The Godfather presents a sympathetic view of the Italian Mob.
The Untouchables, not so much.
It’s the jump between the two where I fail.
I don’t see a jump.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Not originally movies, but 1984 and Brave New World are pretty much opposites.
If I could be allowed to expand beyond the one-dimensional Left/Right thing, I would offer Braveheart as something of a Libertarian Movie.
On the left, you have Star Trek, on the right you have Babylon 5.
All sides claim High Noon as their own.
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?
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?)
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.
Yes, because there’s that hereditary nobility and monarchy plank in the libertarian platform.
What?
Reds and Doctor Zhivago.
What would be the RW analogue of Grapes of Wrath?
Or of Matewan?
Or of The Cradle Will Rock?
To be fair, there’s a bit of difference between, you know, pot on one hand, and heroin on the other hand.
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).
Annie?
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.
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.
Bablyon 5 is another libertarian one — leave peaceful honest people alone to pursue their own happiness in their own way.