What Do We Do Now? Nominating Thread for a Political-Film Poll...

I’ve been planning to try a political-film poll for a while--this is a good time for me, so I’ll jump in after sic’s year-end.

I hate prolonged polls: I was thinking a couple of weeks for nominations (on this thread) and then 7-10 days for voting.

Taking a cue from Hal Philip Walker--“all of us are equally involved with politics whether we know it or not and whether we like it or not”--I thought it might be useful to narrow the field a bit, else almost anything can be credibly deemed political (if not by what’s there, then by what’s not there). This is grossly simplistic, I know, but my suggestion would be that the film should have a politician or election somewhere in there.

But nominate anything you want. As I’ve said many times, if you nominate or vote for something that’s so quirky that no one else agrees, then the problem solves itself. And if five people agree with you but I can’t see it at all, then you’re probably right.

Some obvious picks to get started:

The Candidate
Advise and Consent
All the President’s Men
Z
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
All the King’s Men
The Manchurian Candidate
The Parallax View
JFK
The Best Man
Nixon
The War Room
Tanner
Citizen Kane

Maybe the subject's too unwieldly, I don't know. I always aim for 20 voters--short of that, I won't bother adding up votes, and this thread can just be (probably another) general political-film thread.

Election

W

Duck Soup

Dead Zone

Seven Days In May

Spartan

Dr. Strangelove
Fail-Safe

Great, thanks--Spartan's the only one I haven't seen.

Ballot Box Bunny

Nashville

Medium Cool

I Am Cuba/Soy Cuba

The Dictator

(Chaplin, not that Borat shit)

Chaplin's is The Great Dictator

What about documentaries?

Documentaries, definitely. (I had The War Room above.)

I should have done this at the beginning, but here's a Google Doc for nominations:

http://docs.google.com/document/d/12Ts0EtUkx1eDgstQGLQePHbwFtBGL5rbyDtIyRtziek/edit

I'll add Carlos, The Ides of March, The Contender, and Primary.

Burn After Reading
Red Dawn

Theres an election in Red Dawn?

As many as in Carlos or Dr Strangelove

I probably shouldn't have said that. Carlos is as overtly political as it gets, but there are no elections, and I'm not sure there's an elected politician anywhere.

(I suggested politician or election, and Strangelove definitely has the former. But just skip all that--if it feels sufficiently political to you, nominate it. If others agree, it'll draw votes._

I hate Red Dawn is all

Feel like allowing any film in which someone appears as president will dilute the field a bit but eh whatever

But yeah generally i agree that the votes carry the day

It won't dilute the results. If the film is a cipher, no one will vote for it besides the nominator.

The Great McGinty

Being There

Secret Honor, Bulworth, Wag the Dog, Primary Colors, Taxi Driver The Last Hurrah (which I've never seen).

Taxi Driver The Last Hurrah--Travis hits the streets for one last fare.

Vice
In the loop

Do ‘The Big Short’ and ‘Margin Call’ count or are they finance movies?

Le guerre est le fin/The War Is Over

They count if you want them to count...

I was gonna bring up secret honor but i really dont like it much lol

Zootopia

Death of Stalin

The Battle of Algiers, The Battle of Chile. (Not big on Secret Honor either.)

What was that one w Streep as Thatcher

The Party and the Guests (Nemec, 1966)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063371/reference

XP The Iron Lady

To Be or Not to Be

The Firemen's Ball

A Grin Without a Cat, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Times of Harvey Milk (and I guess Milk, too, though it's not nearly as good).

Oh, hm, I missed the bit of the OP that said it should have an election in it. Welp, I think most of my picks would be more like the above (fiercely political but metaphorical), so maybe I'm out of this one.

my suggestion would be that the film should have a politician or election somewhere in there

Only a suggestion.

Emily: no--I already backtracked on that. Nominate away.

The Times of Harvey Milk is one of my favorite ever documentaries

there are so many movies that seem political but are not specifically about politics

I knew heading into this it would be really tricky--maybe even more than comedy or horror, in terms of what qualifies. All I can say is use your best judgement.

Dick
Bob Roberts
Suddenly!
Bad Eggs
Rats In The Ranks
DON'S motherfucking PARTY

Which Suddenly, sic--the old Sinatra film or the quasi-remake?

well one six-volume novel.. but different times!

Chinatown

army of shadows

Sansho The Bailiff

feudal politics is politics

A City of Sadness

Le Gai savoir

Citizen Kane
A Lion Is in the Streets

All the King's Men (1949 version)

Clemenza - sorry yeah meant the Varda

Which Suddenly, sic--the old Sinatra film or the quasi-remake?

Having just gotten to the 1954 this month after a year on my Kanopy queue, I am mad at you for revealing a Uwe Boll remake

Point of Order, Millhouse: A White Comedy. There are other de Antonio films that would fit too--those are two I've seen.

...So Goes the Nation, Horns and Halos.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment
Meet John Doe
October: Ten Days That Shook the World

good work clemenza. This is turning into a really good thread already and giving me new things to watch.

Thanks. I was thinking about Meet John Doe too--the perils of populism (depending upon your tolerance for Capra...like It's a Wonderful Life, actually quite a grim film).

Completely forgot what could conceivably be my #1 (and will have a hard time getting any other votes): The Champions, Donald Brittain's three-part documentary on Trudeau and Levesque that I've plugged on other threads.

Harlan County, USA
features a union politician and election, not government. I think it counts.

oh and here's a bad one that could only exist during the clinton years. republicans and democrats, they bicker! two gay panic jokes in the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_57GKDXmXKk
(my fellow americans, in case it's ever removed)

Harlan County for sure.

I should never have brought that bit up about politicians and elections. I was just trying to keep a potentially mammoth nomination list under control. But things like Harlan Country, Carlos, Welfare, and countless other films obviously belong. If the nomination list ends up being huge, not a big deal.

In that spirit, I'll add Malcolm X (on just about every online list I see), The Weather Underground, and Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst.

That My Fellow Americans trailer looks like a parody (and not a particularly good one) of 90s high concept comedy. Also, I count three gay panic jokes--the Dykes on Bikes, the Pride parade, the sleeping guy fondling Lemmon.

I've never seen this but it sounds awesome, Old Mother Riley, MP .

https://d1t80wr11ktjcz.cloudfront.net/movieposters/h12/AllPhotos/71771/p71771_i_h12_ab.jpg

“Duck, You Sucker!” / A Fistful Of Dynamite

not a fan of Anthony Eden, but his excellent command of the French language in The Sorrow and The Pity is noteworthy.

Looks like this could be a series of by-decade polls instead, clemenza

Completely forgot what could conceivably be my #1 (and will have a hard time getting any other votes): The Champions, Donald Brittain's three-part documentary on Trudeau and Levesque that I've plugged on other threads.

― clemenza, Sunday, June 30, 2019 9:10 PM (yesterday)

clemenza -- i remember you mentioning this doc before and have thought about checking it out. would you say it's accessible even if you don't know much about canadian politics?

I think so, yes. They're basically a Canadian version of Kennedy-Nixon; they come to prominence at almost the same time, start as friends, end up as (sometimes bitter) rivals, and they even match stylistically: Trudeau's the glamour guy, Levesque the rumpled plodder (except in Quebec, where he's god). The one major difference is that Levesque, whatever you thought of his goal of breaking apart the country, comes across as someone with boundless integrity.

You can watch the whole thing online if you're interested:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_1/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_2/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_3/

thanks! i suspect i'll be using this poll as an excuse to catch up on a lot of things i've been meaning to watch.

Vietnam films: I'll nominate Hearts and Minds, The Deer Hunter, and Coming Home, which all have a clear political stance on that particular war. I'm less sure on Casualties of War and Apocalypse Now--beyond their default anti-war position--so I'll leave them for anyone else who thinks they belong. They seem more about the battlefield and in-the-moment sensation.

Has this been mentioned yet?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/No_%282012_film%29.jpg

No.

Face in the crowd!

Aka, From the Hills of Wasilla--definitely.

I added a few more films to the nominations list without posting here. (Yes, this is one of those pointless no-news-is-no-news bumps.) The list is just a guide anyway--write-ins, when voting starts, are fine.

http://docs.google.com/document/d/12Ts0EtUkx1eDgstQGLQePHbwFtBGL5rbyDtIyRtziek/edit

Ice
Report
Breaking With Old Ideas
Deserter
23rd Psalm Branch
Memories of Underdevelopment
BPM (Beats per Minute)
Westler
The Normal heart
The Making of Monsters
Zero Patience
It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives
A Virus Knows no Morals
We Want Roses Too
Numéro deux
Le FHAR (Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire)
Chorus
My Son John
The Country and the City: A Film With Raymond Williams
Le temps des bouffons
Winter Wind
Red Psalm
Moi, un noir
Petit à petit
Soleil O
West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty
Too Early, Too Late
Black Girl
From the Cloud to the Resistance
From the Pole to the Equator
Class Relations
Pays barbare
Piece Mandala/End War
Louisiana AKA The Other Side
From the Other Side
Race d'Ep: un siècle d'images de l'homosexualité

State of Siege, Costa-Gavras
Operación Ogro. Gillo Pontecorvo
The Champions, Donald Brittain (originally a mini-series, it was given a cinematic release and so i think qualifies)

and now i see the champions has been mentioned, i did a ctrl+f but must have made a typo

I think so, yes. They're basically a Canadian version of Kennedy-Nixon; they come to prominence at almost the same time, start as friends, end up as (sometimes bitter) rivals, and they even match stylistically: Trudeau's the glamour guy, Levesque the rumpled plodder (except in Quebec, where he's god). The one major difference is that Levesque, whatever you thought of his goal of breaking apart the country, comes across as someone with boundless integrity.

You can watch the whole thing online if you're interested:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_1/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_2/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_3/

― clemenza, Sunday, June 30, 2019 5:58 PM (four days ago)

levesque comes across fantastically well

He really does. I was a Trudeau guy back then, but he was pretty clearly railroaded in some of those constitutional negotiations. I found his ultimate demise--cast aside by the party he'd helped create--very moving.

I'll get all the nominations updated, thanks.

There are 225+ films on the nomination list...I'm ready to proceed with the vote (one ballot in already); no real point in waiting a week. As I've said, write-ins are fine.

This is my idea for points--I'm the guy who gummed up Karl Malone's under-2:00 music poll with complicated alternative point-systems, and I've got another one:

# of Films Listed     Total Points Allowed        Maximum Points for One Film
      10                      100                            30
      20                      200                            40
      30                      300                            50

The total-points stays proportional the more films you list; intuitively (maybe I'm wrong), it felt like the maximum points allowed for one film should increase more gradually.

If you hate math, or want to list more films, let me know and we'll work something out. I'll wait a day and start a voting thread.

Nominations:

http://docs.google.com/document/d/12Ts0EtUkx1eDgstQGLQePHbwFtBGL5rbyDtIyRtziek/edit

I need 20 voters. Don't worry if you haven't seen every political film ever made. This isn't homework--vote for what you know and like now.

Late entrants - The Front Runner, The Bourne trilogy

...which reminds me to add Chappaquiddick, too. Of the two, I liked The Front Runner better.

Other Nixon films: Our Nixon, Watergate.

Sneak in If...., too please.

Horror films: Night of the Living Dead (as definitive on 1968 as Weekend), the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Get Out, Us. Lots more, I'm sure, but those are the first four that come to mind.

there's only one good political film, and it's captain america: civil war

no wait fuck i meant winter soldier, mods pls delet thraed

I think you meant there’s only two good political films

Added Winter Soldier, which reminded me to add Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Captain America in limbo, pending confirmation...

Okay, I see what you mean now...I thought you meant the 1972 documentary.

To KJB's list, I add Magic Mike XXL.

lmao clemenza <3

Anything nominated (i.e., stated, not posed as a question), I'll add to the list. I'm an easy mark here for joke nominations, especially in the realm of superhero movies--whether it's sincere or a joke will go right over my head.

I don't often make an effort to catch up with gaps in movie or music polls--pure laziness, plus I'd rather go with opinions that go back more than a week or two--but I'm going to force myself to sit at the computer for 3.5+ hours and watch Frederick Wiseman's State Legislature off Kanopy. It won't be in one sitting, that much I know.