Our perception of American politics and politicians is often the result of the movies we watch and the way that Hollywood writers, directors and actors create the image of the Presidency, the Congress, the courts and the political party leaders at the center of our political system. Over the years Hollywood image makers have produced some memorable motion pictures that have influenced our understanding of American government and democracy. I have my favorite movies that provide insights into how our political system works or in many cases does not work. These movies show both the dark side of politics and political life with its corruption, greed and selfishness and those that accent honesty, integrity and patriotism and hold out hope for a government that works for the common good.
Let’s start with my favorite Hollywood movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Director Frank Capra has often been known to direct films that are a bit over the top when it comes to the good guy overcoming adversity and dishonesty and transforming a broken system of special interest politics into one that works for people. Jimmy Stewart plays a naïve Senator from a Western state that has been taken over by old line politicians who want to push through a sketchy dam building land scheme. At the heart of the movie is the filibuster speech by Stewart as he takes the floor of the Senate and speaks for hours against the bill. Although exhausted and the subject of a campaign to tarnish his name, Senator Smith eventually wins out and defeats the bill and restores faith in honesty and good government. Of course, Congress does not always have its Mr. Smith fighting for good, in fact in recent years we have seen the opposite of good governance. But it is refreshing to watch a movie that seeks to restore our faith in politicians who fight for the people.
Then there is the high school vote for student body president portrayed in the movie Election. A highly qualified female overachiever Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is running against a popular football jock (Chris Klein) who is supported by a corrupt civics teacher (Matthew Broderick) with a passionate dislike of Witherspoon (many viewers of Election saw Flick as Hillary Clinton).The movie spirals into a comical feud between the clearly qualified female versus the good-looking football player as they vie for votes by promising change in the student government. At the vote count, Broderick throws out ballots that show Witherspoon winning by two votes, but a janitor accidentally finds the thrown away ballots that prove Witherspoon had won. Election becomes a story of political ambition and civic education gone awry. The movie will likely remind viewers of themes pertinent to today’s politics in American life, especially misogyny by men in power, charges of voter fraud, and the threat to democratic practice by unscrupulous leaders.
One of Steven Spielberg’s greatest cinematic achievements was Lincoln with Daniel Day-Lewis as the American president. The movie centers on Lincoln’s efforts to pass the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery during the final days of the Civil War. Lincoln faces a formidable challenge as he feels that Southern states would defeat the Amendment if passage was not secured before the end of the war. To attain his goal of winning the vote on the 13th Amendment, Lincoln engages in old-fashioned practical politics as he seeks to get the necessary votes for passage by offering government jobs to Southern Democrats who would likely be unemployed after the war. He also works reluctantly with Republicans in his own party who favor peace negotiations with the Confederacy. Lincoln is opposed to the negotiations as he feels the peace efforts could derail his strategy of passing the 13th Amendment. In a skillful move, Lincoln convinces the Confederate negotiators to remain outside of Washington while the vote is taken, thus weakening the push for peace. Lincoln’s practical politics work as the 13th Amendment passes the House of Representatives with a two-vote margin. One day later on April 14 Lincoln began discussions with his cabinet on the way former slaves would be enfranchised because of the 13th Amendment. He then leaves for Ford’s Theater where he is assassinated. Lincoln won Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013 including Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln is often considered the most realistic representation of our greatest president and Spielberg’s finest movie. I agree.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not include on my list Stanely Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Filmed in the post-Cuban Missile Crisis era when the United States and the Soviet Union were continuing their competition for nuclear supremacy. Dr. Strangelove is a satire of the crazy dangers posed by nuclear brinkmanship during the Cold War. The movie begins as a mentally unstable Air Force General (General Jack D. Ripper) orders a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union believing that the Soviets have been fluoridating the American water supplies to pollute the “precious bodily fluids of Americans.” The movie, which is set in the Pentagon War Room, describes in hilarious ways the efforts by the President (Peter Sellers), military commander General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott), and the science advisor to the President (Dr. Strangelove, again Peter Sellers) who just happens to be an ex-Nazi, attempting to stop the B-52 bomber with the nuclear payload from reaching the Soviet Union. Their efforts are largely successful except for a communications snafu which allows Major King Kong (Slim Pickens) to continue the attack on the Soviet Union. The movie ends with Kong riding on a thermonuclear bomb waving his cowboy hat as it heads toward the Soviet Union. While the movie was filmed in 1964 it remains relevant today as we continue to live during a time when nuclear weapons threaten the world. Unstable leaders whether the mullahs of Iran, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and perhaps even U.S. President Donald Trump who was allegedly banned from a White House meeting with key generals after he demanded access to the nuclear codes pose a real threat to a world without nuclear weapons. Sadly, we live in an ever-expanding nuclear era as dictators, theocrats and mentally unstable leaders move the doomsday clock closer to midnight. This is a movie that should not be missed or ignored because we cannot afford to “stop worrying and love the bomb.”
So there you have it, my American politics movie list. There are other great political movies made in Hollywood such as All The President’s Men, Advise and Consent, The Candidate and Primary Colors, but my choices were based on how these four movies revealed the ways politics can bring out the good in people, solve difficult problems, overcome injustice, and most of all make us think about what could happen if we don’t pay attention to the possibility of evil controlling the destiny of our fragile democracy. As Frank Capra, who directed Mr. Smith Goes to Washington said about his hero, Jefferson Smith, “Most of these heroes have faith. Faith in goodness and in the innate goodness of human beings. They lived that and they believed it.”