I saw the Ralph Fiennes version of Coriolanus earlier this year, and I was struck by the anti-democratic tone of the film (yes, I know it’s a Shakespeare adaptation). It depicts the masses having no political will of their own, instead easily manipulated by cynical demagagues. The character of Coriolanus openly despises popular rule as allowing “the crows to peck the eagles.” The film seems to suggest that a strong ruler, who loves the people but is not bound to their will, is the ideal form of government.
As an American, that message seems to be very rare in the films released here. I thought on it for a bit, and could only think of one other film that I would call anti-democracy: The Last Samurai, which glorifes the samurai aristrocracy, and demonizes the Meiji government’s reforms as selling out the Japanese culture to Western interests.
What other films are openly, or implicitly, anti-democracy?
You should see “Gabriel over the White House” (Gabriel Over the White House - Wikipedia), in which the hero (the President of the US) dissolves Congress and rules as a dictator, saving the nation and the world from disaster. No, it’s not intended ironically.
Not exactly anti-democracy but considered pro-totalitarian by many, Hero (Ying xiong) from 2002 features an assassination attempt on a king who is taking over various other states of ancient China. The latest assassin (after 3 previous failures) gets close to the king, and reveals that his family was killed during one of the king’s battles to take over another state. The king reveals that one of the previous assassins failed because he was convinced by the king that he is the only hope for peace in the region, unifying the warring states under his rule by force. The current assassin believes this as well, leaves, and is accidentally killed by another wannabe-assassin when he tries to explain his viewpoint. He receives a state hero’s funeral.
I don’t think so. While the plot involves a failure of democracy, the destruction of a democratic society, and its replacement with a totalitarian system, is unambiguously portrayed as a tragedy of galactic proportions. For the movies to be anti-democracy, it would have to view the rise of the Emperor as a good thing, not a disaster.
See I disagree with this as well. The samurai fought for an independent Japan as opposed to a puppet government, not a democracy, controlled by the US in order to exploit Japan’s people and resources.
I came to post that movie. The Chinese government loved it, because it is great propaganda for one-party rule. It’s also a stunningly beautiful and moving piece of cinema, that transcends both its message and its genre. Definitely recommended.
And for what it’s worth, Zoid is right. The movie ends with Nameless being killed by the order of the King, because he was, after all, an assassin. I think you’re thinking about Broken Sword, who was killed by Snow because he could not kill the King.
Right on regarding the Hero corrections; I apologize as I was posting in haste. It has been about a decade since I last saw it and my memory was fuzzy. Regardless, the story supports a totalitarian solution.
Anti-democracy films? Almost all of the **fairy tale movies **made since the beginning of cinema would qualify, with some of our most cherished Disney flicks at the top of that list!
Am I the only one who is offended to the core whenever some princess, queen, king or other privileged-by-birthright-only royal is foisted upon the audience as the hero of a movie? The founding principle of the USA was a rejection of the concept of monarchy, based on the logic that such a system is inherently undemocratic.
I say, “Down with Ariel, Simba, Prince Charming, Pocahontas and all the rest! Let democracy reign! POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”
The first interactive movie, Kinoautomat (1967) was ironically anti-democratic. It was a kind of “Choose your own adventure” film where no matter what decisions were made by the voting audience the end result was always the same - The hero’s apartment goes up in flames.
Wow, that is mind-blowingly bizarre. I need to see this for myself. Did America flirt that hard with fascism, or is this the work of a few radicals?
The democracy in question, i.e. the Galactic Senate, is portrayed as ineffectual and maddeningly slow, as per the scene where Queen Amidala pleads with Chancellor Valorum and the Senate to come to her planet’s defense. The Senate is easily led, and seduced into giving more and more power to a demagogue, though this figure, the eventual Emperor, is portrayed as an even worse option. The strongest voice for reason and democracy in the films would be the Jedi, so perhaps Lucas was endorsing a theocracy of monks?
We differ on whether the Meiji Restoration was beneficial to the Japanese people, but the “independent Japan” the samurai fought for was one wherein they ruled as an aristocracy over peasants with no legal rights to speak of. The film takes the side of the samurai, which I found appalling.
I was only thinking of narrative films, but documentaries should count too, right? Any other documentaries come to mind?
Possibly, though that might be more of an ademocratic (if that’s a word) film than an anti-democratic one, since no alternatives are mentioned nor seem to exist within the fiction world. Still, that could be called implicitly anti-democratic.
Interestingly, it’s the work of a bunch of hardcore Progressives, and was paid for by William Randolph Hearst. It was mostly aimed at glorifying FDR and his occasional strong-arm tactics.