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What's the best election movie? (Poll Closed)

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12 Comments

  • Caleb McCandless in New Hampshire - 7 years ago

    I chose Bob Roberts because it's the film (along with The Manchurian Candidate) I've been thinking about the most this election. A movie about a flagrant liar who manages to capture the hearts of the very people his policies and values undermine through turning the political process into a giant show? The movie even has him appearing on a Saturday Night Live-type show, which gets flak for "selling out" for having him on. Eerie.

  • Khalid Rafi - 7 years ago

    How about the highly underrated Ides of March? It's easily one of the most sharply written and intelligent political films I've ever seen that I think, does a great job of showing the ugly side of politicians who build their campaigns on slogans rather than strategies. That also features superb performances from Gosling, Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Evan Rachel Wood.

  • Michael Brandtner - 7 years ago

    I've voted for Milk because it sadly is the only movie of these that I have seen. It has an unusually vulnerable performance by Sean Penn and deals with a topic that is still very important today and will remain to be in the next couple of decades.

  • Chris - 7 years ago

    Wild in the Streets

  • Nashville!

    Big ups to the write-in votes for The Best Man, and perhaps showing my Bay Area bias, I have a real soft spot for Milk. In fact, these are terrific films all around. But my mind quickly jumped to election-season-level-righteous-indignation over the absence of Robert Altman's 1975 Nashville, MY write-in vote for the 2016 election. Altman's take is set apart by its focus on the odd assortment of entertainers, journalists, and human "props" which spiral around any election. The sly thesis - that the circus of modern politics isn't a cliche, but rather the heart of the matter - might have felt cynical in 1957, but against the backrop of the 2016 race, it's quaint and sweet. So there you have it: Robert Altman's funny, acid-tongued dig at American politics, offered up as a charming diversion from reality. It works on so many levels!

  • Eric Hauter - 7 years ago

    I knew that it was a losing battle to vote for Bulworth before ever clicking the "submit" button, but regardless of the end result, I am satisfied that I have done the right thing.

    If only I felt that way about the real life coming election!

  • Stuart Feldstein, Bondurant, Iowa - 7 years ago

    It is nice to see The Candidate on this list - this is an underseen gem of a film that is still relevant 40 years after its release. I love movies with a punch line, and this movie has one of the best that is too good to spoil and perfectly sums up in two words the electoral process in America.

  • Steven Cherry - 7 years ago

    The Best Man is a shockingly good, realistic, crazy movie. Also notably missing from the list: All the President's Men.

  • Tom Labarthe - 7 years ago

    Had to write in with some love for 1964's The Best Man. With a screenplay by the iconoclast Gore Vidal, and starring Henry Fonda as the titular principled candidate, The Best Man uses the backdrop of a presidential primary to explore the way that politics tests and corrupts the even the most noble of politicians. The perfect film for this election season, the prescience of the themes in Vidal's screenplay is evident when looking at our own political landscape, where the best candidate can be forced to compromise themselves for the greater good.

  • Peter from Somerville - 7 years ago

    I really liked 2012's Pablo Larrain film No. It's a great example of getting a message sold to an electorate and a positive message of how people can empower themselves through positive action. It may not be a straight up election film but I'd add it to the list.

  • Cole Bauer - 7 years ago

    No Welcome to Mooseport? Is this poll rigged? I kid, I kid. I did not vote "Other" so I could write in Welcome to Mooseport. Of course I had to vote for the biting comedy Election. How weird and wonderful it is.

    Seriously though, I did not vote for Welcome to Mooseport. I want that on record. I don't need a reputation ruined by that....

  • Dave Bjorling - 7 years ago

    The best election film by far is the 1964 Gore Vidal written film The Best Man - It can be seen on TCM either late Wednesday night 10/26 or early Thursday morning 10/27. Staring Henry Fonda it is about a Presidential Nominating convention and the behind the scenes actions.

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