Christopher Nolan's Batman series has some good political messaging actually, even if it's espousing politics I strongly disagree with. It's got themes of the noblesse obligée and their duty to the people who can't govern themselves and can't be trusted with democracy. Batman hacks everyone's phones "for their own good", and Bane manages to steal all his weapons that he'd kept as a private citizen unaccountable to any authorities. The first Iron Man tackles similar issues but takes a different view on them, and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films did a bit with it too, "with great power comes great responsibility". Superhero movies are at their most interesting when they're actually exploring the duties of a hero and their place in society relative to everyone else. It's why they're boring now, they don't do any of that.
Dune is all about politics, and is just a great series of films so far. It doesn't tell the viewer what to think, it just shows what all the various factions are up to and their interests, and lets you decide. The books were much the same. It's structured like a hero's journey, but Paul's campaign is massively AstroTurfed behind the scenes and has been since before he was born. You can make a solid argument for almost any of the characters being "the good guys" or "the bad guys". I wonder if the Bene Gesserit wrote the Denton's document...
My Beautiful Laundrette is a good bet. Crying Game the opposite.
There was a movie making the rounds on gay circuit, about a gay chorus in the Deep South. One character was considering “transition”, then at the end of the original cut said “he had stopped hormones” to reassess his life. The original was tangentially political, but when that moment was cut, it became badly political. “Gay Chorus Deep South” to see how recutting a documentary utterly alters the “message”
Comedy is often a very effective way of being artfully political. Duck Soup and Dr. Strangelove come to mind. When you mentioned the diversity of Top Gun 2 that doesn't shout its diversity, I thought of Alien and Aliens where the total bad-ass is a woman but her gender is not a political statement. Her maternal instincts for Newt just "are." Get away from her, you bitch!" is an all-time great line that the human matriarch says to the alien matriarch.
Thank you for a brilliant article, Stephen! I have gotten so sick of the willful politicization of cinema and television entertainment. I turn to both to escape from this overly-politicized world. Kudos to you and Nolan for understanding this!
Not a movie, but I had to stop watching the medical drama New Amsterdam as it had the most heavy-handed political story lines I have ever had the misfortune to see. The first season was ok, but it just went downhill from there.
I can’t remember the tv show but it started with a far-right march, an Asian police officer main protagonist & the headquarters filled with folk from all backgrounds including a masculine-behaving female dwarf (I’m not kidding) that it threw me. The Message was strong with this one.
Christopher Nolan's Batman series has some good political messaging actually, even if it's espousing politics I strongly disagree with. It's got themes of the noblesse obligée and their duty to the people who can't govern themselves and can't be trusted with democracy. Batman hacks everyone's phones "for their own good", and Bane manages to steal all his weapons that he'd kept as a private citizen unaccountable to any authorities. The first Iron Man tackles similar issues but takes a different view on them, and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films did a bit with it too, "with great power comes great responsibility". Superhero movies are at their most interesting when they're actually exploring the duties of a hero and their place in society relative to everyone else. It's why they're boring now, they don't do any of that.
Dune is all about politics, and is just a great series of films so far. It doesn't tell the viewer what to think, it just shows what all the various factions are up to and their interests, and lets you decide. The books were much the same. It's structured like a hero's journey, but Paul's campaign is massively AstroTurfed behind the scenes and has been since before he was born. You can make a solid argument for almost any of the characters being "the good guys" or "the bad guys". I wonder if the Bene Gesserit wrote the Denton's document...
My Beautiful Laundrette is a good bet. Crying Game the opposite.
There was a movie making the rounds on gay circuit, about a gay chorus in the Deep South. One character was considering “transition”, then at the end of the original cut said “he had stopped hormones” to reassess his life. The original was tangentially political, but when that moment was cut, it became badly political. “Gay Chorus Deep South” to see how recutting a documentary utterly alters the “message”
https://www.gaychorusdeepsouth.com
Comedy is often a very effective way of being artfully political. Duck Soup and Dr. Strangelove come to mind. When you mentioned the diversity of Top Gun 2 that doesn't shout its diversity, I thought of Alien and Aliens where the total bad-ass is a woman but her gender is not a political statement. Her maternal instincts for Newt just "are." Get away from her, you bitch!" is an all-time great line that the human matriarch says to the alien matriarch.
Thank you for a brilliant article, Stephen! I have gotten so sick of the willful politicization of cinema and television entertainment. I turn to both to escape from this overly-politicized world. Kudos to you and Nolan for understanding this!
Not a movie, but I had to stop watching the medical drama New Amsterdam as it had the most heavy-handed political story lines I have ever had the misfortune to see. The first season was ok, but it just went downhill from there.
I can’t remember the tv show but it started with a far-right march, an Asian police officer main protagonist & the headquarters filled with folk from all backgrounds including a masculine-behaving female dwarf (I’m not kidding) that it threw me. The Message was strong with this one.