Politics have proven to be fertile ground for storytelling on film. Whether it’s true stories like All The President’s Men. fictional ones like The Ides Of March, or even a mixture of both, like Primary Colors, stories about politics are ultimately among the most human of stories. We see all our aspirations and all of our flaws in them, like those on this list of great political movies.
All The President’s Men
Watergate and the investigative reporting by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for the Washington Post changed American politics forever. Not only did it lead directly to the downfall of Richard Nixon, but it changed the way journalists reported on politicians completely. All The President’s Men is a fast-paced look at that investigation starring Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein. It’s one of the best ever.
The American President
As compared to some of the other movies on this list, The American President is pretty light fare. The Rob Reiner-directed political rom-com, written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Annette Benning and Michael Douglas as the titular president is about the two main characters falling in love, but there is plenty of politics going on in the background to satisfy any political junkie. It also Sorkin to develop The West Wing, so for that we should be forever grateful.
Wag The Dog
Black comedy is a tough thing to pull off well, but Wag the Dog does it brilliantly. The way it makes the creation of a fake war to build support behind a political candidate is disturbing, but Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro are so great at it, and so charming, that you can’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness, just as the creative team behind the movie hoped.
Don’t Look Up
Politics and science are too often at odds with each other. There are a lot of reasons why that happens, and Don’t Look Up, from 2021 shows just how hard it can be for the public to focus on anything not directly affecting them at the moment. Even when that is a comet coming to wipe out the world. It also shows how some people still try to exploit even the worst potential tragedies. For a comedy, it’s pretty depressing.
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
Jimmy Stewart’s performance as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington is everything we want in our politicians, but so rarely get. While Mr. Smith is supposed to be a stooge appointed to the Senate to be manipulated, he turns the tides on everyone and makes us all proud to be Americans. The country needs more Mr. Smiths.
The Darkest Hour
2017 was the year of telling stories about the Dunkirk evacuation early in World War II. While Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk told the story of the actual evacuation, The Darkest Hour shows the political wrangling behind it and Winston Churchill’s rise to power as a result. They aren’t exactly twin movies, but they are great to watch together as a double feature.
The Post
The publishing of The Pentagon Papers by the Washington Post and the New York Times in 1971 was a landmark moment in journalism. It was also a watershed moment in the Vietnam War, as it was truly the moment that the entire public lost faith in its political leaders. The Post tells the story from the perspective of the journalists and the Washington Post leaders and features excellent performances from two of the best ever, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.
Frost/Nixon
Richard Nixon is one of the most enigmatic and interesting men to ever be president. He was brilliant, to be sure, but his paranoia and ego ruined his legacy forever. Frost/Nixon, which was based on a play by the same name, tells the story of a series of interviews that British journalist David Frost conducted with Nixon a few years after the president’s resignation in the wake of Watergate. It’s a brilliantly written movie and features all-star performances by Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon.
Charlie Wilson’s War
One thing about politics that makes it so intriguing as a storytelling device is the amount of access politicians have to glamorous high society and, on the other side of the spectrum, the world of spying. Charlie Wilson’s War brings that all together and features some knockout performances by Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Julia Roberts.
The Death Of Stalin
The Death Of Stalin is a brilliant and underappreciated film. You might guess that a dark comedy based on the death of Joseph Stalin and the scramble to fill his spot at the. top of the Soviet Union wouldn’t be historically accurate, but not only is it really funny, it’s surprisingly accurate as well.
Being There
Comedic legend Peter Sellers left us too soon when he died at just age 54 in 1980. Luckily, he gave us one last legendary performance as Chance the gardener – or, later “Chauncey Gardiner” in Being There. It’s the perfect role for the brilliant Sellers, playing an undereducated rube who accidentally finds himself in the middle of big-time Washington DC politics.
Primary Colors
In one of his finest performances John Travolta plays Bill Clinton…er…Jack Stanton in Primary Colors. Based on a semi-true book by Joe Klein about Bill Clinton’s ’92 campaign, Travolta is fantastic as the Clinton-esque Stanton.
Dave
Believe it or not, Dave is not the first time a movie was made in the era about a lookalike taking the spot of a recently deceased president. Richard Dreyfus made a very similarly plotted movie called Moon Over Parador about five years before Kevin Kline starred in Dave. Both are great movies, but Dave is about the American president, so that gets the spot here.
The Manchurian Candidate
Frank Sinatra starred in a lot of movies over the years, but The Manchurian Candidate is probably his best role and his best movie. The plot revolves around an army sergeant played by Laurence Harvey and an army major, played by Sinatra, who are captured by the Chinese army during the Korean War. Harvey is a changed man, but we won’t spoil it for it, except to say it’s worth watching.
Bulworth
Warren Beatty wrote, directed, and starred in Bulworth which is a highly underrated political satire that remains scarily relevant even more than 25 years after its release. It’s a commentary on money in politics and what candidates must do to raise enough to be re-elected.
The Ides of March
The Ides of March is an old-fashion political drama, released in 2011. It’s about a messy campaign in more ways the one, with a love triangle in the middle of it. It seems to fly under a lot of people’s radar, but if you like written and well-acted political movies, this one deserves to be high on your list of movies to watch.
City Hall
City Hall was a big deal when it came out in 1996. Al Pacino stars as the compromised mayor of New York City with John Cusack playing his idealistic, and yet extremely realistic aide. It’s a far from perfect movie, but it’s a rare example of a movie looking at politics, and the corruption in politics on a local level.
Path To War
Michael Gambon, who plays Lyndon Johnson in Path To Way is, frankly, brilliant in the role. In a movie all about the horrible decisions made in the escalation of the Vietnam War, audiences can see the pain on the president’s face as he grapples with the war and the consequences on the people and his true agenda as president.
Vice
We mostly left movies off that are more or less biopics, rather than political movies. One of the exceptions is Vice because it’s really about the political maneuvering Dick Cheney did to land his role as vice president in the George W. Bush administration. It’s also impossible to leave off a movie with a performance as amazing as Christian Bale’s as the former VP.
The Candidate
Robert Redford stars in The Candidate, which is kind of everything we wish politics would be, but isn’t. It’s like The West Wing of movies. It’s idealistic and hopeful, something real-life politics rarely is.
Milk
Harvey Milk was a trailblazer in the fight for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in America. He was one of the first openly gay men elected to public office when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978. Tragically, he wouldn’t even finish out the first year of his term after being assassinated later in the year. Milk, starring Sean Penn as the titular character, brings Milk’s tragic and inspiring story to life.
Good Night, And Good Luck
Good Night, And Good Luck is really a movie about mass media’s role in the public sector in America. The “fourth estate” as it is often referred to. Edward R. Murrow’s public battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare in the 1950s is at the heart of this movie and tells the story brilliantly, highlighting just how important an open and free press really is.
Network
All you need to know about how Network connects to politics is to watch Ned Beatty’s brilliant speech in the movie. “There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today,” he bellows. 50 years later, and it still feels all too familiar.
The Trial Of The Chicago 7
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is as much a courtroom drama as it is a political one, but politics are at the very heart of the trial, especially the treatment of Bobby Seale, which is a big part of the film.
The Distinguished Gentleman
The Distinguished Gentleman comes towards the end of Eddie Murphy’s golden era that launched his career. It’s not as good as Beverly Hills Cop, or Trading Places, but it’s not all that terrible either. It’s got some very funny moments and Murphy is as charming as ever as a con man-turned congressman.
JFK
There are quite a few historical problems with JFK, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie. You just have to know what you are getting into. The all-star cast carries the far-fetched story, so while it’s not an historically accurate film, it is an exciting one.
Dark Waters
For decades, starting in the late 20th Century, Ohio attorney Robert Bilott has been suing DuPont for chemicals in the environment. In 2019 director Todd Haynes brought his story to the big screen with Mark Ruffalo playing the lawyer. It’s an intense movie, filled with great performances, about how one brave man can take on one of the most powerful corporations in the world.
Fair Game
The Valerie Plame scandal rocked Washington DC in 2003 when Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and others, leaked her identity as a CIA officer to the press. Libby was eventually convicted of lying to investigators but pardoned in the last days of the Bush administration. The movie highlights how she and her husband dealt with the leak and how it affected their lives.
Thirteen Days
Another movie on the list that plays a little loose with the historical facts is Thirteen Days about John F. Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The facts of the crisis are correct, and the decision-making process is accurate, but the main character of the movie, Kenneth O’Donnell, played by Kevin Costner, didn’t play nearly a big a role in the crisis as the movie claims.
The Front Runner
What makes The Front Runner so interesting is how innocent the Gary Hart scandal seems today. Senator Gary Hart (played by Hugh Jackman) was a Democrat running for President in 1988 and was on top of the polls when his campaign was torpedoed by the public disclosure of an affair. In the world we live in today, it would hardly even be news.
Canadian Bacon
This one is the most fun movie on the list. The absurd comedy by director Michael Moore sets out to show how a war between the United States and Canada could happen under the most ridiculous of situations. It’s hilarious, wonderful, silly, and stupid all at the same time and if you’ve never seen it, you should. Pronto. Or we’ll level Toronto.
The Contender
The Contender wasn’t a success at the box office, but don’t let that fool you. The 2000 film, starring Gary Oldman and Jeff Bridges, is a really good movie about the President’s search for a new vice president after the death of the sitting VP. It gets the procedure correct and sets up some realistic issues any president in that situation would face.
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