Today is NY state's primary election and I already voted for Bernie. In celebration of the occasion (and a possible blow to the Democratic Party establishment) I decided today's blog would be about election films. Here is the list:
1. Bulworth (1998)
Directed, written and starring the brilliant Warren Beatty, Bulworth is about a politician who gets so depressed and goes so insane that he starts telling the truth (what an idea!!). Of course, I'm not trying to spoil it, but you can imagine what happens when a politician starts telling the truth.
Trailer:
Full film:
2. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This film played on so many cold-war phobias that it could indeed be a recipient of the Paranoid Cinephile Paranoid Cinema award. One of the only films staring Ol' Blue Eyes that I can sit through, this film is an settling combination of science fiction, espionage and action that cold war audience ate right up. The 2004 remake with Denzel Washington was about David Ickeian aliens, which is hopefully less believable than a Maoist plot to brainwash our elected officials (I'm rooting for the Maoists btw).
Trailer:
Full film:
3. Farenheit 9/11 (2004)
This is one of those documentaries where truth is stranger than fiction. The film starts with a fraudulent election and ends with a really big pile of dead bodies. Anyone with left-sympathies who grew up or was around during the Bush II years will understand the outrage and grief that this film evokes. A scathing expose of the war criminals in the Bush administration.
Trailer:
Full film:
4. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
Although I have enjoyed a number of Gus Van Sant films (I thought Elephant was a brilliant take on the school shooting phenomenon, for example) , I do think he and Sean Penn butchered the Harvey Milk story with the formulaic biopic Milk (I'm sure I'll rant more about the biopic formula in a future post). This documentary from 1984, however, tell the story of America's first gay city councilperson and activist for gay rights, Harvey Milk, brilliantly using primary source footage and interviews with people who were there (and no James Franco!).
Trailer:
Full film (must purchase):
Ones I haven't seen:
The coup against Salvador Allende by fascist general Augosto Pinochet in Chile on 9/11/1973 has always interested me as an example of capitalism undermining the democracy it claims to uphold. In 1908 socialist author Jack London wrote a book entitled the Iron Heel that seemed to predict the Allende coup 64 years earlier. There was a film, the Golden God (1914) made by Romaine Fielding loosely based on the book, but the IMDb site for this only contains this synopsis:
1. Bulworth (1998)
Directed, written and starring the brilliant Warren Beatty, Bulworth is about a politician who gets so depressed and goes so insane that he starts telling the truth (what an idea!!). Of course, I'm not trying to spoil it, but you can imagine what happens when a politician starts telling the truth.
Trailer:
Full film:
2. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This film played on so many cold-war phobias that it could indeed be a recipient of the Paranoid Cinephile Paranoid Cinema award. One of the only films staring Ol' Blue Eyes that I can sit through, this film is an settling combination of science fiction, espionage and action that cold war audience ate right up. The 2004 remake with Denzel Washington was about David Ickeian aliens, which is hopefully less believable than a Maoist plot to brainwash our elected officials (I'm rooting for the Maoists btw).
Trailer:
Full film:
3. Farenheit 9/11 (2004)
This is one of those documentaries where truth is stranger than fiction. The film starts with a fraudulent election and ends with a really big pile of dead bodies. Anyone with left-sympathies who grew up or was around during the Bush II years will understand the outrage and grief that this film evokes. A scathing expose of the war criminals in the Bush administration.
Trailer:
Full film:
4. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
Although I have enjoyed a number of Gus Van Sant films (I thought Elephant was a brilliant take on the school shooting phenomenon, for example) , I do think he and Sean Penn butchered the Harvey Milk story with the formulaic biopic Milk (I'm sure I'll rant more about the biopic formula in a future post). This documentary from 1984, however, tell the story of America's first gay city councilperson and activist for gay rights, Harvey Milk, brilliantly using primary source footage and interviews with people who were there (and no James Franco!).
Trailer:
Full film (must purchase):
Ones I haven't seen:
The coup against Salvador Allende by fascist general Augosto Pinochet in Chile on 9/11/1973 has always interested me as an example of capitalism undermining the democracy it claims to uphold. In 1908 socialist author Jack London wrote a book entitled the Iron Heel that seemed to predict the Allende coup 64 years earlier. There was a film, the Golden God (1914) made by Romaine Fielding loosely based on the book, but the IMDb site for this only contains this synopsis:
Although an advertisement for this film appears in Moving Picture World on 17 January 1914, no film bearing this title was ever distributed at this time. The film was condemned by the National Board of Censorship as "inflammable" because of the battle scenes and the subversive tone of Capitol versus Labor. In June 1914 the negative and all release prints were destroyed in a catastrophic explosion and fire in the film vaults at the Lubin plant in Philadelphia.
- Written by Jack Tillmany
Secondly, Pablo Larraín made a film called No (2012) which deals with issues over the 1988 referendum in Chile over whether Pinochet should stay in power for another 8 years or not. It stars Gael García Bernal who I am usually a fan of, so I am adding this one to my watchlist as well.
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