# What are your favorite subversive movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494 "2011-01-13T18:37:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/42 "2011-01-20T00:21:46Z")
The shoot-em-up sci-fi flick really savages capitalism and American culture, if you watch the clips that play on the TV screens alongside the ‘main action’. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/43 "2011-01-20T02:16:48Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > Do you want to name films that you don’t like, but are subversive? Or maybe films you feel ambivalent towards, but want to name them anyway? Go ahead. Thank you, but I was just thinking how easy it is to take a favorite film and then go back to find reasons to call it “subversive” (_The Big Chill_? John Hughes??? Please.) _Salt of the Earth_ (1954), a movie about a real-event mining strike in New Mexico, was seen by the whole Hollywood machine as subversive: [QUOTE=film reference] Collective decision-making distinguished not only the script’s preparation but all aspects of the film’s production, marking an abrupt change in the hierarchical collaboration that characterized Hollywood filmmaking. Most of the roles were filled by the miners themselves and local Anglos, including the male lead Ramon, played by unionist Juan Chacon. The heroine was originally to be played by Gale Sondergaard, already involved in the project, but was finally cast with Rosaura Revueltas, a highly successful Mexican film star. Her participation in the film led to her deportation from the United States, and ultimately to the end of her film career. The production and post-production of Salt was hampered by constant harassment from industrial and political leaders. Hiring a union crew proved impossible as Roy Brewer, red-baiter and head of the I.A.T.S.F., refused to allow union personnel to participate. During the film’s shooting, the project and all those involved were denounced by union representatives in Hollywood, the trade press, and Congressman Donald Jackson in the House of Representatives, all leading to increasing tension in Grant County which hindered the film’s completion. Post-production was impeded not only by Hollywood union recalcitrance but also by Howard Hughes’s attempts to organize an industry-wide boycott of the film by post-production facilities throughout the country. The film’s exhibition encountered such strong resistance from I.A.T.S.E. projectionists, who under Brewer’s orders refused to project the finished film, that it was and still is seen most widely at union activities and outside the United States. [/quote] I can just imagine Molly Ringwald getting deported. ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/44 "2011-01-20T02:54:16Z")
Battle of Algiers Last Temptation of Christ American Beauty Z One Flew over the Cuckoo Nest ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/46 "2011-01-20T04:49:00Z")
Never Cry Wolf The Rapture ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/47 "2011-01-20T05:58:09Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#): > > Also, my favorite obscure black comedy, [_ **A Shock to the System** _](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100602/) delivers a rather nasty bite to the business executive community. I love that film! ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/48 "2011-01-20T06:03:29Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I feel similarly about _the Breakfast Club_. The message seems to be that “opposites attract” (rich girl/poor guy), “if you’re a little odd or quirky, you can only be acceptable if you give up your core values for a guy,” and “geeks never get laid.” Disagree. The ‘respected’ establishment vice-principle is a venal, snooping, cowardly bully. The custodian is sardonically contemptuous of authority, and casually manipulates it. The top jock is an insecure kid running scared, the nerd is an insecure kid running scared, the princess is an insecure kid running scared, the punk is an insecure kid _not_ running scared, and the basket case is keenly alert and actually more on top of things than anyone else except the custodian. That pretty much skewers most of the highschool movie tropes as well as poking traditional authority structures in teh eye. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/49 "2011-01-20T06:41:21Z")
I am surprised I am the first to mention In the Loop: a satire about the shenanigans leading up to the Iraq war. I found it much funnier than Wag the Dog which was something of a disappointment. A few that have been mentioned already: Brazil Battle of Algiers Z ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494/50 "2011-01-20T09:24:14Z")
I haven’t read the book (macho sci-fi isn’t my thing), but last month my housemate and I watched Paul Verhoeven’s _Starship Troopers_, which I thought was hilarious. It uses all the codes, structure and language of a by-the-numbers action film to tell a story about a bunch of fascists. US action films tend to be very nationalistic – I’m thinking especially of that awful scene in _Independence Day_ when Bill Pullman’s president character gives a Rousing Speech about how the US Independence Day is now a global day of freedom, gag, but most of the others I’ve seen have all been very USA! USA! – and I thought _Starship Troopers_ was a great subversion of the US action film template. _Three Kings_ I would also call subversive for the same reason. It looked and talked like a war film, but instead it took apart the just war concept. I loved it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-subversive-movies/567494.md?page=2)