New Republic's list of 100 Most Significant Political Films

September 3, 2023 8:33 AM

What's missing from this list? This seems fairly comprehensive. But one of my favorites "The Second Civil War" didn't make the cut. Others you might recommend?
posted by Mesaverdian (75 comments total)

I don't know how significant it is, but I enjoyed A Perfect Candidate, about Oliver North's 1994 Senate campaign.

And, while it's not a great movie, I'm a little surprised An Inconvenient Truth isn't on the list.
posted by box at 8:43 AM on September 3, 2023

list makes a point of being ...Not “best.” Not “favorite.” Not “most likable.” Most significant."

Yet it doesn't include Top Gun which was huge in terms of getting folks excited about WAR again (in a FUCK YEAH Team America sort of a way) in the wake of Vietnam's dismal failure etc. Seems glaring to me.

I look forward to this discussion ....
posted by philip-random at 8:44 AM on September 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

Archive link for folks who may hit a paywall.
posted by mediareport at 8:57 AM on September 3, 2023

A good list! Love the inclusion of Do the Right Thing in the top 10, much deserved. Put that and Potemkin back to back in your film class and you have a nice discussion.

For a film that’s basically “eugenics as comedy” Idiocracy gets quoted way more than I’d expect.
posted by q*ben at 8:57 AM on September 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

⌘F: Starship Troopers

Okay, great. Good to read the rest now.
posted by brundlefly at 8:58 AM on September 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

I'm always happy to have the chance to mention that Potemkin was envisioned as always having a new score to be kept modern. It's had several new scores across the years, and Pet Shop Boys wrote a score that works so amazingly well with the film.
posted by hippybear at 9:08 AM on September 3, 2023 [7 favorites]

Battleship Potemkin HD - Pet Shop Boys Score (TRUE sync)
posted by philip-random at 9:22 AM on September 3, 2023 [10 favorites]

I can't say what provides significance to others, but for me personally, I saw Bridge Over The River Kwai at a very young age, and I think it deeply affected my views on war.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:32 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

No Network? A story about the corporate capture and exploitation of reactionary paranoia and anger redirected into feeding the machine it thinks it's rebelling against only gets more relevant by the day.

Telling your viewers to yell out their window but to keep watching TV is almost too perfect.

A shame our version of the movie ended with Howard Beale becoming president instead.
posted by Reyturner at 9:32 AM on September 3, 2023 [20 favorites]

"and the nonviolent campaign to grant secure/restore Black Americans their right to vote"

was going to say where's The Battle of Algiers, nm

mebbe "Who Killed The Electric Car?" I netflixed the DVD in 2008 and man did that movie piss me off. Happy 2018 LEAF driver (largely thanks to $15,500 in gov't rebates) now so it's all good I guess!
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 9:39 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm honestly surprised not to see Bob Roberts on the list. Tim Robbins knew he was telling an important story...but also knew it was dangerous enough that he refused to allow the release of a soundtrack in hopes the title character's pop-folk political propaganda music wouldn't be heard outside its warning-call context.
posted by Inkslinger at 9:45 AM on September 3, 2023 [13 favorites]

I went in there wondering how high Sara Gómez' De Cierta Manera would be, ready to be grumpy if it was towards the bottom, and was really shocked to see it wasn't on the list at all. I guess it's really fallen off critics' radars in the last couple of decades. Apparently it's been restored recently, so hopefully it will reenter the critical conversation.

As for why I'd include it, I'd say that it's simultaneously the best explanation of what the Cuban revolution achieved, and simultaneously its most trenchant critique.
posted by Kattullus at 9:49 AM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

good to see Costa-Gravas' Z fairly high up but in terms personal significance, 1982's Missing feels conspicuously absent -- the once concerning the other 9/11 and its aftermath.

Damned good movie.
posted by philip-random at 9:57 AM on September 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

I’m hearing good things about How to Blow Up a Pipeline.

Bit surprised not to see Sorry to Bother You here.
posted by Artw at 10:02 AM on September 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

100. One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977) Dir: Agnès Varda
99. Fail Safe (1964) Dir: Sidney Lumet
98. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Dir: John Ford
97. Germany Year Zero (1948) Dir: Roberto Rossellini
96. A Grin Without a Cat (1977) Dir: Chris Marker
95. I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
94. Weekend (1967) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
93. The World (2004) Dir: Jia Zhangke
92. The Tin Drum (1979) Dir: Volker Schlöndorff
91. Syriana (2005) Dir: Stephen Gaghan
90. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) Dir: Elio Petri
89. Salvador (1986) Dir: Oliver Stone
88. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
87. Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Dir: Kathryn Bigelow
86. Olympia (1938) Dir: Leni Riefenstahl
85. Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1958) Dir: Sergei Eisenstein
84. High and Low (1963) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
83. Go, Go Second Time Virgin (1969) Dir: Kôji Wakamatsu
82. American Sniper (2014) Dir: Clint Eastwood
81. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) Dir: Rob Epstein
80. City Hall (1996) Dir: Harold Becker
79. No (2012) Dir: Pablo Larraín
78. Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day (1972) Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
77. A Short Film About Killing (1988) Dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski
76. They Live (1988) Dir: John Carpenter
75. Starship Troopers (1997) Dir: Paul Verhoeven
74. Platform (2000) Dir: Jia Zhangke
73. Dogville (2003) Dir: Lars von Trier
72. Three Days of the Condor (1975) Dir: Sydney Pollack
71. Being There (1979) Dir: Hal Ashby
70. The Death of Stalin (2017) Dir: Armando Iannucci
69. The Best Man (1964) Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner
68. Arsenal (1929) Dir: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
67. Point of Order! (1964) Dir: Emile de Antonio
66. The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) Dir: Marcel Ophüls
65. The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) Dir: Kazuo Hara
64. The American President (1995) Dir: Rob Reiner
63. Lumumba: Death of a Prophet (1991) Dir: Raoul Peck
62. Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998) Dir: Aleksey German
61. Earth (1930) Dir: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
60. Love and Anarchy (1973) Dir: Lina Wertmüller
59. All the King’s Men (1949) Dir: Robert Rossen
58. I Am Not Your Negro (2016) Dir: Raoul Peck
57. The Last Hurrah (1958) Dir: John Ford
56. The Fog of War (2003) Dir: Errol Morris
55. Grand Illusion (1937) Dir: Jean Renoir
54. Wag the Dog (1997) Dir: Barry Levinson
53. Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps (shown at the Nuremberg trials) (1945) Dir: George Stevens
52. Bicycle Thieves (1948) Dir: Vittorio De Sica
51. The Act of Killing (2012) Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer
50. Punishment Park (1971) Dir: Peter Watkins
49. Come and See (1985) Dir: Elem Klimov
48. Bulworth (1998) Dir: Warren Beatty
47. The Parallax View (1974) Dir: Alan J. Pakula
46. Medium Cool (1969) Dir: Haskell Wexler
45. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Dir: Lewis Milestone
44. Duck Soup (1933) Dir: Leo McCarey
43. Born in Flames (1983) Dir: Lizzie Borden
42. Man of Marble (1977) Dir: Andrzej Wajda
41. Reds (1981) Dir: Warren Beatty
40. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) Dir: Ivan Dixon
39. Hearts and Minds (1974) Dir: Peter Davis
38. Primary (1960) Dir: Robert Drew
37. The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) Dir: Howard Alk
36. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Dir: Chantal Akerman
35. Night of the Living Dead (1968) Dir: George A. Romero
34. JFK (1991) Dir: Oliver Stone
33. Citizen Kane (1941) Dir: Orson Welles
32. The Hour of the Furnaces (1968) Dir: Octavio Getino & Fernando E. Solanas
31. Salt of the Earth (1954) Dir: Herbert Biberman
30. Gabriel Over the White House (1933) Dir: Gregory La Cava
29. The Great McGinty (1940) Dir: Preston Sturges
28. Selma (2014) Dir: Ava DuVernay
27. Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) Dir: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
26. The Great Dictator (1940) Dir: Charlie Chaplin
25. Strike (1924) Dir: Sergei Eisenstein
24. Lincoln (2012) Dir: Steven Spielberg
23. Advise & Consent (1962) Dir: Otto Preminger
22. Malcolm X (1992) Dir: Spike Lee
21. Night and Fog (1955) Dir: Alain Resnais
20. The Candidate (1972) Dir: Michael Ritchie
19. The Lives of Others (2006) Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
18. The Battle of Chile (1975-1979) Dir: Patricio Guzmán
17. La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000) Dir: Peter Watkins
16. Election (1999) Dir: Alexander Payne
15. Z (1969) Dir: Costa-Gavras
14. The Conformist (1970) Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
13. La Chinoise (1967) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
12. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) Dir: Barbara Kopple
11. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Dir: Frank Capra
10. A Face in the Crowd (United States, 1957) DIR: Elia Kazan
9. Shoah (France, 1985) DIR: Claude Lanzmann
8. Do the Right Thing (United States, 1989) DIR: Spike Lee
7. Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925) DIR: Sergei Eisenstein
6. Triumph of the Will (Germany, 1935) DIR: Leni Riefenstahl
5. The Birth of a Nation (United States, 1915) DIR: D.W. Griffith
4. All the President’s Men (United States, 1976) DIR: Alan J. Pakula
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (United States, 1964) DIR: Stanley Kubrick
2. The Manchurian Candidate (United States, 1962) DIR: John Frankenheimer
1. The Battle of Algiers (Algeria-Italy, 1966) DIR: Gillo Pontecorvo
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:30 AM on September 3, 2023 [10 favorites]

Dogville: "It looks like no other film you’ve ever seen."

You don't know what I've seen.
posted by nushustu at 10:42 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

No "The Purge"?
No "Taxi Driver"?
posted by chavenet at 10:55 AM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Good to see Election on here, but yeah, Network's exclusion is glaring. I guess it's because it's arguably more about the media than politics?
posted by May Kasahara at 11:26 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

"A Face in the Crowd" was on one of the more obscure digital over-the-air broadcast channels just last night. Definitely worthy of the top ten in this list. It's only fault is that it might be too optimistic about the ability of society to rid itself of such populist grifters.
posted by gimonca at 11:27 AM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Read the list before I read the selection criteria. It's an odd mix of heavy handed didactic fare, serious documentary, and thrillers with far-fetched plots.

The list makes sense given the way it was selected. But I really hate these consensus polls, where they just tally up the number of critics ranking a movie. You end up with no coherent vision behind it. Makes the discussion around it tough too.

There are some that look like they're up my alley that I haven't seen, though, so I should be grateful for that.
posted by mark k at 11:30 AM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'd probably add Army of Shadows as well.
posted by nushustu at 11:32 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

If I could add one, I'd add "Incendies" by Denis Villeneuve. Members of a Lebanese family deal with the trauma of war and violence, both in Lebanon and after moving to Canada. Absolutely gripping, not for the faint of heart, I'd give it a strong recommendation.
posted by gimonca at 11:37 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

Did not expect to see Larraín's No, was pleasantly surprised.
posted by signal at 11:43 AM on September 3, 2023

Battleship Potemkin HD - Pet Shop Boys Score (TRUE sync) yt

Thanks for linking that, philip-random. This is a higher-quality video than the one I've seen before, and it includes the reel missing from the version I have. Not so sure about the modern typeface on the title cards, but this is the best presentation of this I've seen.
posted by hippybear at 11:46 AM on September 3, 2023

It’s really strange when a work of art you think is canonical turns out to be marginal. Well, strange for me, anyway.

I asked a friend who’s a film critic based in New York, and according to him De Cierta Manera is really niche, mostly watched by leftists with an interest in Cuban cinema, and outside of that has a tiny cult following.

Anyway, it seems to be available on Mubi. If you’ve never seen it, it’s more than well worth watching. It’s one of my favorites.
posted by Kattullus at 12:01 PM on September 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

I’m hearing good things about How to Blow Up a Pipeline.

It was surprisingly thoughtful and thrilling, with nice acting. Well worth seeing, even if it left me wanting more characterization and backstory. Just showed up on Hulu.
posted by mediareport at 12:11 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Emile de Antonio's Point of Order is on there, but I'd probably add Milhouse: A White Comedy and In the Year of the Pig.
posted by box at 12:32 PM on September 3, 2023

Need this one somewhere in the top 100.
posted by milnews.ca at 12:33 PM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

milnews.ca: Need this one somewhere in the top 100.

Alex Shephard goes to bat for In the Loop in the “who shouldn’t’ve been left out” sidebar.
posted by Kattullus at 12:49 PM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

Strike is a great piece of cinema; not as grand and expansive as Battleship Potemkin, but still ruviting and surprisingly fresh.

I feel like maybe there’s too much Oliver Stone on the list; he more follows the zeitgeist than leads it.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:14 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

If the criterion is 'Most Significant', not 'best political cinema', then we have to acknowledge the dark side as well, which is:

Birth of a Nation triggered the organization of the Second Klan and a wave of racism that was the 'nadir of race relations in America'

Triumph of the Will is the lodestone of Nazi iconography and a major reason for the staying power of Nazi symbolism today.


On a brighter note: Alexander Nevsky was a key propaganda point in Soviet cinema for opposing the Nazi invasion. Forman's The Fireman's Ball was the major cinematic relic of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.

On a neutral note: 12 Angry Men is a propaganda triumph- an incredible defense of the American legal system. Also, what about Army of Shadows, the best film about the French Resistance during WW2, and one of the most controversial films in 1960s France?

Those are my major omissions.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 2:14 PM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

I would add The Third Man.
posted by brundlefly at 2:19 PM on September 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

Glad to see that "A face in the crowd" made it to the list! I was going to suggest it if it wasn't included. In 1957, Elia Kazan already understood that TV would sooner or later give us someone like Donald Trump. This film is impressively intelligent about what kind of people will rise to power in the mass media society. The main character is not a rebel or an outcast, but he sure can play one on TV. It's all about appearances - a fake regular guy persona - just like the populism in so many countries today.

Also: "In the loop" - and the TV series "The thick of it" by the same gang of fools - are so much better than "Death of Stalin", which should be filed under "interesting failures".
posted by Termite at 2:27 PM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

Hell yeah on the #1 pick. I never fully understood terrorism before watching it. Like, I understood the definition and the reasoning, but I never understood it before that movie.
posted by queensissy at 2:33 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Also, I'd like to add the Korean film "Parasite".
posted by Termite at 2:33 PM on September 3, 2023 [7 favorites]

It's probably inevitable, but this list seems excessively US- and Europe-centric.

I'd add La Boca del Lobo (1988), which dramatizes the terror caused by both Sendero Luminoso and the army in Peru. But really, there are a lot of good political movies from Latin America. Any list of top films will include some candidates.
posted by zompist at 2:45 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wasn’t thrilled to see American Sniper on there, but at least it was toward the bottom. An omission I noted was Matewan. They should show that on TV in West Virginia before elections.
posted by TedW at 2:48 PM on September 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'm honestly surprised not to see Bob Roberts on the list.

Especially when the more insignificant Wag the Dog made the cut.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 3:08 PM on September 3, 2023

no Nashville or Danton
posted by clavdivs at 3:11 PM on September 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

And the even more insignificant Bulworth.

The best thing about that turd is Ol' Dirty Bastard's verse on 'Ghetto Superstar.'
posted by box at 3:13 PM on September 3, 2023

Matewan should be in the top 15.

ain't gonna be no fire on the hole
posted by clavdivs at 3:18 PM on September 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

I would nclude The Travelling Players by Theodoros Angelopoulos; Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's Memorias del Subdesarrollo, Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun, Andrzej Wajda's Danton, Bruno Dumont's La vie de Jésus, Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake.
posted by abakua at 4:37 PM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

Spirit of the Beehive, perhaps?

(Oh, and Army of Shadows is just so frickin' grim. I don't think I could ever watch it a second time.)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:02 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

In the end, everything’s political. So many suggestions here are right on the nose. 3rd man is so overarchingly political. How about Zentropa/ Europa?
posted by nothing.especially.clever at 6:44 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

I guess if I did have any suggestion to make here, it might be To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar. I felt like that movie was entirely revolutionary when it first appeared, and it continues to feel that way even today, challenging everyone to just let each other be themselves.

And I guess alongside that, as far as cultural impact equals politically important, Philadelphia was gigantic in helping move attitudes about AIDS in a way that gave humanity to its victims, which they earlier had been denied.
posted by hippybear at 7:44 PM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

The Trial (1962) directed by Orson Welles.

This one seems like a glaring omission and the book by Kafka has never not been extremely relevant since it was first published posthumously in 1925.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 9:00 PM on September 3, 2023

If the criterion is 'Most Significant', not 'best political cinema', then we have to acknowledge the dark side as well, which is: Birth of a Nation [...] Triumph of the Will

Those are #'s 5 and 6 on the list. I wonder what an entirely dark side list would look like. Rambo? Dirty Harry? Red Dawn? Shake a stick at Clancy? It feels hard to pick something out from the general reinforcement from everywhere.
posted by fleacircus at 11:23 PM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

criteria I guess.
Time, subject matter, history, production.
why isn't Chinatown on the list, it's film noirIsh, fictional history.Apocalypse Now. Well, no. it' was more about the journey then the time period, though the movie itself has created much commentary.

98. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Dir: John Ford.

I'd replace that with the The Searchers.
posted by clavdivs at 1:05 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

It would be really hard for me to choose between the two.
posted by brundlefly at 1:17 AM on September 4, 2023

It’s another comedy, but I have a feeling that Dave had the same impact and did a better job of it than The American President.

Surprised not to see The China Syndrome
posted by Mchelly at 5:10 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I guess if I did have any suggestion to make here, it might be To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar. I felt like that movie was entirely revolutionary when it first appeared, and it continues to feel that way even today, challenging everyone to just let each other be themselves.

...The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert would like a word about the "revolutionary" claim, and to also go on the record that it came out one year prior to Wong Foo.

....Some of these were REALLY interesting choices. I was pleased to see The Candidate in there; and Do The Right Thing getting placed so high is right.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:17 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Missing La Historia Official/The Official Story. It's about the dirty war in Argentina, the disappeared, the stolen children, and the willful blindness of those who benefited. Won the Oscar for best foreign language film, the first one from Latin America to do so.

I saw it as part of a Spanish class in college. It has stuck with me twenty years later.
posted by Hactar at 5:49 AM on September 4, 2023

Getting Election in the top 20 and Dr. Strangelove in the top 5 is right as rain.

Terrible not to make The Candidate number 1, and to downgrade it to number 20, given that it is, 50 years later, the one major picture that has ever even tried to depict what big-time American politics is actually like.
posted by MattD at 7:32 AM on September 4, 2023

CTRL F Four Lions 🧐🧐🧐
posted by pxe2000 at 7:47 AM on September 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

It might be disqualified as TV, but Roots had a significant impact in the late 70s/early 80s….
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:50 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

King of Hearts ? " later Adolf !!!"
posted by hortense at 10:14 AM on September 4, 2023

there’s some right-wing stuff that was super influential but is missing. i’m thinking here especially of top gun (both the original and the remake). i enjoyed the hell out of both of them — the new one + a good screen + a good sound system + edibles is a total blast — but you can’t deny the political content nor its badness.

honestly the more i think about this the more trouble i have identifying movies that are clearly and unambiguously non-political.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 10:53 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's a pretty broad definition of "political" and omits some great movies that are more political than some on the list, as others have noted.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:36 AM on September 4, 2023

Zero Dark Thirty being on there sticks out to me, for some reason. It's certainly of the politics of its time, being a fictional account of the post 9/11 hunt for Bin Laden, but it's not exactly politically coherent in itself. It has the jingoism of a lot of materials at that time, but tries I to have a more nuanced take on the cost of that. Then it turns out its account of events is more or less total bullshit, and any nuance it has is basically reduced down to the most bullshit of those elements: as an apologia for torture. It's got the aesthetics of being significant and political, but really isn't any more than any other action movie of the era is.
posted by Artw at 11:44 AM on September 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

omits some great movies that are more political than some on the list

I remember some years ago reading an interview with Joe Strummer (The Clash) where the interviewer kept trying to steer him into particular political corners. Strummer finally said, "What do you even mean by political? I think Duran Duran are at least as political as The Clash. They just happen to be in favour of the status quo, so nobody notices." (or words to that effect)

In light of this, I suppose the list of the most politically influential movies of all time should really no different than this list of the highest-grossing films adjusted for inflation.

1 Gone with the Wind
2 Avatar
3 Titanic
4 Star Wars
5 Avengers: Endgame
6 The Sound of Music
7 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
8 The Ten Commandments
9 Doctor Zhivago
10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens
posted by philip-random at 1:29 PM on September 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

Duran Duran is actually terribly political if you know their catalog beyond the hits. And individual members of the band have never made secret their interests and desires for society, even while they've managed to avoid saying anything that could get them "cancelled".

Even their videos Girls On Film's first video is quite deliberately trying to push cultural boundaries, even while being a song about exploitation of fashion models. Continuing with vague revolution-against-the-system imagery in New Moon On Monday's video, and with other examples across their career more and more moving toward "love and sunshine" messages like (Reach Up for The) Sunrise, they've always reflected and tried to affect the social and political climate in which they dwell.
posted by hippybear at 2:25 PM on September 4, 2023

They did lead a revolution against the Black Queen of Sogo on Tau Ceti, in one of their more political movies.
posted by Artw at 2:36 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Artw: "Zero Dark Thirty being on there sticks out to me, for some reason. "

Agreed. It's rah-rah-USA and torture is fun, kids! A good movie, but political? Nah.
posted by signal at 6:04 PM on September 4, 2023

Isn't that inherently political? It definitely represents some dominant politics of its time.
posted by brundlefly at 7:16 PM on September 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

It reflects them, sure. But so would a 24 or a Homeland.
posted by Artw at 7:37 PM on September 4, 2023

in a FUCK YEAH Team America sort of a way

Speaking of Team America...
posted by vverse23 at 9:11 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

> Isn't [zero Dark Thirty] inherently political? It definitely represents some dominant politics of its time.

It reflects them, sure. But so would a 24 or a Homeland.

The problem there is that 24 and Homeland were TV shows and this is a list of films, ergo....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:44 AM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sigh… then a Bourne Legacy or a Taken 2.
posted by Artw at 7:32 AM on September 5, 2023

I'd say the difference between Zero Dark Thirty and the others getting mentioned is one of verisimilitude. I only watched about twenty minutes of Zero Dark but it was pretty relentless in its "realism". Not just purporting to tell a true story but doing so in a flat, believable way, and trading on it all the way to the Oscars etc. Whereas the Bourne movies, 24, Homeland, Taken etc -- they're all selling a sort of heightened reality of supercops, super agents, supervillains (not full on Marvel level, but comfortably in the realm of make believe).

Which doesn't really make them any less political, I suppose, just differently so.
posted by philip-random at 7:45 AM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

On that note, I would like to strike American Sniper and replace it with Jarhead.
posted by box at 7:49 AM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

The list is called "100 Most Significant Political Films", not "100 Movies Which Are Sort of Political if You Squint Just Right."

I dispute that Zero Dark Thirty—which just reinforces the contemporary discourse around the "war on terrah"—had any political significance, especially compared to the other films on the list.
posted by signal at 8:14 AM on September 5, 2023

It’s a weird one because it probably would have been completely assumed to be political a few years back but has shifted into a fuzzier zone. I don’t know how unique it is in that.
posted by Artw at 10:48 AM on September 5, 2023

I'll repeat my general complaint that this style of list necessarily lacks coherence. Is a "significant political film" a film that has had a significant political impact? A high quality film that's about politics? A significant film with political implications? Yes, and whatever else makes sense to one or two critics.

But at the time, Zero Dark Thirty is an Oscar winner that touched on a matter of political debate, and triggered op-eds and press releases by senators. It makes the eligibility cut by lots of categories.

For my money, of the ones I've seen, the least political is definitely Three Days of the Condor, which used to be one of my favorite thrillers but has almost nothing to do with politics except some vague vibes and the choice of MacGuffin.
posted by mark k at 7:10 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

But at the time, Zero Dark Thirty is an Oscar winner

* dons pedant hat *

Zero Dark Thirty may indeed be an Oscar winner, but it won for Best Sound Editing, and actually tied with Skyfall. It lost all of the sexier awards; Argo won for Best Picture that year, Django Unchained won for Best Screenplay, and Jennifer Lawrence beat Jessica Chastain for Best Actress.

I think the subject matter is what's carrying this film's inclusion, in other words. That and the "this is about how we caught that muthafukka Bin Laden" unconscious message there.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:57 AM on September 6, 2023

Unifying Three Days of the Condor and Zero Dark Thirty: The World Trade Centre.
posted by Artw at 8:04 AM on September 6, 2023