Saturday, February 21, 2009

25 Most Conservative/Liberal Films?





The National Review recently released a list, based on votes from subscribers and apparently some editorial/crtic based editing, of what they claimed were the top 25 Conservative films of the past 25 years.

25 Top Conservative Films

In looking it up, I also found that Daily Kos posted a list as well based on polls (or something).

Top 25 Liberal Films


My general conclusion after looking at both lists is that they both have quite a bit of bullshit in them. However, the Daily Kos' list is filled with the most bulllshit.

First off a documentary really shouldn't be placed on a list of "great" films unless you're just talking about documentaries alone. It's like putting a book on tape in a list of greatest albums. It just doesn't work. So Daily Kos really fucks it up by including, by my count (I don't know all the movies they posted), 6 docs and 4 of them are from Michael Moore. I'm sorry but that's really bullshit. But even more bullshit is that they gave #1 to An Inconvenient Truth. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. At its best it can be called informative and thought provoking, however that doesn't make it great film making, rather it was very dull film making because it was only filming a god damn lecture. Oh, and to have included Thank You for Smoking... that's really fucking ironic.

Anyway... as for NR's list, some of it seems fitting and some of it seems to be rather bizzare. The Incredibles I would say is fitting though I have to laugh to myself about it because after seeing the film I called it the most blatant anti-communist propaganda I had ever seen (note: I still enjoyed the movie). The Life of Others seems very odd, but I guess the ethics of spying can be overshadowed if the ultimate result is showing how fucked up Soviet style Communism was.

One funny bit is how both lists have Brazil, which in reflection doesn't suprise me. It's a highly Orwellian like story and that's the real root of why both the left and right love it. Orwell's works pointed out the failings/horror of totalitarianism, as seen in the Soviet Union, yet he was a staunch socialist. Anyway, I would certainly rank Brazil as one of my favorite movies of all time (gotta love Criterion).


Videodrome:


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