# Left/Right Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2007, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568 "2007-08-06T03:01:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/21 "2007-08-06T23:40:18Z")
**The Godfather** presents a sympathetic view of the Italian Mob. **The Untouchables** , not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/22 "2007-08-07T00:07:04Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] I’m not sure what you’re asking. It seems pretty straightforward to me: Spotting the hidden alien is an allegory for exposing the secretly commie. It is a moral justification for the MCarthyist/blacklisting mindset. [/QUOTE] It’s the jump between the two where I fail. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/23 "2007-08-07T00:08:31Z")
I don’t see a jump. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/24 "2007-08-07T05:29:55Z")
I thought this was going to be about road movies and whether the protagonists travel to the right of the screen or the left. In that vein, my recollection is that **Day after Tomorrow** and **Easy Rider** are left-to-rights while **Dumb and Dumber** and **Five Easy Pieces** are right-to-left. As for the question the OP actually posed, I would say that **Dr. Strangelove** and **Fail Safe** are on opposite sides of the seriousness spectrum but I’m not sure whether they’re necessarily ideologically opposed. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/25 "2007-08-07T05:51:42Z")
24 and Arrested Development. Jack Bauer is a fascist’s “we ARE the law” wet dream, and Arrested Development can only be summarized by a (paraphrased) quote from the show. Cop (Ushering protesters into a cage): Free Speech Zone this way, folks. Exercise your first amendment rights, right here. Everyone into the Free Speech Zone, please. Protestor: Where’s all the media!? I thought the news would be here. Cop: Oh, they’re in the Free Press Zone (points vaguely in the distance). They happened to be my 2 favorite shows at one point. I know they’re not movies, but TV counts, right? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/26 "2007-08-07T05:53:45Z")
**Thunder Road** and **Smokey and the Bandit** present a sympathetic view of moonshiners and bootleggers, respectively. **Walking Tall** takes the law and order side of the debate. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/27 "2007-08-13T07:43:42Z")
Three Days of the Condor,the CI.A. are drug smuggling murderers. Falling Down ,the hero turns out to be a nutcase at the end but his opinions on society today were actually cheered by the audience when I watched it. 1984 28 Days Later,the main characters are all minorities and the British Soldiers are the biggest bunch of totally unbelievable clowns ever to ever walk this earth. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/28 "2007-08-13T14:49:47Z")
Not originally movies, but **1984** and **Brave New World** are pretty much opposites. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/29 "2007-08-13T14:51:23Z")
If I could be allowed to expand [beyond the one-dimensional Left/Right thing](http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html), I would offer **Braveheart** as something of a Libertarian Movie. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/30 "2007-08-13T15:20:16Z")
On the left, you have Star Trek, on the right you have Babylon 5. All sides claim High Noon as their own. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/31 "2007-08-13T15:40:20Z")
[QUOTE=athelas] Not originally movies, but **1984** and **Brave New World** are pretty much opposites. [/QUOTE] Whaaaaaa? Seriously, I don’t get this. The only difference is that Huxley posits that the fascist state can more easily control people by keeping them “happy” rather than keeping them miserable. Which one is the left-wing screed and which one is the right-wing screed? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/32 "2007-08-13T15:59:01Z")
Trainspotting (Right - Drug use will destroy your life) vs Half Baked (Left- There are no non-comedic consequences from drug use) Hostel (Right - If you aren’t careful, the Europeans will get you!) vs Eurotrip (Left - No real consequences from a sex and drug filled lifestyle) Armageddon (Right - U! S! A! U! S! A!!! ) vs Deep Impact (Left - How does the end of civilation make you FEEL?) [QUOTE=wevets] I never caught on to this (possibly because I never saw the beginning of the movie) - could you elaborate on that, please? Thanks! [/QUOTE] It provides a kind of role reversal with the Wolverines as sympathetic insurgents fighting brutal Russian invaders. Kind of a “this is how we look to the Viet Cong” thing. The Cuban general gradually becomes disillusioned with the whole thing as he has always been on the side of the freedom fighters. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/33 "2007-08-13T16:18:37Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] If I could be allowed to expand [beyond the one-dimensional Left/Right thing](http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html), I would offer **Braveheart** as something of a Libertarian Movie. [/QUOTE] Yes, because there’s that hereditary nobility and monarchy plank in the libertarian platform. What? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/34 "2007-08-13T16:23:34Z")
_Reds_ and _Doctor Zhivago._ What would be the RW analogue of _Grapes of Wrath?_ Or of _Matewan?_ Or of _The Cradle Will Rock?_ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/35 "2007-08-13T16:33:35Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] Trainspotting (Right - Drug use will destroy your life) vs Half Baked (Left- There are no non-comedic consequences from drug use) [/QUOTE] To be fair, there’s a bit of difference between, you know, pot on one hand, and heroin on the other hand. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/36 "2007-08-13T18:15:24Z")
> [@](#): > > It provides a kind of role reversal with the Wolverines as sympathetic insurgents fighting brutal Russian invaders. Kind of a “this is how we look to the Viet Cong” thing. The Cuban general gradually becomes disillusioned with the whole thing as he has always been on the side of the freedom fighters. I don’t think of it as a ‘role reversal’ at all. It seems more like it’s presenting an argument for supporting the Mujahaddin (or even the Contras) by putting ourselves in their shoes. Although I think of it even more simply as the alternate reality, where America is the underdog, weak but resilient. Whether that’s more of a right-wing or left-wing fantasy I’m not sure. _The Day After Tomorrow_ (even if that’s not what the OP was referencing) presents such an absurd scenario that it’s too difficult to use as a pro-left/environmental movie. It almost seems like a deliberate strawman. Combined with a slight nationalistic bent (Americans do what must be done; the Brits lie back and wait for the inevitable), it’s more right-wing than not. It does get in a slam against Dick Cheney, but he’s not too popular on either side. Another contemporary response to _On the Waterfront_ from the other side was _The Bridge on the River Kwai_ (Mike Wilson, the screenwriter, was actually blacklisted at the time). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/37 "2007-08-13T18:17:53Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] _Reds_ and _Doctor Zhivago._ What would be the RW analogue of _Grapes of Wrath?_ [/QUOTE] Annie? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/38 "2007-08-13T18:32:22Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Annie? [/QUOTE] Nah . . . In _Annie,_ “That Man” FDR manages to sell Warbucks on the New Deal. That old proto-Objectivist Harold Gray would spin in his grave. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/39 "2007-08-13T18:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] On the left, you have Star Trek, on the right you have Babylon 5. [/QUOTE] Ummm…WHAT??? Sure, Star Trek promotes a very Communistic view of the future in a sort of self-righteous manner. But B5 on the right? The one where they fought their own government, threw off both sides of the First Ones control, etcetera? The one where they gave casual respect to all different religions and perspectives? You’re obviously using some odd definition of “Right” to which I am previously unacquainted. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568/40 "2007-08-13T19:16:42Z")
**Bablyon 5** is another libertarian one — leave peaceful honest people alone to pursue their own happiness in their own way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-right-movies/414568.md?page=3)