politics in film

After my post yesterday about President Bush's acting debut and his eerie physical similarities to Sterling Hayden, I got to thinking about politics in movies. Politics and film have always had an unstable relationship. Movies containing political ideas, whether subtle or substantial to the plot, generally are not that popular with the typical movie going masses. However, political movies have always been popular with Oscar voters, and that trend has seemed to have increased somewhat in the last few years.
Last year each of the five best picture nominees were either political in nature or were embraced/rejected by those with political agendas. In addition, when Million Dollar Baby won the award the year before, many claimed it was due to a major plot point of the film and how it dealt with a particularly hot issue of the time.
If you do a search for "best political movies" you get a wide variety of results. You may find a list of movies about Presidents or the political machine such as The American President or Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (yes those count as being political films). Or you might find a list that contains movies like Million Dollar Baby or Crash; great stories that have political undertones (intended or not) that just might press you rethink your position on an issue. A few films combine both aspects and we get All The President's Men and The Manchurian Candidate.
I tend to like films in the second category. Any film that tells an engaging story, fictional or historical, and forces me to look at an issue from another perspective, political or not, has done its job well. Here is a quick list of my favorite political movies in no particular order:

All The President's Men, Crash, Requiem For A Dream, The Contender, JFK, Wag The Dog, Dr. Strangelove, The Insider, Bowling For Columbine, American History X, Traffic, The Life Of David Gale, Nashville, A Clockwork Orange, Million Dollar Baby, House Of Sand And Fog, Syriana, The Manchurian Candidate

Some upcoming political films include: This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Man Of The Year, The U.S. Vs John Lennon, Bobby, All The King's Men, The Good Shepherd

So today while I scanned the Internet for movie related news I found myself reading more and more articles about political films. In addition to the release of D.O.A.P. and its upcoming screening at Toronto's film festival, there are quite a couple of other hot button films that are garnering attacks from both sides of the political spectrum.

- Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth will be out on DVD November 21 in an eco-friendly package. Gore's film about global warming received much criticism from conservatives trying to convince us all that our current grotesque pollution levels are just fine.

- ABC will be showing their mini-series The Path To 9/11 on Sunday and Monday nights at 8:00pm. Former members of President Clinton's administration are already criticizing the film, claiming the it points the finger at Clinton's Presidency and fabricates events to support the accusations made.

Finally, one week before the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, comes the story of the plane that didn't reach it's intended, but still unknown target. The film United 93 was widely hailed by critics when it was released back in April, disliked only by the few who found they weren't ready to watch it. The DVD came out on Tuesday, and it was given a very 'quiet' release if I must say. I'm going to watch it by the weekend and will let you know what I thought of it here, that is if I can bring myself to get out of bed the next day.