Films about politicians, like JFK and All the King’s Men, or people who were caught up in the politics of their time, like The Conformist, To Be or Not To Be, and All the President’s Men. In some, the politics is just the background for the main story, such as Doctor Zhivago, Once Upon a Time in America or American History X, or may dominate the lives of all the characters like Brazil, The Lives of Others, and Gandhi. We even included propaganda like Triumph of the Will. 1. Citizen Kane [Welles, Orson , 1941] #5 US [photo top]
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [Kubrick, Stanley , 1964] #17 - UK
3. City Lights [Chaplin, Charles , 1931] #21 - US
4. Metropolis [Lang, Fritz , 1927] #23 - Germany
5. Manchurian Candidate, The [Frankenheimer, John , 1962] #43 - US
6. Birth of a Nation, The [Griffith, D.W. , 1915] #68 - US
7. Magnificent Ambersons, The [Welles, Orson , 1942] #75 - US
8. Conformist, The [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1970] #76 - Italy-France-Germany
9. Great Dictator, The [Chaplin, Charles , 1940] #138 - US
10. Once Upon a Time in America [Leone, Sergio , 1984] #162 - US
11. Lives of Others, The [von Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel , 2006] #163 - Germany
12. Killer of Sheep [Burnett, Charles , 1977] #174 - US
13. Les Enfants du paradis [Carné, Marcel , 1945] #184 - France
14. Brazil [Gilliam, Terry , 1985] #189 - UK [photo rt]
15. Berlin Alexanderplatz [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner , 1980] #197 - Germany
16. Sansho the Bailiff [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1954] #204 - Japan
17. To Be or Not to Be [Lubitsch, Ernst , 1942] #257 - US
18. Rise to Power of Louis XIV, The [Rossellini, Roberto , 1966] #279 - France
19. Gandhi [Attenborough, Richard , 1982] #286 - UK
20. Day the Earth Stood Still, The [Wise, Robert , 1951] #323 - US
21. Strike [Eisenstein, Sergei , 1924] #328 - USSR
22. 39 Steps, The [Hitchcock, Alfred , 1935] #346 - UK
23. 1900 [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1976] #367 - France-Germany-Italy
24. Voyage in Italy [Rossellini, Roberto , 1953] #387 - Italy
25. Doctor Zhivago [Lean, David , 1965] #401 - US
26. American History X [Kaye, Tony , 1998] #428 - US
27. Reds [Beatty, Warren , 1981] #429 - US [photo rt]
28. All the President's Men [Pakula, Alan J. , 1972] #432 - US
29. Triumph of the Will [Riefenstahl, Leni , 1935] #455 - Germany [photo btm rt]
30. Queen, The [Frears, Stephen , 2006] #481 - UK-Fr-Italy
31. Hotel Rwanda [George, Terry , 2004] #514 - US
32. Memories of Underdevelopment [Alea, Tomás Gutiérrez , 1968] #573 - Cuba
33. Moolaadé [Sembene, Ousmane , 2004] #616 - Senegal-France
34. Terra em Transe [Rocha, Glauber , 1967] #618 - Brazil
35. Young Mr. Lincoln [Ford, John , 1939] #653 - US
36. JFK [Stone, Oliver , 1991] #690 - US
37. Man for All Seasons, A [Zinnemann, Fred , 1966] #715 - UK
38. No End in Sight [Ferguson, Charles , 2007] #731 - US
39. Fog of War, The [Morris, Errol , 2003] #809 - US
40. Quiz Show [Redford, Robert , 1994] #811 - US
41. Tin Drum, The [Schlöndorff, Volker , 1979] #854 - Germany
42. Hitler: A Film from Germany [Syberberg, Hans-Jürgen , 1977] #858 - West Germany
43. Ten [Kiarostami, Abbas , 2002] #892 - Iran
44. Z [Costa-Gavras, Constantin , 1969] #903 - France
45. Shame (Skammen) [Bergman, Ingmar , 1968] #913 - Sweden
46. Shoeshine [De Sica, Vittorio , 1947] #915 - Italy
47. Mephisto [Szabó, István , 1981] #999 - Hungary
48. Street Fight [Curry, Marshall , 2005] #1001 - US
49. Lamerica [Amelio, Gianni , 1994] #1015 - Italy
50. Johnny Got His Gun [Trumbo, Dalton , 1971] #1022 - US
51. Trial, The [Welles, Orson , 1962] #1055 - Fr-Gy-Yugo-Italy
52. The Last Emperor [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1987] #1056 - UK-Italy-China-France
53. Circle, The (Dayereh) [Panahi, Jafar , 2000] #1070 - Iran-Switz-Italy
54. Life of Emile Zola [Dieterle, William , 1937] #1096 - US
55. All the King's Men [Rossen, Robert , 1949] #1132 - US
56. Year of Living Dangerously, The [Weir, Peter , 1982] #1139 - Australia
57. Burnt by the Sun [Mikhalkov, Nikita , 1994] #1149 - Russia-France
58. My Friend Ivan Lapshin [Gherman, Alexei , 1984] #1203 - USSR
59. Good Night, and Good Luck. [Clooney, George , 2005] #1231 - US
60. A Face in the Crowd [Kazan, Elia , 1957] #1237 - US
61. One, Two, Three [Wilder, Billy , 1961] #1248 - US
I would add "Charlie Wilson's War," a well told tale of funding the war in Afghanistan in the 1980's.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good film.. but not ranked in the polls..
ReplyDeleteI personally would add:
- Nothing But the Truth (about a journalist refusing to give up her source for an anti-US story about fabricated reasons for invading Venezuela)
- Rendition (the policy of incarcerating suspects or witnesses re terrorisism, without charges or legal cousel)
- Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden (a sometimes humorous documentary by the director of Super Size Me)
WOW - I just realized that ADVISE AND CONSENT is not ranked either.. unreal that the 'critics' missed this one.. that should be in every top 1000 poll..
ReplyDeleteHere are a few I'd add:
ReplyDeleteThe Constant Gardener – brilliantly directed, beautifully filmed and acted John Le Carre story of love, Africa, and alive conscience
Cup Final – the Israeli- Palestinian conflict through the eyes of a small group of soldiers from both sides thrown together
Long Walk Home - wonderfully realized film on a seminal civil rights struggle, the Birmingham bus boycott
Matewan and Norma Rae – unusually powerful labor rights sagas
Missing – Jack Lemon plays a father’s search for the truth about his son’s disappearance following the overthrow of the Allende regime in Chile
Romero – Raul Julia stars as a conservative cleric who becomes a hero in the fight against repression in El Salvadoran
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