In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.

Tuesday is, as you all know, election day. In anticipation, and to take our minds off our anxiety about the future of democracy, let’s talk political art in this week’s Medium Cool.
From political paintings (“Guernica,” for example) to political TV (“The West Wing,” “MASH”) to political films (“Z,” “All the President’s Men”) to books (too many to name), politics shows up in many forms.
What are some works that have made the biggest impression on you? What changed your mind about something or taught you something valuable?
Omnes Omnibus
Political? Does a bunch of Irish people trying the favorite drinks of US Presidents count? I think it fucking does.
BGinCHI
Maybe everyone is over at Mastodon.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: The Irish are game for damn near anything. That’s excellent.
JPL
The Contender with Joan Allen showed the dark side of the political world. It didn’t enlighten me but did make me aware that we have to be prepared for a battle. We aren’t ready yet to fight back.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: There is a whole YouTube channel of them trying all sorts of shit.
Layer8Problem
Borgen taught me that Danish parliamentary politics could actually be engaging and that Denmark might be an interesting place to live.
The Battle of Algiers showed the battle doesn’t end just because they say it’s over and they won.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, the rabbit holes you’ll go down there…..
JPL
@Layer8Problem: Loved Borgen.
BGinCHI
@Layer8Problem: Two GREAT examples.
Wanted to like the newest Borgen more than I did, but it was still good to see most of them back.
UncleEbeneezer
Borgen. Incredible Danish drama series about the first Woman Prime Minister. It really brings home the difficulty of building majority coalitions in a multi-party system. The truth is, you often have to work with some extremely reprehensible people/parties. It also underscores the fact that having third, fourth, fifth parties doesn’t magically guarantee Progressive outcomes or erase shitloads of Misogyny and Xenophobia.
Chernobyl and The Americans both had a lot to say about Soviet politics in the 80’s even though politics wasn’t the overt focus of either.
And while not a “political” show, For All Mankind has a major plot line about Presidential politics that is really excellent.
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: Snakebite? That was really good and now I feel enlightened,
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer: Yes. Chernobyl (by the great Craig Mazin) is tremendous.
I was really impressed at how For All Mankind kept up the quality across its seasons. Is it gonna keep going? Hope so.
Omnes Omnibus
I, Claudius.
UncleEbeneezer
The Hillary Clinton documentary on Hulu and her podcast too. Both highlight just how different she is from the Misogynist image of a corrupt, Devil-Lady that our media, the GOP and a whole lot of Progressives have spent years promoting. She’s a fundamentally decent person who was fighting for all kinds of progressive shit for decades before it became cool to do so. For the podcast, I highly recommend the episode she did about Ukraine with Michael McFaul.
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: That’s how we felt too. Still a great show, but definitely not quite on the same level as the previous seasons.
Nora
Wag the Dog. For sheer cynical delight, this movie works. And what a cast! Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, William H. Macy, Greg Kinnear, even Willie Nelson. Just the movie to watch when you want to believe everything sucks. Great Mark Knopfler music on the soundtrack, too.
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer: Hard to get the band back together, despite what John Belushi said.
PaulB
An earlier Robert Redford film, The Candidate, is definitely worth a look, with one of the best last lines of any movie: “What do we do now?”
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: Yes. No release date yet but Season 4 began filming in August and will time jump again to the early 2000’s.
Scout211
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was wonderful. Jimmy Stewart in 1939.
But the ones I really enjoyed (besides All the Presidents Men already mentioned) were
The American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Benning
Dave with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: As a musician I can definitely attest to that. Though if the band was extremely popular, famous, successful it would be much easier because $$$
James E Powell
Novels: Catch-22, The Last Hurrah, All the King’s Men.
Films: The Candidate, A Face in the Crowd, Miracle on 34th Street (original)
mali muso
@Nora:
Ha, I was JUST about to mention that one. I wonder if it would seem hopelessly naive upon rewatching today.
Scout211
Television show: The West Wing of course.
NotMax
Some favorite political cartoonists:
Pat Oliphant, Jules Feiffer, James Montgomery Flagg, Herblock.
J R in WV
The Manchurian Candidate, with Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury as the evil lady.
When I first saw that film, I was completely stricken by the arena where the finale takes place, which was the Philadelphia Convention Center, where I saw so many great rock and roll acts, such a contrast with the movie. I guess it’s all gone now, but was a great arena in the late 60s. Santana, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, and so many more!
mrmoshpotato
Newt Gingrich taught me back in 1998 that the Republican is a pile of shit that doesn’t want to govern.
PaulB
I know that Bob Woodward has a … questionable … reputation, despite the early success of All the President’s Men (a questionable reputation that is richly deserved, in my opinion), but The Brethren had a pretty major impact on me for what it revealed about the political maneuvering behind the scenes at the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as for what it revealed about the deliberate manipulation of that court by Richard Nixon, the first efforts of a decades-long project that has resulted in the court we have today.
For more on the All the President’s Men film, I can recommend William Goldman’s book, Adventures in the Screen Trade. He was the first screenwriter picked for the film and it was something of a nightmare project, mostly due to a horrible director, until he was eventually replaced.
Major Major Major Major
Honestly, story-wise, I don’t really care for “political art”. Yes yes, all art is political, but “political art” almost always feels didactic to me.
I like to distinguish between “political stories” and “stories about politics”. Veep is about politics. Veep is great. But I don’t like stories that are trying to sell me something.
Scout211
The Brethren was an amazing book. IIRC, there was a section in there about the Roe v Wade decision, right?
NotMax
Recall Gore Vidal’s novel Empire as being a provocative look into the intersection of media and politics in and around turn of the previous century America.
Matt McIrvin
The Manchurian Candidate. Dr. Strangelove. Citizen Kane. (Particularly, the sequence in the latter where Kane runs for office promising to put the powerful political boss in jail, and the guy sends some thugs over to rough him up, explaining that he just made it personal. And the election-night sequence where Kane’s paper has alternate lead stories all typeset, “KANE WINS!” or “FRAUD AT POLLS!” I think about that one a lot.)
I’m not sure these movies actually taught me anything, but I like some dark shit.
Nora
@mali muso:
Do watch it again. I think it’s aged well (better than Dave or The American President, much as I love those two).
PaulB
Yep, along with cases on school integration, busing, executive privilege, the death penalty, pornography, and the Pentagon Papers, among many others.
Chief Justice Warren Burger did not come across well in that book. Probably the saddest part for me was the deterioration of William Douglas, who clung on too long because he knew he would be replaced by someone not at all sympathetic to his views.
BGinCHI
@PaulB: Oh yeah, with the great Alan Garfield!
BGinCHI
I’d be remiss not to mention Altman’s Nashville, which may be my favorite issues film (if that’s the right phrase) of all time.
What a masterpiece.
AliceBlue
Striptease is worth watching just to see Burt Reynolds as a brain-addled Republican congressman.
One of the best political cartoonists around is Mike Luckovich, who’s been with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for many years.
phein63
A Lion Is In the Streets – Jimmy Cagney as Huey Long. An easily corrupted man more than willing to corrupt others. Donald Trump without money. Made me rethink my views of local pols I had known.
Blaze – Paul Newman as Earl Long. A corrupt man more than willing to be further corrupted. Somehow comforting, in a disconcerting way.
Atlas Shrugged: Made me distrust people who think they know all there is to know about life. Realized the purpose of democracy is to form a more perfect union by having it responsive to the needs of all citizens — don’t vote to make your voice heard, vote to make the system work better for you! [Don’t worry: wealthy people have been doing this for millennia.]
The Little Red Hen: [as read to my small children] If you don’t contribute when you can . . .
dexwood
Child of the 50s here, came of age in the 60s. Mad magazine was always a great look at politics and politicians for me.
Matt McIrvin
@Nora: I remember enjoying Wag the Dog but I also remember my cynical Republican coworkers citing it while dismissing Bill Clinton’s ridiculous, ginned-up animus against this nobody, Osama bin Laden.
NotMax
Smattering of films across all genres (AFAIK having not already been mentioned) which more or less fall into the category.
Is Paris Burning?
Europa, Europa
The Great Man Votes
Meet John Doe
Hail the Conquering Hero
The Dark Horse
Wonderful World (Un mundo maravilloso)
The Perfect Dictatorship (La dictadura perfecta)
The Comedians
The Year of Living Dangerously
.
TaMara
I got sucked into The Independent on Peacock – what a drag of a film, trying to be relevant, but missing by a wide mile. And the bothsiderism, JFC I expected better of Brian Cox. And, as usual, could have made use of a good editor…or even a mediocre editor.
someday we should discuss why so much streaming content is mediocre, despite some lofty standouts.
SuzieC
I love that Redford and Hoffman are still with us. Not sure about Hoffman but Redford has been a powerful ally and environmentalist for years.
Katrina
I guess it depends how we are at defining anything political. As a fan of science fiction, a lot of it can be seen as allegorical or speculative about counterfactuals in politics, or commenting on power, history, and human society. I am currently in the midst of watching, supposedly, we are trying, every episode of Star Trek ever made, with my tween son. We are halfway through deep space nine. There is great commentary about US and world politics woven in there, and it’s one way to feel optimism about the survival of our species, which ultimately does rely on politics. Even though it is fiction and it does not make too many explicit references to US politics. It does comment on the Foley of racism, sexism, and other barriers to full fledged democracy. If we are talking explicit narratives that are directly about politics, I agree with many of the above and would add the show the thick of it and the book all the kings men.
Omnes Omnibus
The same reason most non-streaming content is mediocre.
Suzanne
In the fine art realm, much of the work of Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Kiki Smith, the Guerilla Girls, and others greatly affected me and how I see the world.
J R in WV
So much to learn here at B-J — thanks everyone!
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Sturgeon’s Law is an unforgiving truism.
dexwood
@NotMax: The Year of Living Dangerously is a very good political movie. We saw it when first released at a great art theater across from our town’s university. I had read the book a year or two before the film release. The movie is pretty good. The book is very good. Mel Gibson’s character is almost non-existent in the book.
zhena gogolia
Hugh Grant and Billy Bob Thornton in Love Actually. J/k
SFBayAreaGal
@PaulB: This 100%
JPL
@AliceBlue: 👍👍👍👍 Love Mike and the AJC is lucky to have him.
piratedan
@BGinCHI: would completely endorse the session where they try the most alcoholic drinks, it is (or should be considered) legendary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsUtcrQ7M0c
The politics at a local level (and the media issue) are very much in play in Absence of Malice, although imho Willford Brimley steals the film at the end.
evap
In the past few days I’ve been running my own personal political movie film fest. I do this every two years around this time. Last night I watched my second favorite political movie, Primary Colors. One thing I learned from this movie is that John Travolta is a damn fine actor. I’m saving my favorite political movie for tomorrow night — Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Others that I like: Wag the Dog, Bulworth, Election.
Martin
You know, I find that stuff a lot more recently, and not in traditional media channels. So it’s mostly YouTube for me. Just a few off the top of my head:
In Search of a Flat Earth – understanding the cultural moment we are in and why the ‘anti-science’ community is really a misnomer. Alt title: The Twist at 37 Minutes Will Make You Believe We Live In Hell
This is Phil Fish – fame and parasocial relationships.
A Trans Coming Out Story – Philosophy Tube. I’ve watched it half a dozen times and it always makes me cry, and I’m not one to cry. Also, pretty much anything else by Philosophy Tube.
This interview with Kimberly Jones during BLM.
Woke Brands by hbomberguy – worth contrasting against the current debate about brand safety around Twitter.
Vaccines and Autism also by hbomberguy as a nice bookend to the Flat Earth video above as it shows just how disconnected from reality the whole assertion was to begin with and how badly were were failed by the media in not helping the public to understand just how disconnected from reality the whole assertion was. I very much like his presentation approach, though it’s not for everyone.
I find almost anything that a network might broadcast to be uninteresting. I’m a cis white male with a house and two kids. The last thing I want to see is something that someone just like me would green light to appeal to people just like me. I pretty much only want to consume content that they would never consider putting on air.
About the only thing that caught my attention recently was Inside by Bo Burnham. Some of that was my state of mind at the time (which it helped me escape from).
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: still, the hit rate seems a lot lower for streaming. There are a hundred times more things to watch but there aren’t a hundred times more good things to watch.
NotMax
Rats. Left Advise & Consent off the short list. Charles Laughton’s portrayal of an unctuous, conniving, deep Southern senator is almost too spot on.
Also too, the 1941 version of Man Hunt, directed by Fritz Lang.
Scott Siegal
Try The Thick Of It. Makes Veep look like Sesame Street.
Martin
@piratedan: I’d divorce my wife for the woman in green (Clara) in that video.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin:
Everyone loves Ciara and Leather Jacket Guy.
SFBayAreaGal
Deep Space Nine
The movie Missing – Jack Lemmon at his best
Seven Days in May – Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster
phein63
@Omnes Omnibus: I believe that 90% of everything is crap, no?
SFBayAreaGal
@Katrina: My favorite Star Trek series with my favorite captain.
Omnes Omnibus
@phein63:
As NotMax said, Sturgeon’s Law.
SFBayAreaGal
@piratedan: Absence of Malice was so good
Wyatt Salamanca
Love most of the films already mentioned. I’ll add these titles:
State of the Union with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Angela Lansbury directed by Frank Capra. Whenever people discuss political films, they always cite Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but I prefer this film over it.
The Great McGinty with Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff, and William Demarest written and directed by Preston Sturges.
The Best Man with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Screenplay by Gore Vidal based on his 1960 play
Bob Roberts written, directed by, and starring Tim Robbins with Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, and Gore Vidal
Z starring Jean-Louis Trintignant (RIP), Yves Montand, and Irene Papas. Directed by Costa-Gavras, it’s not only a great film, but also includes a kick-ass musical score by Mikis Theodorakis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1fzDCRZM9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmagWguEOGc
Skepticat
Interestingly, I owned an advertising agency in Massachusetts, and I had a fair number of political accounts, some national, in addition to B2B clients, and as president of a private-public organization, I also got to know and work with some very high-level political figures. The nitty-gritty of the real world was much more interesting than any fictional construct.
BGinCHI
@Martin: Great list here.
Ruckus
@Layer8Problem:
Denmark is a really cool place to visit, likely to live as well. Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands were all great in many ways. New Zealand feels a bit less busy but is also very nice. I’ve missed a few others that I’ve been told were every bit as nice.
Wyatt Salamanca
One more for the road.
A Very British Coup is a 1988 British political serial adapted from Chris Mullin’s 1982 novel A Very British Coup. It’s a British tv series, so I’m not sure how easily available it is to find online.
NotMax
@Wyatt Salamanca
Thank you for mentioning Z. Powerful cinema.
dnfree
I’ve mentioned before the book “America Aflame”. In high school, what we mostly learned about the Civil War was the battles and the generals. I was looking for a book that would give me more of a sociological overview of the period leading up to the war and its aftermath. This book did an excellent job of that, and led to further reading on reconstruction. This book starts right off with the role of religion and the Second Great Awakening, and includes a lot of source material.
https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/6001/america-aflame
Raven
The Battle of Algiers
Hearts and Minds
oatler
“The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer”.It’s extremely prophetic and funny. On Youtube.
Sure Lurkalot
It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and yes it can.
dnfree
@Katrina: in science fiction, it’s hard to top Ursula K Le Guin’s book “The Dispossessed”. It was written in the 1970s, but I reread it this year and it holds up well. There’s a planetary system with an earth-like planet and a much less welcoming one. On the earth-like planet there are two societies depicted, roughly like the United States and the Soviet Union. On the barren planet there is an anarchist society that broke away from the first planet. A physicist from the anarchist planet visits the other planet. The depiction of the flaws and interactions of all three societies is insightful.
Edited to add that the scientist is based on Oppenheimer, whom Le Guin knew.
kalakal
@Wyatt Salamanca:
And very good it was too.
Some more British goodies
Edge of Darkness (Not the film of the same name)
House of Cards
The Boys from the Blackstuff
And possibly the best written and funniest series ever Yes Minister/Prime Minister which was also extremely accurate as to how governments really work
Splitting Image
Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister were and are essential viewing. Sir Humphrey’s speeches on Europe and polling have proven especially prescient the last few years.
Catch-22 was the first novel by Joe Heller that I read, but I’d say that all of his books are an education in power politics. Good as Gold is the finest parody of modern American politics you could wish for, and it came out in 1979. And every political fight I’ve ever been in has made me think of Heller’s axiom: “The enemy is anyone who is going to get you killed, no matter what side he is on”.
I read most of Aristophanes’ plays around the same time I read Catch-22, and it was eye-opening to realize just how similar Aristophanes’ world was to Heller’s. The targets of Aristophanes’ satire are war profiteers, pseudo-patriotic chickenhawks, bitter old men using the court system to punish young men for speaking out, and generals using the war to advance their political careers. Except for the presence of airplanes, nothing in Catch-22 would be the least bit confusing to a man who died in 389 BC.
Gulliver’s Travels was also an educational read, especially because adaptations tend to leave out as much of the political satire as they can. I was also blown away by A Tale of a Tub, which is probably the work Jonathan Swift should be known for. It’s a delightfully nasty little diatribe against all the ways the defenders of Christianity have lied about what is in the Bible to maintain their social position in changing times.
cope
“The Boys On The Bus” and “Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail” made me realize just how incestual the relationship between the media and the powers that be is. Fifty years on, that relationship looks to be even more toxically intertwined.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Katrina:
Speaking of Star Trek, where’s the Guardian of Forever when you need it?
For non- Trekers, the GOF is the time machine from the City on the Edge of Forever episode of the first incarnation of Star Trek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever#Guardian_of_Forever
Access to the GOF, or something like it, could come in handy if the Republicans manage to extinguish our democracy.
Yutsano
@SFBayAreaGal: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield from the original series is pretty damn good.
schrodingers_cat
@kalakal: Yes Minister was so good. Humphrey Appleby FTW.
Battle Star Galactica (2004 version)
Movies depicting politics
Nothing comes close to Sinhasan (The throne) about politics of Mumbai and Maharashtra state in the 70s from the POV of a legislative assembly reporter, played by Nilu Phule. It has a great ensemble cast was based on two novels written by the journalist Arun Sadhu.
Mumbai Dinank (Mumbai Daily)
and Sinhasan (Throne)
Many of the characters were based on real political leaders.
Geminid
Carl Sandburg’s two-part biography of Abraham Lincoln gives a good picture of mid-19th century political life. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years came out in 1926, and Abraham Lincoln:The War Years was published in 1939.
Sandburg was an assiduous researcher as well as a fine writer, and he really conveyed a sense of what Lincoln was like as a person, and of the people he lived among.
Sandburg covers Lincoln’s assasination, of course. He titled his next chapter, “A Tree Is Best Measured After It Has Fallen.” I thought of that phrase when the late John Lewis passed away.
artem1s
I think my first exposures to overtly political writing and film was because of the Vietnam war. The film version of Slaughterhouse Five was pretty much considered an anti-Vietnam piece as was M*A*S*H the film and TV show. After seeing it SHV I became an avid consumer of Vonneguts work. Another anti-Vietnam piece that doesn’t get as much attention is Birdy. I liked both the book and the film.
Overall I think Vonnegut opened me up to more symbolic work like The Tin Drum too. I think The Tin Drum influenced me a lot politically. Grass’ novel works as a lesson on the dangers and seduction of fascism, militarism, religious fanaticism, etc… for almost any generation and culture.
prostratedragon
@Omnes Omnibus: Hope you’re not just being facetious, because I agree, or at least it’s on my list. Z, already mentioned, actually is my favorite I think, but I can find politics anywhere.
UncleEbeneezer
Let’s start bring in some paintings (gonna share a bunch): Behind The Myth of Benevolence, 2014- Titus Khafar
Omnes Omnibus
@prostratedragon: I was not being facetious. For once.
mali muso
Thinking on this prompt a little more…I would have to include the written work of Kurt Vonnegut. Read his entire catalog (or close to it) in the early 00s during the runup to the Iraq War and it really gave 20-something year old me a lot to consider. I was coming out of a fundy evangelical environment (everyone in my world voted R because Jeebus said so) and it really shifted my perspective and made me question everything.
UncleEbeneezer
Breaking Ranks, 2018- Deborah Roberts
UncleEbeneezer
John Lewis: Good Trouble, 2020- Shephard Fairey
LeftCoastYankee
@Raven:
God, I can still see the scene where McNamara (or one of the generals) saying something like ‘the Vietnamese don’t value life like we do’ juxtaposed with a Vietnamese woman’s grief at a loved one’s graveside.
Not subtle film-making, but damn effective.
UncleEbeneezer
Sundown (Number Twenty), 2019- Xaviera Simmons
raven
@LeftCoastYankee: Patton’s son, CO of the 11th Armored Car saying “My men are a bunch of damn fine killers” rocked a lot of worlds.
Wyatt Salamanca
@artem1s:
Loved both MASH and Slaughterhouse Five films. I was surprised that Slaughterhouse Five film wasn’t a commercial hit.
Interesting note about MASH. Richard Hooker who wrote the novel was politically conservative.
prostratedragon
@phein63: The Little RedHen taught me that one shouldn’t be a freerider.🙂
AxelFoley
@Omnes Omnibus:
I, Robot.
Craig
The Wire, especially season 3. The politics of the cops, the Police Dept. interaction with the local politicians, and the machinations of Carcetti and his ambitions to the Mayor’s office and Annapolis.
UncleEbeneezer
TW: Racial Violence imagery
The First One Hundred Years: He Amongst You Who is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone: Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do, 1963–72- Archibald Motley
kalakal
My earliest memory of a film affecting me deeply was All quiet on the western front ( the 1930 version ) . There’s a lot of very powerful scenes but the one where Paul is on leave, goes to his home town and finds his parents and all the older townfolk gungho about the war and telling him how wonderful it must be to be in the front lines, winning the war for Germany has haunted me ever since. He’s then taken to the school where he has to give a “yay enlist as soon as you can!” speech to a class of fresh faced kids, just like the one he’d believed when he was in that classroom a year earlier.
It’s a stunning depiction of how people are lied to by the political system they are part of and how far too many of us not only acquiesce but actively promote those lies rather than face the truth
Craig
Forgot about State of Play-the Brit miniseries, not the crap Ben Affleck movie. Political intrigue, and Bill Nighy as a newspaper publisher. Good stuff.
UncleEbeneezer
The Devil & His Game, 1970- Kay Brown
UncleEbeneezer
Fred Hampton’s Door 2, 1974- Dana Chandler
LeftCoastYankee
Roots (on TV). I was probably just starting middle school and it left a hell of an impression on me.
Also, left me a little confused (at the time) that the message most white people got was “hey we should learn our genealogy too!”
Also War and Peace when I was a bit older. Tolstoy was not of the “Napolean’s a great man” school of thought or a big fan of war in general. I don’t know if he was a very accurate historian, but it made an vivid impression on who gets to tell the story of what happened.
Aussie Sheila
@Raven: Yes.
UncleEbeneezer
Quilt: White America, 2016- Jessica Wohl
LeftCoastYankee
@raven:
I’ll bet. I just checked out when it was made (74). I probably saw this 15 years after it came out.
And I guess it was Westmoreland who had the quote and it was worse than I remembered.
PJ
Sandinista!
BGinCHI
@PJ:
Hell yes.
UncleEbeneezer
@LeftCoastYankee: There was a remake of Roots a few years ago that was very good too.
UncleEbeneezer
Underground. Best series about Slavery in America I have ever seen. It’s fiction, but everything in it happened for real. It shows the brutality of Slavery but also really celebrates the incredible strength, ingenuity etc. of the Enslaved. The second season even brings in a totally bad-ass Harriet Tubman into the mix.
The Good Lord Bird, a fictional interpretation of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry was also really good and moving and even funny.
dexwood
El Salvador if not already mentioned. Saw it twice. In a theater when released and later on HBO. Have never been able to watch it again. Heartbreaking.
SFBayAreaGal
@Yutsano: Yes it is. My favorite all time Star Trek series episode is “In the Pale Moonlight”
UncleEbeneezer
@UncleEbeneezer: Whoops here is the link for the painting The Devil And His Game
UncleEbeneezer
Kara Walker’s incredibly moving and thought-provoking silhouettes. Very powerful to see in-person.
UncleEbeneezer
@Craig: Check out We Own This City, the David Simon series about the Baltimore PD. It’s on HBOMax and it is really good.
frosty
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well that sent me down a rabbit hole! Fun!!!
Steeplejack
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Available on the Roku Channel, Tubi and Freevee.
mrmoshpotato
Anyone else watching Sunday Night Football? Why are the Titans being such dicks to the Chiefs (and to KC fans)?
Suzanne
@UncleEbeneezer: Agree on Kara Walker. Her work is mind blowing.
Layer8Problem
@Ruckus: Denmark’s absolutely on my To Visit list.
prostratedragon
@SuzieC: [Finished after a long phone call] Redford often plays characters who get less scrutiny than they should, because of those glorious looks. The Candidate is one case, Jay Gatsby another, as are some of his early TV characters and at least one of his directorial anti-heroes in Quiz Show. Interesting.
NotMax
@prostratedragon
Redford tells the story of being preliminarily considered for the lead in The Graduate</em. and turning down the offer cold because "even when I was a virgin I didn't look like one."
;)
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Speaking of things on Tubi, while not in the same league with most of the above titles, The Collini Case is at its heart an examination of the consequences of politics and all in all not a bad little film.
LeftCoastYankee
@UncleEbeneezer:
I’ll have to check out that Roots remake, and for that matter the original too. It’s always interesting to see what the years have done to my perspective in watching/reading something.
I have “Underground” on my watch list. I usually have to get myself “ready” for realistic evil.
I read The Good Lord Bird and it was a great story. Clearly, slavery even made the white “good guys” fucking nuts.
Knally
Rather expensive and specific to a particular time but Daughters of the North by Jennifer Morag Henderson was interesting for showing the change from politics by warfare to politics by influence around the time of Mary Queen of Scots
yellowdog
@Omnes Omnibus: Sturgeon’s Law
In response to a complaint that 90% of science fiction is crap, he declared ‘Ninety percent of everything is crap.’
zmulls
I saw someone finally noted the film ADVISE AND CONSENT, but for me it was the novel version, as well as the subsequent five books. I read the books several times and they had a profound effect on me, getting me interested in parliamentary procedures and how things got done (good) and giving me a very hawkish view on foreign policy (bad). The later books are conservative rants, but I didn’t realize it at that age.
(In the book, the SecState nominee is a wishy-washy liberal, not to be trusted, and the true hero is the Senator from Illinois who is a Harry Truman clone; in the movie, the SecState nominee is Henry Fonda, who is the hero of the movie, and the Illinois Senator is removed entirely from the story)
Also in books, WHAT IT TAKES by Richard Ben Cramer blew me away. It is more journalism than art, but reads like an episodic novel. It gave me insight into Dole and Biden that was invaluable. I would be less enthusiastic about Biden if I had not read that book.
Miss Bianca
@UncleEbeneezer: Late to the thread, just wanted to say, Thank you for all these links to art works!
way2blue
‘The Cellist’ by Daniel Silva. I read it because my least favorite talking heads were upset about how the book treated Donald Trump. Just the book for me… Startling & illuminating look into Russian oligarchs, money laundering in London & Zurich—with the Jan 6th coup attempt woven into the ending.
JCNZ
@J R in WV: So true!
Damned as Random
@NotMax: I forgot about The Year of Living Dangerously. Great movie.
UncleEbeneezer
@Miss Bianca: You’re very welcome. They were all stuff I saw at LACMA (Black Portraits Exhibit incl. the Obama portraits), The Broad (Soul of A Nation exhibit) and Quiltcon 2018 (Pasadena). I love good political art, especially that of PoC artists. Very moving and thought-provoking.