--- title: TIME's Favorite Political Movies | TIME description: Are you suffering from political news overload? Escape to Hollywood with Richard Corliss's favorite films about the electoral process canonical: https://time.com/video/XDJ9vmLw/ og:title: TIME's Favorite Political Movies og:description: Are you suffering from political news overload? Escape to Hollywood with Richard Corliss's favorite films about the electoral process og:url: https://time.com/video/XDJ9vmLw/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XDJ9vmLw/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME's Favorite Political Movies twitter:description: Are you suffering from political news overload? Escape to Hollywood with Richard Corliss's favorite films about the electoral process twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XDJ9vmLw/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # TIME's Favorite Political Movies > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME's Favorite Political Movies [Watch (HLS stream): TIME's Favorite Political Movies](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XDJ9vmLw.m3u8) (8:34)  _Published 2008-11-04. Are you suffering from political news overload? Escape to Hollywood with Richard Corliss's favorite films about the electoral process_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:02 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Google Hangout: Debating the Debate with TIME's Politics Team](/video/nce79Pfo/) ### Google Hangout: Debating the Debate with TIME's Politics Team [Richard Corliss on the Best Holiday Movies and TV](/video/v7XJGFE7/) ### Richard Corliss on the Best Holiday Movies and TV [TIME's Favorite Chinese Movies](/video/bvnXzN7d/) ### TIME's Favorite Chinese Movies --- ## Transcript >> This is Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine's film critic, welcoming you to the TIME Election Movie Special. If you're puffed from all the bad political vibes on the cable news channels, here's your chance to take a break from real life and see how Hollywood has made drama and fun out of the electoral process. >> Suit guy, sent me over. >> The Great McGinty, 1940. -[ unk ] >> Never mind the apple sauce. How do I get the two books? >> A tough lowlife, played by Brian Donlevy, uses his muscle and a roguish smile to rise in the government of a big city machine run by The Boss. This was Preston Sturges' first film as writer / director and it parades all his conflicted love for con- artistry, political and emotional. >> I make no campaign promises. >> Citizen Kane, 1941. >> I had no hope of being elected. Now, however, I have something more than a hope. >> Best film ever, maybe. But in addition to its status as a movie milestone, Kane offered an acute view of American politics that applies today as much as it did in 1941. >> Every independent- >> Like Silvio Berlusconi and Michael Bloomberg, Charles Foster Kane is a media magnet who runs for office. This is a film about a powerful man's need to be loved by the millions of people whose lives he dominates. -[ unk ] >> Skeffington, Skeffington. Cast your vote for Skeffington. >> The Last Hurrah, 1958. This bluff and vigorous John Ford film based on a novel about four- time Boston Mayor James Curley winks at the [ unk ] involved in getting into office and staying there. >> Ladies and gentlemen, it appears in the vote that McCluskey's won and is going to be your next mayor. I want to wish to offer Mr. McCluskey my heartiest congratulations and good luck. >> Has anything changed in 50 years? The big city machine the film elegizes maybe gone but when politicians dance to the tune- >> Ladies and gentlemen- >> played by people like Karl Rove, the malady lingers on. >> I am going to run for governor of the state and I might add I expect to win. Thank you and good night. >> What did he say? >> That he's gonna run for governor and he expects to win. >> I'd be a lot happier if we could just settle on the number of Communist I know there are in the Defense Department. >> The Manchurian Candidate, 1962. How's this for apocalyptic cynicism? A Joe McCarthy- type red- baiter " 57 card- carrying Communist in the State Department" is married to a Soviet spy. >> You are to shoot the presidential nominees through the head. >> And she arranges for her son- >> And Johnny- >> who's been brainwashed by the Chinese Communist to assassinate the presidential candidate who's on the ticket with her husband. >> Rallying a nation of television viewers into hysteria to sweep us up into the White House with powers that will make martial law seem like anarchy. >> You can't go back. You're the Democratic nominee for Senator. >> She make that sound like a death sentence. >> No, no, no- >> The Candidate, 1972. >> Our faith- >> Robert Redford plays a handsome, young lawyer who uses his charm and telegenicity to challenge an aging Senate incumbent. Welcome to the new politics. Jeremy Larner, who won an Oscar for the screenplay, had been Eugene McCarthy's chief speechwriter in the 1968 campaign. >> And on Election Day, and on Election Day, we won't run away. Vote once. Vote twice for Bill McKay, you middle class honkies. >> His insider's take was a cautionary tale of such subtlety that it sailed over the heads on some viewers- >> Okay. >> like Dan Quayle, who said the movie inspired him to be a politician. >> Marvin, what do we do now? >> Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What? >> Ladies and gentlemen, why can't you get ahead? Why can't you have the home of your dreams? >> Bob Roberts, 1992. -[ unk ] you wanna go [ unk ]. >> A folk singer as politician- that's Bob, seducing viewers with anthems of moral counterrevolution. >> Jerry's in the [ unk ]- >> His big hit is an anti- Dylan ballad The Times Are Changing Back. >> Julie is selling [ unk ]. Bill is starting over. John is building walls, manipulating the- >> Perfecting the notion of the dimple as a policy statement, Bob may win high office if the electorate doesn't wise- up to his real agenda and if Bob can stay alive. ­- But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain. >> The girl is alleging- >> Wag the Dog, 1998. >> Jesus, Mary and Joseph. >> We're virtually certain [ unk ]- >> Maybe we could say that it was a funny drug reaction to the flu. >> The incumbent president is the focus of a sex scandal. Come on, who'd believe that. His approval ratings need jacking up just before the election. So his aids invent a war against a country that never attacked us. Where do moviemakers get these kooky ideas? >> It's a suitcase bomb. >> That's good. >> Suitcase bomb. >> Yes. >> It's a suitcase bomb. >> When it's cooking, it's cooking. >> The young [ unk ]- >> Robert De Niro was the D. C. spin doctor and Dustin Hoffman, the media mogul, who produces a phony war that looks real on TV. Wag the Dog, co- written by David Mamet, is slick, funny- >> America has [ unk ]- >> appalling and mean, just what the material deserves. >> Fantastic. >> And the [ unk ]- >> That was good. >> The same process with the last Schwarzenegger movie. >> Fantastic. >> Isn't that amazing how they do that? >> Yeah. >> And you know what? Conrad, this is only the beginning. Where do we get the song? [ unk ] of the song, the image, the merchandising tie- ins? >> You know, this is only the beginning. >> Election, 1999. >> Who put you up to this? >> Oh, hi, Tracy. >> Who put you up to this? >> She's pretty. >> He was no competition for me. It was like apples and oranges. >> She's ambitious and she's a heartbeat away from the most powerful office in high school. >> I had to work a little hard, that's all. You see I believe the voters. >> If Tracy Flick wins the vote for student body president- >> They understand that elections- >> she's on her way to being- >> aren't just popularity contests. >> the next Sarah Palin. >> They know this country was built by people just like me who work very hard and don't have everything handed to them on a silver spoon. Not like some rich kids who everybody likes because their fathers own Metzler Cement and give them trucks on their 16th birthday and throw them big parties all the time. No, they don't ever have to work for anything. They think they can just, all of a sudden, one day out of the blue, waltz right in with no qualifications whatsoever and try to take away what other people have worked for very, very hard their entire lives. No, didn't bother me at all. >> The Best Man, 1964. Gore Vidal knew politics from the inside. The famous novelist was related by blood to the Gore political dynasty of Tennessee and by his mother's second marriage to the Bouvier Kennedys. In this primer on real politique, the answer to the question how dirty do you dare to play has another question: how high do you want to go? >> Power is not a toy that we give to good children. It's a weapon and the strong man takes it and he uses it. >> Primary Colors, 1999. >> Your grandfather was a great man. >> Oh, thank you. >> Jack Stanton could also be a great man if you weren't such a faithless, thoughtless, disorganized, undisciplined shit. >> Honey, why- >> This is another " isn't he awful, isn't he wonderful" movie about a politician. >> So you know- >> Maybe the definitive one. >> I'm gonna do something really outrageous. I'm gonna tell the truth. >> It's about a presidential candidate who spreads his seductiveness- >> I don't know [ unk ]- >> on the electorate like jelly on toast. >> Really been desperate to do that. >> His name is Jack Stanton. But let's not kid around, John Trivolta is playing Bill Clinton and Emma Thompson is Hilary. >> Now you know I've taken a lot of hits on this campaign, but you know what that means? It means that someone thinks that you're only interested on the kind of garbage that they've been throwing at me. So Tuesday, when you go to cast your vote, you think about that. You think about what you're really interested in and then pick your candidate. >> Yeah. >> This is Richard Corliss for TIME Magazine. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME's Favorite Political Movies","description":"Are you suffering from political news overload? 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