Some of you have already read and laughed at National Review Online's list of the best conservative movies. The writer seems to view Hollywood as a liberal cess pool determined to shove its own warped view of morality on the world, showing traditional ideals as silly and America as a cruel, injust place.
To me, that's not what a liberal movie is about. The best ones don't preach. They show consequences. They carry inhumane ideas to their logical conclusion. They cajole the conscience with a light touch, but with emotional gravity. They make you consider things you might not have considered before, and cast light on unexamined ideas.
So with that spirit in mind, I present my own personal list of the best liberal movies. The list is not meant to be comprehensive, and it comes in no order of importance.
As always with these lists, please feel free to share your own favorites in the comments section.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
"If you're a man, Winston, you're the last man. Your kind is extinct. We are the inheritors."
The reduction of words into simplistic slogans, the transformation of people into hate-filled drones, the naked pursuit of power for power's own sake, everything that Orwell's classic novel is spelled out here in this movie's stark, brutal, wanting world of Airstrip One. If freedom is liberal, then the opposite of liberalism is not conservatism, but totalitarianism. This adaptation shows the impact of denying men and women their freedoms, and the inevitable conclusion of any form of government that would seek to control people's lives, actions and even their thoughts.
Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb(1964)
"Well, I, uh, don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir."
I was amazed to find out not long ago that this story was originally written as a straight-faced historical "what-if" rather than as the biting satirical comedy Stanley Kubrick made it into. Other movies have captured the futility of war, but only this one shows the insanity of it, particularly when nuclear weapons become a part of it. When the people at the top of the chain of command strike the blindingly suicidal postures that they did during the Cold War, I suppose the only right way to examine it more closely is to laugh at the whole thing. From front to back, this movie shows the effectiveness of black humor in getting us through difficult times.
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
"We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this."
The chilling impact of the political hysteria and the knee-jerk paranoia that so often comes to be synonymous with our nation's most trying moments in history is vividly shown here. But more than showing it, director George Clooney and star David Strathairn manage to cloak the audience the thick, smoky hubbub of a real, live newsroom -- with all the giddy gravity of it. I love this movie for conveying that feeling. The immediacy of it is something amazing to watch unfold. And it reminds us of a time when scrutiny and the asking of simple questions was at the same time difficult and extremely important.
12 Angry Men (1957)
"I feel sorry for you... what it must feel like to want to pull the switch."
I watch this movie any time I need a reminder that Henry Fonda is a god. The force of his performance, backed up by one of the best ensemble casts ever put together, equals the force of his words and the force of his convictions. His faith that a person's life is not something to be thrown away over circumstantial evidence, raw emotions and prejudice is something that just flows out of the screen.The movie reveals the ugliness and shame of those who would put themselves in an executioner's hood and drop the trapdoor open. A powerful meditation on the importance of justice.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
"Maybe there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue, they's just what people does."
Many have railed against this movie for diluting Steinbeck's original message, but Steinbeck himself said Henry Fonda's portrayal of Tom Joad made him believe his own words. This movie has heart, and the message it actually managed to get away with is pretty amazing when you consider the day in which it was made. The movie faced boycotts from banks and farmers, who resented the way they were portrayed in the film, and the Production Code people insisted on several changes in the story. Even so, the soul of the Joads and of Steinbeck's great American story are still vibrant in this movie. Never has simple humanity been captured so well.
American History X (1998)
"Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time."
In many ways, this is a brave movie for showing how hate is passed down from father to son, from brother to brother, and more importantly the destructive consequences that it has on people. It divides families, it ruins lives -- it even ends lives. Notably, the effects of racial hatred in this movie are shown to be every bit as destructive on the hater as it is on the hated. This is a side of the issue that is not often explored. In places, the movie's message is somewhat simplistic, but as someone who has learned to defeat hatred in his own life, I have always appreciated the bold message of this film.
Metropolis (1927)
"The mediator between the head and the hand must be the heart!"
This timeless story is a work of art that has had an inestimable impact on science fiction and on movies in general. But the message is as beautiful as its visuals. The struggling worker class rises up, not to destroy the upper class, but to demand their share and work alongside them rather than underneath them. It's utopian in the way that only a work made before the rise of the Nazis could be, but it's still inspiring.
Network (1976)
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
I'm told by those older than me that in its day, this movie was seen as wildly over the top, but today it seems almost to kind to the state of our media. The only unforgivable sin in this world is to make a show that nodoby watches. But as long as your ratings are good, anything goes, money is god, truth is a distraction, and nothing is sacred. And of course there's Howard Beale, the screaming, raving voice of the people's dissatisfaction, eventually seduced and corrupted by a man with a heart of industry and dollars who believes AT&T, Dow and Exxon are the real nations of the world.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
"I wasn't... nine years old. My daddy, he made sure me and brother seen it. Hell for all I know, he done the job."
Unlike many of these movies, I was alive to see this one in theaters. And here in Oklahoma even, there were "Star Wars" lines to see this movie that many people knew only as "the gay cowboy movie." Women with big hair. Men in Wranglers. They came to see this movie. I watched it again with a homophobic middle-aged woman who said after watching it that it never occurred to her that gay people could feel love for each other. She said this in all sincerity. This isn't a movie that preaches. It just shows what life is like for people who aren't allowed to be who they are, and showing is always better than telling.
UPDATE: I forgot a very important movie to me. Sorry, it won't be in the poll.
The Great Dictator (1940)
"I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white."
Apart from being a masterful work of comedy and political satire, this movie was released at a time when Nazi Germany's horrors were yet unknown to most of the world. While it is a product of the time in which it was created, it is also a timeless pie in the face of would-be dictators everywhere, and contains a beautiful humanistic message. The boundless optimism of the Jewish Barber's final speech is stirring and uplifting to even the most jaded soul -- not an easy feat for a comedian from the 1940s.
