Post, I have questions in my mind about editor Ben Bradlee; in the latter film, Tom Hanks portrays him as an affable, jovial, inviting sort of guy (much like Tom Hanks), whereas in the earlier movie Jason Robards plays him as cynical, tired, ascerbic (much like Jason Robards) I doubt he was both. There is also an emphasis in the later movie (which deals with the Pentagon Papers and takes place some months before) on Kathleen Graham, the publisher; she is heavily involved. Yet in this movie she is nowhere to be seen, it’s all Bradlee making every editorial decision. 

Grade This is another movie written by the great William Goldman and here he shines- the entire film is riveting. Of course the actors are all superb, top of their game. Cinematography by Gordon Willis of Godfather and Annie Hall fame, so it’s obvious Hollywood put their best into this effort and it shows. Actually it’s really more of a journalism movie than a political film. A+ 
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I listen to the Tony Kornheiser show most days. He obviously worked for Bradlee at the Post. 

TK has said numerous times that Robards captured him perfectly. "He was Bradlee" - TK.

 
Motorcycle Diaries was historically fairly accurate and had some great scenery, such a Machu Pichu, and good acting by Garcia Bernal. It was produced in Spanish and to make it more authentic, Garcia Bernal spent 6 months practicing Che's Argentinian accent and talking to living relatives. Some have criticized  the film for not showing the racist, homophobic side of Che, but those attitudes were consistent with the morals of the day. The film shows why Che developed strong views about capitalist exploitation.

 
McJose said:
Not just a great political movie but great period.  

And has Tom Hanks ever been in a movie where his character wasn’t at least mildly affable?  He could play Hitler and make it seem like he was sorta nice.
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The most amazing part of the movie is that it made a detective story that mostly revolves around people taking notes on the phone exciting. It's also crazy how much all the key writers of the film seemed to be on totally different pages about what the movie should be. Redford seems to want all the credit despite not being credited. William Goldman got all the credit but hated it. Woodward and Bernstein said they used almost nothing from Goldman's script but from what I've heard, if you actually look at the script almost everything he did was kept. At one point Nora Ephron worked on it with Bernstein and made a script that turned Bernstein into a Phillip Marlowe type who slept with every hot chick in DC. The whole production sounds like a mess but somehow it produced a classic thriller movie about taking notes. Alan Pakula deserves a #### ton of credit. 

 
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"All the President's Men" is a great movie.  Script and acting are top notch.  I agree with the comment above that it is hard to make a movie with a lot of note-taking and phone calls compelling to watch, but they made it work.

It gives me a chance to bring up the movie "****," which is a bit of a spoof of it. It stars Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams as a couple of ditzy high school blondes who end up being the Deep Throat source for Woodward and Bernstein (played by Will Ferrell and Bruce McCullough).  And Dan Hedaya plays my favorite Nixon on film.  There's nothing deep about it, but I enjoy putting on every now and again.  I think it was a bit overlooked because it lacked a natural audience.  Not really going to appeal to the teenage set because they aren't going to care about Watergate; and not really going to appeal to adults, because a movie about a couple of ditzy high school girls is not up their alley either.  

 
timschochet said:
In terms of content, sure. Wholly fictional. But in terms of entertaining filmmaking, I don't think its that bad. It kept me riveted.
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Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left.

Disregarding the movie is full of fabrication, that quote is right up there with “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Ubiquitous - certainly more identifiable than “You Spin Me Round” to the general public.

 
Where do you guys rank The Post? I thought it was brilliant, but haven’t really given much thought to all-time rankings within the genre.

 
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