A new poll makes us take movies politically.
All movies are political, either in what they say or how they were made. Hollywood historically attempts to disguise this fact through its maniacal devotion to commercial “entertainment.” But the leftist publication The New Republic confronted this circumstance in its recent poll on “The 100 Most Significant Political Films of All Time.”
After petitioning 190 North American film-culture professionals (critics, exhibitors, curators) to rank “bests,” TNR published responses tallied from 79 participants — hardly enough to claim consensus yet sufficient to indicate the ideological drift of Millennial #filmworld.
Results ranged from silly (No. 100, One Sings the Other Doesn’t; No. 64, The American President) to doctrinaire (No. 36, Jeanne Dielman; No. 8, Do the Right Thing). This is liberalism at its most predictable. No doubt The Nation or The Atlantic could compile a similar list favoring proto-communist political messages, especially if headed, as this poll was, by J. Hoberman, former Village Voice reviewer/spiritual leader. (No Schindler’s List in the top 100! That’s pure Hobermania, while the absence of The Searchers and The Matrix indicates the perceptual limits of those who think that “politics” means leftist dogma only.)
By inviting NRO’s participation, TNR made an admirable democratic gesture, rare among political journals. (For a critic, changing criteria from “Best” to “Most Significant” is semantics, not partisan.) It’s another opportunity to expand awareness of politics in pop culture, continuing the work of the Reading Right column. Many people — including conservatives — never think about movie politics; even libertarians refuse to, as if admitting such a perspective ruins their fun. Here are ten great films that provide political pleasure.
The Greatest Film Ever Made was filmed by D. W. Griffith in response to his controversial The Birth of a Nation. Not an excuse for “white supremacy” (the trendy term in Hoberman’s TNR overview essay), it’s bigger than that. Griffith’s “sun play” appeals to the highest thoughts of Western civilization, ingeniously marshaling Shakespeare, the Bible, Walt Whitman, and his own reformist zeal to challenge both history and the myopic hypocrisy of contemporary politics.
Abraham Lincoln (1930)
The astounding opening slave-auction scene counters Hoberman’s “born in sin” allegation by initiating slavery into American moviegoers’ consciousness. D. W. Griffith again, expanding the myth of Lincoln (impersonated by Walter Huston) to include every citizen’s moral obligation and struggle.
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Josef von Sternberg’s extraordinary spiritual vision gets so outrageous that its spectacle reveals the madness of history in Catherine the Great’s rise to power — an unforgettable figure (wittily embodied by Marlene Dietrich) combining political and sexual neuroses. Magnificent, with a thundering equine climax for adult delectation.
Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
This is how polite people used to think about and talk through bigotry against Jews and all Others. The crowning achievement of Hollywood’s Jewish identification, Elia Kazan proposes daring empathy (Gregory Peck passing for Jewish). The quietest, most rational and elegant film ever made about social turmoil, it could be made only in the land of liberty.
The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
John Ford’s deep understanding of America led him to remake his 1934 Judge Priest as a ballad of the nation’s paradoxes. Moral conscience makes Priest (Charles Winninger) an outsider in his own land, determined to always do the right, difficult thing despite complex, election-time tensions.
Advise & Consent (1962)
Otto Preminger, exploring honor and shame, takes on the skullduggery practiced during a Senate investigation. The rules of conduct are at issue, dramatized with such moving clarity (sage Charles Laughton, troubled Don Murray, principled Walter Pidgeon) that its drama provides a lesson in ethics as well as civics. Its significance is timeless — especially now.
Le Gai Savoir (1969)
Jean-Luc Godard understood language as means of social control, manipulating our thoughts (thus, the Joy of Knowing). Set primarily in the void of a dark TV studio — where Jean-Pierre Léaud and Juliet Berto work out contemporary social-speak — this is the ultimate investigation of the media. Had Roland Barthes or George Orwell displayed a visual aesthetic, they might have made this beauty. There’ll be more to say about this.
Health (1980)
Robert Altman satirizes a health-food industry convocation — candidates, sponsors, hangers-on, and hoopla — but mostly the behavior of desperate egotists all competing for approval. So inside and outside the establishment, Altman perfectly caricatures the ultimate national power struggle.
Amistad (1997)
The 1839 Spanish slave-ship revolt is used to define civilization as moral citizenship. Steven Spielberg extends Griffith’s and Ford’s historical insight through an astonishing mix of visual and ideational dialectics. Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) and John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) humanize history to make our ideals feel real.
Vincere (2009)
Viewing Mussolini’s fascist ascent through its impact on his illegitimate wife and child, Marco Bellocchio avoids facile hindsight and warns us of the personality cult to come. This mesmerizing drama (and stunning, father/son double performances by Filippo Timi) was a wake-up call that Obama-era cinephiles ignored. It’s a key movie explaining how politics affects everything. Bellocchio won’t let us be naïve viewers.