6 Movies to See Before the Election
Two weekends remain before Election Day — just enough time for movie fans to pop in a couple of flicks. These suggestions aren’t obvious election-related films like 2016 or Occupy Unmasked. For starters, these movies aren’t necessarily as depressing. They can instead be hilarious, uplifting, and fascinating. But each one has something to say.
1. Avalon
Avalon is the gorgeous Barry Levinson story of Russian-Jewish immigrants who came to America, and who came to love America. They proudly sought America’s material promise and spiritual freedom. They built things, they raised families, they dreamed. They realized that no place on Earth offered the same life to those determined to work hard. Sometimes they failed, but that didn’t stop them. Sometimes they made mistakes, but they learned. Avalon is the story of what happens when the goodness of a nation is matched with good people. It is a story of what makes our nation great and what Americans have treasured for generations.
2. Idiocracy
If Avalon is poetic and beautiful, this Mike Judge comic farce is ugly and lowbrow, except it really isn’t. Idiocracy is the story of an “average” American who is frozen for 500 years and awakens to a totally transformed America. Law, culture, morals, ambition, intelligence, initiative, thrift, industry, and competence have all rotted away. The movie is a comic romp through the resulting society. Planes fall from the sky, government planning leads to near famine, and sugar drinks flow through tubes to millions watching TV on the couch.
Idiocracy was great!
After I saw it, I often find myself muttering “Idiocracy is here” – although the movie allegedly takes place 500 years in the future.
Nearly all futuristic fiction is really about the present.
Idiocracy is the present for about half of the population and the overall future for the country. Education is increasingly dumbed down, thinking and work are taboo, while partying, dancing, boozing it up, and expecting a free living (or bureaucratic jobs) are the norm. Just as the film shows, the system encourages the idiots to prolifically breed while the more intelligent do not. It would also seem that ignorance, whether through genetics or upbringing, tends to trump intelligence.
The movie is based on one of several written stories. The most commonly referenced is “The Marching Morons.” “Search the Sky” by Pohl is another one in novel length where the characters find a series of Idiocracies, variations on how it could happen. A few others are out there but I don’t recall their names. The premise is basically the same: a free society requires intelligent and educated people, dummies can’t handle it. What you don’t see in Idiocracy are the minders behind the scenes.
I think, that in Idiocracy, when it is announced that Brawndo is bad for the plants, the computer automatically kicks in to drop the stock price and then fires a bunch of people. The basic idea is that the smart people setup a bunch of computers to do everything and everyone forgot how things worked without the computer’s.
too busy batin’ to bother
I’m starting to think that a president Camacho will be elected in my lifetime.
As long as he has qualified advisers like Not Sure, it should be fine.
Idiocracy: our future… just keep voting Democrat.
Here is my list of 6 “must see before the election”; Atlas Shrugged I & II, The Fountainhead, We The Living, High Noon, Gattaca, 1984
I agree. I’m actually amazed at how little discussion there is about Atlas Shrugged II. Sadly, part I received mostly criticism from many conservatives. Atlas Shrugged II is very much better than part I, with better visual effects, and also works in some Ayn Rand’s philosophy on economics and individual liberty.
Most of the critics of the Atlas Shrugged movies are those who have read and liked the book. I don’t know any movie that has adequately captured the depth found in the book it was based on. It is too difficult to condense a book into a movie less than two hours long without sacrificing important parts of the plot and then rewriting the story to hide the missing material.
I never read any of Ayn Rand’s books, so I liked the movies. They were a bit long and dry, but then I’m used to modern movies that support weak plots with non-stop outrageous special effects. These movies reminded me more of the old black and white dramas when people actually found a movie that required thinking to watch good. The plot in the movie was fairly well presented and showed the likely effects of over-regulation, political correctness and too much government.
I voted. Will you?
Must-see political movies?
Preston Sturges’ The Great McGinty; the funniest view of machine politics ever, with bravura performances.
A Face in the Crowd; Andy Griffith as “Lonesome” Rhodes, demagogue.
Everyone knows Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, and State of the Union, all of which are superb (even if Spencer Tracy’s “Republican” platform in State of the Union is a little overly “progressive”). But try and find his film American Madness, in which Walter Huston is a banker in the depths of the Depression making loans on “character.” The bank-run scene, as it builds, is gripping.
The best cynical look at the press and local machine politics? The original of The Front Page, starring Pat O’Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Edward Everett Horton, and Frank McHugh. There are no substitutes; the remakes are star vehicles. This is the gritty one.
And, of course, the original of The Manchurian Candidate.
Ithink you miss the point. These are NOT POLITICAL movies per se. It is why I left off all Rand stuff. These are more subtle culural touchstones. Those can be more powerful.
Miss the point? Perhaps, but I disagree. The films I’ve mentioned are “cultural touchstones” too—not merely because they’ve been around a long time, but because they show an America we are in danger of losing whoever wins in November.
The America portrayed in the films I have listed show an America where people had a sense of humor about themselves; where they recognized the corruption which is inevitably part of human endeavors and allowed themselves to be angry about it, but where they stopped short of the bitterness and polarization that have become so much a part of this country over the last four years, and particularly during this campaign.
The films I’ve listed show people that know, yes, the press are lying whores; yes, money and cheating and lies and sweetheart deals and porkbarrel spending play a part in politics; yes, people can be stampeded by hysteria; yes, folksiness and the common touch can be masks for demagoguery and power-grabbing. But they also show people who can make a difference by an act of conscience; they show that ordinary people can be good and even noble when called upon to be; that cynicism needs humor to prevent it becoming bitterness. They are films which recognize that the system is inevitably flawed, and that voting for the “good guy” is never enough; that to keep the system as good as it can be we must also continue to strive to become better people.
These are films which show America in the way George Orwell described Charles Dickens at the conclusion of his essay on Dickens; they are generously angry. We have the anger; we must remember that generosity and strive as a nation to recapture it, for without it any victory in November will ultimately be a hollow one.
Actually, all movies are political. Leftists dedicate their lives to furthering their ideas, and that includes the entertainment industry. There’s only an occasional nod to a value that can be considered conservative. Only after decades of liberalism expressed as normalcy in entertainment would we be the kind of America that would elect a radical marxist like Obama.
Many of the action and thriller films since the 70′s contain political plots. A corrupted conservative bureaucracy is challenged by a counter-culture outsider is a favorite. Read the Bourne novels and then watch the Bourne movies and you will see how the movies were changed to make a subtle political point. On the flip side, there is the plot where hip progressive leaders are confronted by some rogue military officer or politician who is portrayed as conservative to the point of being dangerous. Usually they are trying to start a war or using their influence to further a criminal enterprise. I find most movies like these too preposterous and annoying to watch. I hardly watch new movies anymore, unless I find a legal way to see them for free.
I agree with Adams on this. I’m tired of irony-free Randites shoving their humorless agenda in peoples’ faces. Kudos to Adams for including “Putney Swope”, one of the funniest movies ever. I saw “Swope” when it came out … three times. It was that good, and still is. “I speak for housing in the community — lay some bread on us!” Says it all.
This election is a very serious matter, thus watching or exposing others to the dangers of what could happen is also very important. Now is not the time to be a Pollyanna. One can get a good laugh at anytime, but with such heavy political matters at stake, it makes sense to keep the focus. On Wednesday Nov. 7th we can focus on the fluff.
Thanks for the list. I had not seen even one of these but will be looking for them!
Good call on Avalon. Such a wonderful and underrated movie with a positive message about family and living the American Dream.
I would add The Devil and Daniel Webster.
In it you see a Jury being Persuaded by Mr. Scratch (The Devil) by appealing to their Base Desires – while Daniel Webster appeals to them “As Americans.”
I think you can see some parallels to the Election today if you watch it.
We are well on our way to idiocracy! I can’t imagine Rnald Reaganor even Bill Clinton saying such nonsence words to explain himself. Our society is accepting immorality as the norm
Russell Crowe’s tweeting that Obama is “the light” has put me off the silver screen a while.
Russell, you let us down, mate!
Read “Et Tu Brute” at:
http://john-moloney.blogspot.com/
For number 6, anything accurate about Chanukah – although I don’t know if such an animal exists, especially since it is assumed that my anscestors were not so much fighting against a foreign conqueror as against our own assimilated brethren. (I always wondor why many of my fellow Israelis celebrate it – whose side would they have been on?)
You can get the opener of Idiocracy, which explains the theory behind the premise, as well as the “commercials” from the show, on YouTube – they are very funny.
Looks like an interesting list, but one could also take out the John Adams series with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney from the local library and get a brush-up on how we ended up with a Declaration of Independence…and a country. For me, the interplay between the Founders at the Continental Congresses is the best part.
I would love to see HBO follow up with series based on Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison. Truth in these cases is far more interesting than fiction, and I think people are ready for a serious treatment of the Founding of the nation.
I found myself rewatching Idiocracy recently. My main problem with the film is the implied genetic determinism, and the pessimism that ignores the role that social standards play, which can and will trump genes whenever such standards of conduct and discourse are maintained. But overall it’s a great movie. Particularly salient was the idea of the sports drink marketed as “It’s got what plants crave!” I feel the same unthinking marketing is at work with selling economic stimulus to people. “Stimulus: it’s got what economies crave!”
I would add “Murder by Decree” to the list. It is frankly the best movie about corruption and political cover-up that I have ever seen.
Again, I did not want political movies. These are movies about subtle values, subtle things, mostly. The 7up series is not political, but it tells you something. Idiocracy is a comedy. Avalon has nothing political. That’s the point.
OBAMA’S 2012 PLAN: OVERWHELM THE SYSTEM. Rahm Emanuel cynically said, “You never want a crisis to go to waste.” It is now becoming clear that the crisis he was referring to is Barack Obama’s presidency. Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely …READ MORE: http://bwcentral.org/2012/10/obamas-agenda-overwhelm-the-system/
I saw Idiocracy as a covert push for indoctrinating Evolutionary belief. Think about it, what is the take-away of the movie? It doesn’t resolve it’s initial dilemma, which was that stupid irresponsible people breed more. There is no actual sense that such a reality could exist (such a plot contains a mutual agreement with the audience to just relax and enjoy the comedy), because it still takes smart people behind the scenes to make and repair stuff – stuff that was apparently still in abundance in a brain dead world.
Doesn’t make sense, but the one thing that the movie doesn’t mock is Evolution, all the while, in the reality of what is explained in the movie and the basis for the plot, is Natural Selection and not Evolution; which is standard for any method of Evolutionary indoctrination (because Evolution doesn’t happen). I stay current on Evolutionary news, and the requisite anti-Evolution rebuttals, and there is not one instance of anything evolving in the sense needed for Evolution to be confirmed. Not one. There are many cases of Natural Selection being called Evolution, but nothing absolutely novel has ever been shown to actualize not already existing within an existing life form’s genetics. Mutations can occur, but a mutation is a deleterious or neutral event in which it absolutely takes a leap of faith to believe something like the brain simply evolved through mutations. Or there exists the fallacy of explaining that it takes millions of years for Evolution to happen, and therefore we can’t really observe it. Very well then, let’s teach it to kids as true anyway, shall we?
So, watching Idiocracy the audience relaxes their logic and let’s the movie indoctrinate them into thinking that Evolution does happen, because when they leave the theater and reenter the real world the only “true” thing about the movie they remember, the subconsious sorting fact and fiction, will be that Evolution is okay. And that’s enough. That’s enough for much damage to be done on a person’s worldview.
And try to explain to someone the difference between Natural Selection and Evolution, about why it is crucial, or the ramifications of an evolutionized American/World-society and you get looks similar to those seen in the people in the future in Idiocracy. Fantastic!
What Idiocracy had to say, you just proved — any backwards knuckle dragger with the IQ of cold soup can type on a computing device invented by the same science that revealed evolution. I had no idea people like you even existed; I thought you were a punchline or a putdown, a democrat invented version of sasquatch. Perhaps next week you can let us in on the earth being flat or tell us there was no moon landing. But not today. Please. My sides hurt.
Well, you certainly put me in my place. But please, if you could just refer me to your proof of Evolution… we’ll be all set.
Doesn’t work that way, ace. You have to do this the way the rest of us do — you go get your original research published in peer reviewed journals so your fellow scientists (professional colleagues) can overturn the present paradigm. THEN you get to make as many claims as you like and I won’t make fun of you. Until then you’re just a flaming looney toon.
So that’s how Columbus did it. I always knew something was missing.
Listen, genius, all you’re doing is making my point. Haha
Mr Adams
I’m thinking Stallone in Demolition Man here. Certainly this one has things to say about politics and such and yet doesn’t say them. It too has wry commentary re political correctness, the human condition, etc. Dennis Leary has some of the best lines, e.g. the one about needing weapons to go shopping.
C’mon!! “Being There”. Perfect, but for the race angle. Incompetence is as incompetence does.
We watched “Lives of Others” and thought it should be required viewing for all high school students and probably even those supporting Obama’s agenda. Most Americans seem to have forgotten how people in the Soviet block countries suffered under socialism and other oppressive forms of government. I am old enough to remember seeing pictures of what was going on over in Europe (that was when the media did their job) when the suffering population would risk their lives to flee their home countries. You have to be willing to watch subtitled films and if I recall “Lives of Others” could have used more subtitles. We almost exclusively watch foreign movies to see depth of content and not support the leftist of Hollywood.
May I suggest Secretariat, November 6th is the Belmont.
Secretariat is “We the People”, hear our thundering hooves as we race across the finish line. The ignored majority will be heard on Election Day.
Has anyone mentioned “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest”? Jack Nicholson’s R.P. McMurphy finds a “get out of jail free” card by faking insanity and landing in a asylum. He quickly feels stifled by the matriarchy of his nanny-state confinement, and is astonished to learn that most of the other residents are voluntary. There’s also more than a passing resemblance between Nurse Ratched and Hillary Clinton.
OneFOTCN is a fine movie. Its strength is its affirmation of human individuality and resistance to mindless or thoughtless bureaucratic oppression. Unfortunately, its weakness is its appeal to sheer anarchy. McMurphy has no agenda except his visceral resistance and narcissism, which in fact mirrored the simplistic non-answers of the era of the film. The Indian ‘escapes’ in the end – but where to? .. he’s still in the modern USA
yes – Idiocracy. Watch it.
Idiocracy was great but watch it on TV because in the DVD version the cursing goes on and on and on – it really is distracting. The orignal short story is much better on only takes a few minutes to read…..