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The 20 Best Political Movies

A ranked list of the 20 greatest movies about the U.S. political process, from comedies like ‘Idiocracy’ to dramas like ‘Lincoln’ and more

Collage of political movies

Left to right: 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,' 'Lincoln,' 'Election,' 'Idiocracy,' 'Dr. Strangelove,' 'All the President's Men' PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW COOLEY. IMAGES IN ILLUSTRATION: EVERETT COLLECTION, 4. JOHN KISCH ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES.

Perhaps you’ve heard there’s a presidential election coming up? One that may, in fact, be the single most important referendum on our way of government in our lifetime? It is a reality that may have you looking for inspiration in the final weeks leading up to Nov. 5 — or escape. How better to thread this particular needle than with movies about American politics? Filmmakers have long been dealing with the topic of our nation’s origin story, and how our particular manner of governance — “by the people, for the people,” or at least that’s how it reads on the page — has contributed to the idealistic image of America that its citizens hold near and dear to our hearts. But well before Watergate became more than just a hotel, the movies have also cast a keen kino-eye on how American democracy is a notion that’s ideal in conception and too often flawed in execution. Here are our picks for the 20 best films exploring the good, the bad, and the extremely ugly aspects of American politics.

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From Rolling Stone US

1

‘All the President’s Men’ (1976)

A great newspaper drama and an even better political thriller, this Oscar winner turned recent history into an electrifying and reassuring motion picture about the durability of America’s foundational institutions. No one who saw this adaptation of journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s book had any doubt about the ending — we already knew those dogged Washington Post reporters were going to connect the Watergate break-in to Richard Nixon, who would resign the presidency — and yet the movie couldn’t be more gripping. Perhaps it was because director Alan J. Pakula and screenwriter William Goldman imagined the film as a taut procedural, in which Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are the grouchy, unconventional buddy-cop duo who’ll pound the pavement trying to find sources willing to go on the record. Maybe it was because the cast was filled with a murderers’ row of incredible character actors, including Jason Robards, who took home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as eternally stern Post editor Ben Bradlee. Or maybe it was because everyone involved managed to perfectly balance the story’s mixture of patriotic fervor and stripped-down professionalism, viewing the Watergate cover-up as an urgent crisis that challenged the very principles of our democracy. Those alarm bells have not diminished in the nearly 50 years since the film’s release — if anything, the crisis feels even more present and harrowing now than it did then. Perhaps that’s why so many of us return to All the President’s Men: We want to be reminded that, eventually, justice will prevail and the bad guys will be taken down. Sometimes, that hope is all we have. —T.G.