Nominate your candidate(s) for the most important or significant movie dealing with political subject matter. (Broad interpretations are quite acceptable.)
I’ll start the ball rolling with 1962’s “Pressure Point”.
z (1969)
Bananas
All the President’s Men. History that we had lived through and got to see from another perspective.
Seven Days in May. Chilling description of how a military coup might happen and succeed.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 version, I haven’t seen the other one). Chilling on every level. Subversion of the US government by a foreign power.
Just watched that one again last weekend.
All the President’s Men is surely the best, is very significant and thus perhaps important.
But I gotta give a shout out to Bob Roberts; that’s a ddamned fine film right there y’all.
the film version of advise and consent …
Wag the Dog
All the President’s Men has been mentioned, so I’ll go with Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove.
Network is the one that jumps out in my mind.
I’d be thinking along the lines of movies that introduce political (in the broad sense) concepts to the public, which then think of them in those specific movie-like ways.
Some examples of that would be the China Syndrome and the Killing Fields. I think both shaped the public understanding of two major issues, and happened to be good movies that lots of people saw and talked about.
Dick
double feature
Those were the three that jumped to my mind.
I’ll also suggest “In the Loop” and “The Death Of Stalin” because I’m a huge fan of Armando Iannucci and because there’s a terrible truth within both of those.
Metropolis.
Kassovitz has become something of a bag of asses in the years since, but to me La Haine (1995) will always be that punch in the gut that shook me out of my complacent en-bubbled ladeeda isn’t France great petit bourgeois mentality and started me on the path that made me that angry cynical leftie y’alls know and love (yes you do. YES YOU DO.)
Battleship Potemkin
Highly influential in filmmaking, and very political.
Triumph of the Will. Let me be clear I do not endorse or condone Adolf Hitler or Nazism in anyway, but this 1935 film give historic insight to the appeal and rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will
Why We Fight. A series of seven documentary films produced by the United States government during World War II to justify to U.S. intervention in the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Fight
The Lives of Others.
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.
Kundun.
The Leopard. (You didn’t say it had to be modern politics.)
On the lighter side, Ninotchka.
Primary Colors
These are not necessarily the “most important/significant” politically-themed movies ever made, but they are all worth a watch, imo, and not previously referenced:
The Dark Horse (1932)
Shit-for-brains candidate for governor gets help from a seasoned political op. This looks less like a comedy every year.
Duck Soup (1933)
Best Marx bros flick and political satire ever.
Gabriel Over the White House (1934)
Produced by Walter Wanger, but apparently dictated by William Randolph Hearst, this is the story of fascism saving the U.S. from the Depression, crime and global tensions.
The President Vanishes (1934)
Produced by Walter Wanger from an anonymous novel (written by Rex Stout), this is a heartfelt plea for isolationism at a time of rising world tensions wrapped into a ridiculous story concerning a crypto-fascist cabal of corporate leaders trying to start another war because the last one was so good for business. Highly recommended.
The Great McGinty (1940)
Bum becomes Governor, takes on the corruption that got him elected in this Preston Sturges comedy.
The Great Dictator (1940)
Chaplin as Hitler.
The Glass Key (1942)
Fixer Alan Ladd helps corrupt political boss Brian Donlevy reform while falling for his girl Veronica Lake.
The Quiet American (1958 & 2002)
Graham Greene’s 1955 novel written as an indictment of U.S. involvement in 1952 Vietnam had its message mutilated in the first film version, which goes out of its way to exonerate the Americans. Second version is a better movie and truer to its source, but the first one is more interesting owing to its historical context.
The Ugly American (1963)
Foreshadowing U.S. bumbling in Vietnam, a new U.S. ambassador to a Civil War-torn Southeast Asian country screws up and citizens back home in America don’t care.
Executive Action (1973)
JFK conspiracy paranoia.
The Parallax View (1974)
Prime political assassination conspiracy paranoia.
Shampoo (1975)
Black comedy set against the 1968 election does a really good job of evoking its period.
Winter Kills (1979)
Great cast in uneven black comedy about possible conspiracies following a JFK-like assassination.