The Big Apple in Film: Ten Terrific Films That Capture Different Times and Parts of New York

Manhattan

Regular readers of this blog (I’m looking at you Goliath McGillicuddy of Comptche, California) may recall that one month ago on this day I wrote a post highlighting ten great films set in Los Angeles. In said post I noted that New York has had far more excellent films as its setting. In fact I’d suggest that there are more good films set in New York than in all other American cities combined (prove me wrong). Here I offer some proof. I have not set out to merely list my ten favorite pictures set in the Big Apple. Instead I’ve come up with different types of films set in different parts of New York at different times. As you will note, there’s not a stinker in the bunch. As further evidence of how many excellent films have been set in the city that never sleeps, I conclude by listing another seventeen movies worth considering. Please enjoy. 

Manhattan (1979) Allen. The most beautiful iteration of New York on film. The opening shots — in glorious black and white —- will make you fall in love with the city. The rest of the movie will enrich that love. A lot of the indoor shots, like of Zabars and the Natural History Museum and Elaine’s, further add to the film’s stylistic and visual appeal.

Taxi Driver (1976) Scorsese. This is the gritty (why not say, ugly?) side of New York in its not so fabulous seventies as in the 1970’s. It’s stark, it’s real and the rainswept streets at night are somehow mesmerizing. 

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Coens. Early Sixties New York, much of it in Greenwich Village at the time of the beats, folk music and the emergence of a man named Bob Dylan. It evokes guitars, cigarette smoke, and times that were a changing.

Do the Right Thing (1989) Lee. Hot Summer Harlem. It’s one of those films that practically make you sweat just watching it. One of its biggest pluses is seeing a not-often-depicted part of New York, specifically where people of color live.

The Age of Innocence (1993) Scorsese. Again Martin Scorsese helps us explore this amazing city though in this case we’re time traveling to the 1880s seeing New York Edith Wharton style. This is a not fully developed New York but a fascinating one, featuring the old money rich and their luxurious abodes.

Sweet Smell of Success (1956) Mackendrick. New York in the 1950s and mostly at night. Night clubs, bars, offices and the streets feature. Men in suits, women in dresses, everyone smoking and drinking cocktails, catching cabs, lying and scheming. The scenery is class, the people, not so much.

My Man Godfrey (1936) La Cava. Depression era New York replete with Hoovervilles and the plush homes of the wealthy. It’s mostly a classy New York with sophisticated banter but the “home” of the forgotten men is not to be forgotten.

Radio Days (1987) Allen. New York during the second world war with the radio always in the background. Middle class homes, nightclubs, gorgeous movie theaters, amusement parks, radio shows, this is a film rich in its period. So much so that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t filmed in the forties.

The Naked City (1948 Dassin. Not a great film but a very good one and excellent as a police procedural. The pursuit of the suspects takes audiences all over late forties NY and in a vivid black and white. Shot on location documentary style. It’s a great way to visit New York in a specific time in the past.

Saturday Night Fever (1977) Badham. Another look at New York in the Seventies but this time it’s mostly Brooklyn and it’s with a disco beat. Saturday Night Fever is a darker film than most people realize and does little to glamorize its world, except perhaps for the discotheque where one can experience night fever.

Others to consider: Annie Hall, Dog Day Afternoon, Requiem for a Dream, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Landlord, The Producers, Birdman, Three Days of the Condor, Mean Streets, The King of Comedy, The Thin Man, The Apartment, Goodfellas, Serpico, The French Connection, Uncut Gems and Midnight Cowboy.

Hail The Hard Day's Choice -- I Look at Three Films I've Recently Watched Though I Don't Review Them

Sophie's Choice

From Friday night to Saturday night I watched three films. They are very different pictures that I had very different reactions to. It turns out that I have something to say about all three of them. None of them are so much reviews not even that much about the films. But I do have some interesting thoughts — if I do say so myself. So let’s find out what’s on my mind.

Sophie’s Choice (1982) Pakula. I’d just finished reading William Styron’s novel upon which the movie is based. This is a tough act to follow. Styron’s novel is one of the greatest in the American canon. True, there is no single agreed upon canon but if there were Sophie's Choice would have to be in it. You’re asking for disappointment when you go from a great novel to a movie adaptation. Very few cinematic versions live up to the book. Grapes of Wrath did. A Clockwork Orange did. No Country for Old Men also did. But the list of failures is long. I’ve also been down this road with Sophie’s Choice before having read the book a couple of decades before then watching the movie. So I should have seen this coming. The film clocks in at two-and-a-half hours and still leaves out crucial scenes. The novel allows us to inhabit these characters in a way no film could. It creates the worlds that Sophie lived in and fleshes out characters in a way impossible for a film. As a stand-alone I suppose the movie is okay, but it’s difficult to appreciate if you’ve just read the book. I will say that Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline are perfect as Sophie and Nathan and Streep’s Best Actress Oscar is well-deserved. As long as there are movies being made they will be adapting them from popular books. It gives a movie instant name recognition.I am not of the belief that movies have to be “just like” the book. These are adaptations and books are much more layered, richer and detailed than a movie can accomplish. Pakula and company did a nice enough job with the film (maybe it would have been better as a mini-series) and I’ll wager people who never read the book (really you should) like it well enough. Having immersed myself in Styron’s masterpiece the movie was always going to be a disappointment.

Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) P. Sturges. Feeling depressed, I decided to watch Hail the Conquering Hero. After this latest viewing I've moved it into my top 100 favorite films. It's brilliant. Among his other gifts Preston Sturges was a master at highlighting supporting players as exemplified here. Franklin Pangborn, Raymond Walburn and William Demarest were never better. Pangborn tended to have tiny parts in films (lots of them) but he gets a lot of screen time here and steals scenes. Demarest, as in another Sturges film, Miracle of Morgan's Creek, gets a meaty role and makes the most of it. Among its other gifts, this film really captures the feeling of small town America in the war years. I also appreciate that Woodrow (Eddie Bracken) never wavers in wanting the truth to be known. Ella Raines as the love interest and Freddie Steele as her other fiancee, play everything straight and could be considered somewhat bland. However I found them to be a perfect complement to the rest of the cast. I also always like Al Bridge who here played the laconic political boss. The film is funny, poignant and always makes me feel warm. It's also interesting that I'm somehow very far to the left politically and yet I can imagine people on the other end of the political spectrum responding just as I do to the film which is quite an achievement given it’s gentle skewering of small town politics. The ending is especially revealing. The emotional payoff isn't that Woodrow "gets away with it." It's that he tells the truth despite knowing it may cost him everything. Integrity is the film's highest value, and integrity is something people across the political spectrum generally admire, even if they disagree about almost everything else.

A Hard Day's Night Movie ticket

A Hard Day’s Night (1964). I’ve been watching The Beatles’ first film since its Bay Area premiere in August of 1964 when I was a lad of ten (years not months). That’s sixty-two years that I’ve spent with it. The only movie I’ve been with as long is The Great Escape. I love them both. I love them because they’re great films and I love them because they were there for me when I was a kid and when I was a teen and a young adult and a middle-aged man and now as a doddering old man (Say! Who said I was doddering? Why I oughta sock ‘em one). Watching AHDN last night I mentally traveled back in time (so far that’s the only way you can do it) to when I first saw the movie. I was a month shy of entering the sixth grade. LBJ was president and he was still completing the end of Kennedy’s first term. Vietnam was not a place most people were talking about. Civil Rights legislation was being passed and signed (The White House was for it in those days). The first Super Bowl was years away. The World Series was still being played under the sun. England had yet to win a World Cup and most everyone I knew still had a black and white TV set. The Free Speech Movement on the Cal campus was two months from fruition. The Beatles had changed my life just six months prior with their first appearance on US television — specifically the Ed Sullivan Show. I was making my first attempts at growing my hair out and meeting stiff opposition from my otherwise wonderful father. I was on the verge of developing an interest in the fairer sex, though actually approaching a female with romantic intent was years away. I remember how excited I was to see AHDN. My best friend, Mark Norman, and I had gotten advanced tickets which were large cardboard cut-outs of the Beatles. For some reason I recall that before the movie some slightly older girls sitting a few rows in front of us called us “imps.” I don’t recall why, though knowing us we were probably being obnoxious young boys. It remains the only time in my life that I’ve been called an “imp.” It would be an understatement to say that The Beatles were transformative forces in my life. They were defining. The music alone was enough but adding their style, their charisma, the exposure to something exciting in what had heretofore been for me a somnambulant culture made them forever part of who I am. I’m ever grateful.

I Hate Los Angeles But There Are Some Great Films Set There, Here's Ten of Them

Sterling Hayden and Elliot Gould at the beach in The Long Goodbye

I do not like Los Angeles. Never have. Never will. It’s a place where people drive their cars to visit a next door neighbor. There is no charm. No downtown. Nothing but schlock and gloss and edifice. There are beautiful neighborhoods but they have no soul. It is an endless sea of people, cars, streets, freeways and parking lots. There are many malls. You can find anything you need in L.A, but nothing you’d want. So much of everything is nothing.

New York — a million times the city L.A. is — has been the setting for countless classic films and hundreds of good ones and of course quite a few mediocre and bad ones. L.A. cannot compare — even though it is where many films are made — but it has been the setting for some of American cinemas greatest films. In other words for New York I could probably list fifty great films. For other cities, five would be a stretch, for L.A. I managed a top ten. 

Here it is.

Chinatown (1974) Polanski. One of the ten greatest films of all time and the one that is the classic expression of what the L.A. area is all about: greed, corruption and water rights. L.A. between the wars was not a boomtown but a boommetropolis. Polanski, brilliant set and costume designers and a cast led by Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway made it all look luscious. L.A. was certainly more habitable then and maybe had a bit of charm. Maybe not in Chinatown though.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Tarantino. This the L.A. of fifty areas ago. It’s  good in in depicting that time that you can’t believe it’s time-stamped 2019. The sights the sound (it’s the car radios in the background that clinch the deal) and you’d swear the smell of L.A. in 1969. A masterpiece of design and mood and of capturing a place and time.

Sunset Blvd.(195) Wilder. Here we go back to the L.A. of 1950 when the boom was cresting and Hollywood and the studio system were still riding high. The decadence is on full display via the home of aging silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson in almost a case of it takes one to know one), the desperate wannabe, Joe Gillis is captured perfectly by William Holden. It’s sad, creepy but magnificent. 

The Big Sleep (1946) Hawks. This is noir L.A. at its best, which can be quite entertaining though generally not comparable to noir New York or San Francisco. L.A. actually looks interesting here. Neighborhoods, cafes and that bohemian house where the initial murder takes place.

Double Indemnity (1944) Wilder. Here again L.A. looks tolerable. The Dietrichson home and neighborhood are pleasant enough. Downtown L.A. is a wonderfully noir-like as is Walter Neff’s apartment. Overall it feels less L.A. than the other films here listed. That’s a good thing.

Pulp Fiction (1994) Tarantino. Nineties L.A. Get your kahuna burger. There’s nothing pretty about this L.A. and we see plenty of it. It is the functional L.A. with places to hang your hat, eateries, clubs and — if you’re into it —drug dealers. Nobody stops to look at what’s around them. There’s too much going on for that. A great place to be famous or anonymous.

Shampoo (1975) Ashby. It was set in November 1968 and filmed in ’74-75 so it captures a bit of both eras. This is a hip L.A. with Warren Beatty playing the classic Southern Californian — totally vacuous and yet desired. Riding his chopper from one sexual assignation to the next, he’s totally oblivious to any “real world” problems. He’s all in that empty head — ya know, just like L.A. itself. That party in the hills is L.A. at its hippest.

Rebel Without a Cause (195 5) Ray. High school L.A. the Griffith observatory and some of the homes seem pleasant enough. This is L.A. as an over-populated suburb. Gum-snapping, hot rods and the sense that there’s gotta be a malt shop around the corner. It’s teen land.

Boyz N the Hood (1991) Singleton. Not the L.A. we’re used to seeing in films. This is heavily African-American and say, where have Black people been in other L.A. films? Except for the maids and valet parking attendants they’ve been tucked away. This is a very real L.A. with starkly human stories and tragedies. A rare but important glimpse into the L.A. that their police forces tried to beat into submission.

The Long Goodbye (1973) Altman. Seventies noir L.A. with an updated version of the same Philip Marlowe Bogie played in the Big Sleep. This time it's an uber cool Elliot Gould doing the honors. Altman-style L.A. is voguish noir, with naked girls next door and angry mobsters showing up unexpectedly. There’s also the big beach house and parties. Looks like fun.

Appreciating The Grapes of Wrath, A Classic American Film

There’s so much I love about John Ford’s cinematic version of The Grapes of Wrath that it’s difficult to know where to begin. How about here: Pa Joad and the two youngest (BTW, the actors playing Ma and Pa are way too old to have children that young, but that was the way with films from that era) enter a diner to buy a loaf of bread. The loaves cost fifteen cents but they can only spare ten. The cook insists the waitress give it to them for ten. Then Pa asks about the candy that the children are drooling over. How much, he wants to know. The waitress says two for a penny. That’s perfect for the Joads and the kids get their candy and leave. One of the two truck drivers who are dining there point out to the waitress that the candies are two cents each, not two for a penny. She feigns ignorance. Then the truck drivers leave. Obviously heartened by the generosity they have witnessed they leave too big a tip. The waitress points out how much they’ve left. “What’s it to ya?” One of ‘em growls. Nobody gives a speech. Nobody announces that they're being generous. The waitress pretends not to notice she's being kind. The truck drivers pretend not to notice she's being kind. The Joads are allowed their dignity. The whole scene works because everyone conspires to preserve everyone else's self-respect. Warms my heart.

I also love John Qualen as Muley. Qualen had an astounding 225 credits as an actor including in such great films as Casablanca, The Searchers, His Girl Friday and Grapes. He really demonstrates his acting chops in this film. Muley is a difficult role because he could easily come across as a colorful eccentric. Instead Qualen makes him tragic. He isn't merely stubborn; he's a man whose identity is so tied to the land that leaving would mean ceasing to be himself. When he prowls around the abandoned homestead like a ghost, he's almost a harbinger of what's waiting for the Joads.

The tracking shot when the Joads drive into the first itinerant camp is memorable. It begins at a tilted angle which gives a disorienting sense to the scene. We see the faces and the shacks of the campers as their heavily laden truck pulls in. It’s but one example of how Ford managed to show the all-encompassing poverty and desperation that afflicted the migrants.

Grapes of Wrath the film, like the great John Steinbeck novel that inspired it, is masterful at showing the combined effects of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression coupled with the callousness and greed of the wealthy farmers, union busters and businessmen who took advantage of them. It is not a great representation of the American dream but it is a brilliant exposé of capitalism run amok.

What most people remember after watching the film is the speeches by Tom (Henry Fonda) and Ma (Jane Darwell) towards the end. This is as it should be. Rather than comment on them I’ll present snippets.

Tom: Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.

Ma: Well, Pa, a woman can change better'n a man. A man lives sorta - well, in jerks. Baby's born or somebody dies, and that's a jerk. He gets a farm or loses it, and that's a jerk. With a woman, it's all in one flow, like a stream - little eddies and waterfalls - but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it thata way. Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good an' they die out. But we keep a'comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out; they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people.

Like all of Ford’s best movies, Grapes benefits from superior camera work. One of the great cinema photographers of all time, Greg Toland, worked with Ford. It’s a movie one could watch with the sound off and just appreciate the beauty of the black and white. The lighting is masterful. The choice of close-ups, medium shots and long shots is always spot on. There are shots that bookend the film of Tom Joad walking in the distance from far away. He’s barely more than a stick figure against the darkening horizon but he attains a sort of importance and dignity from being seen in such a way. Ford did a similar thing with Fonda at the end of Young Mr. Lincoln.

The Grapes of Wrath is an important film as a social document. It must have had an incredible sense of immediacy when it came out because still today it still feels as if torn from the day’s headlines, to use a cliche. The theme of the rich getting richer while the poor only get poorer is constant in American history, more so at certain times.

What a fantastic film. Surely one of the great works of American cinema.

Everybody Comes to Rick's: Thoughts After Another Viewing of a Cinematic Classic

Here’s some thoughts after having watched Casablanca for the millionth time.

The scene in which the Germans’ singing of Die Wacht am Rhein is overpowered by Laszlo leading everyone else in a stirring rendition of La Marseillaise is for me one of the best in cinema. It helps that some of the extras were refugees from Europe and were shedding real tears. How powerful it must have been for contemporary audiences!

It’s a small role by my goodness Peter Lorre is excellent as the slimy Ugarte. He was a brilliant actor and if anything underrated. He plays the scene with Rick beautifully as he acknowledges the American “despises” him but suggests Rick might be impressed that he has the letters of transit. Like with a lot of great actors there’s so much going on with his eyes. Also note his eyes when he is being arrested.

It always bothers me that Ilsa Lund refers to Sam, the African American piano player and singer, as “boy.” It’s racist but appropriate to the time. It’s also reflective of the times that Dooley Wilson — who played Sam — wasn’t featured in more films.

In the middle of the film Victor Lazlo goes to a meeting of the local underground with Carl. I’ve always wondered if someone at the meeting was in charge of refreshments. Were cookies served? Tea? Or alcohol? What topics were covered? Did they approve minutes? Were Robert's Rule of Order followed?

One thing that has made Casablanca such a great film is the supporting cast. I’m not just referring to Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greentstreet and the aforementioned Lorre who were all excellent but the secondary supporting players: Leonid Kinskey, SZ Sakall, John Qualen and Marcel Dalio. The first three were regular supporting players in Hollywood for decades who appeared between them in dozens of excellent films. Dalio had been a star in France with featured roles in Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game. He had barely gotten out of Paris before the Nazi occupation. In the 1950s he played the Claude Rains character of Captain Renaud in a short-lived TV series based on the film. Charles McGraw played Rick in the kind of casting that doomed what little chance the show had.

There are a couple of scenes in which and Italian and French officer are arguing. Both are speaking in their native tongues which is, of course, nonsense. I suppose its supposed to provide a bit of comic relief but I find it overly silly, hardly enough to ruin a classic film but still…..

Ingrid Bergman may have never looked more beautiful on screen than she did in Casablanca. Indeed few actresses ever looked as radiant as she did as Ilsa.

During the Paris flashbacks Rick and Ilsa remind one another that “we said no questions.” Has that ever been a thing between couples having a fling? Seems odd. Rather hard to have conversations without any questions. Can’t be healthy for a relationship.

If they had to do a remake of Casablanca — and for the love of god I pray they never do — who the hell could you get to play Rick? Years ago I thought Kenneth Brannagh could pull it off. Later I thought maybe Leonardo DiCaprio. Now I think Jon Hamm could have a decade or so ago. Daniel Craig maybe when he was younger. Maybe Glenn Powell. Tom Hiddleston would be a good bet. Really it would be impossible though so why did I put myself through the exercise?

Conrad Veidt as Major Strasser is one of the better big screen Nazis of all time. He oozes a kind of slimy sophistication. Well-spoken, loves his caviar and is pure evil. I imagine most Nazi officers were more officious but for cinematic purposes you can hardly do better than Veidt.

Many decades ago when I first saw Casablanca I wondered how they managed to film on location (I was more young than stupid, to be fair). This speaks to the magic of Golden Age Hollywood. They created worlds from the other side of the Earth on their backlots — without the benefits of CGI. Watching Casablanca it’s hard to imagine that you’re NOT transported to Morocco in 1941. Movie magic.

Among so much else, ya know what else is perfect about Casablanca? The musical score. It was never melodramatic. It never got in the way but did what it was supposed — added to the experience.

The working title for the movie was Everybody Comes to Rick's. Not bad but Casablanca worked better.

Notice that twice when we break away from Sydney Greensreet’s character Ferrari, he’s employing a flyswatter with seeming effectiveness. Interesting. 

My main impression after my zillionth viewing of Casablanca is that it is as flawless a film as was ever made. The label classic absolutely applies. I never tire of it and never will.

Films to Inspire You in the Coming Revolution

Battle of Algiers

These are dark times for American Democracy. The country is teetering toward fascism. We have a president who has no regard for political norms, cares not for social justice and is trying to bring on a second Gilded Age. The moneyed class — the very top of it — are prospering. The current prospects for the poor and marginalized are bleak. 

In response could there be revolution in the air? It’s difficult to imagine pitched battles in the streets of U.S. cities; then again it is no longer impossible to envisage something akin to Civil War. After all, Trumpy is sending troops into major cities. Troops, mind you, that locals did not request and do not want. Representatives of ICE are making a mockery of due process, arresting the innocent with the supposedly guilty. Americans are being held in detention centers without due process, some are shipped to foreign prisons.

There have been and will continue to be large protests that may get bigger. There could well eventually be repressive measures enacted against marchers. It behooves good citizens to be diligent. It may already be that we are beyond the point when writing one’s congressperson is sufficient.

There are films that can inspire us as we struggle to regain and hold our basic rights as citizens. Many movies have had powerful messages about resistance and fighting the good fight against authoritarianism. They are scattered throughout the history of cinema. I present to you ten such films. I hope they will give you hope and inspiration. Power to the people!

Battle of Algiers (1966) Pontecorvo. One of the greatest political films of all time. This faux documentary tells the story of the Algerians fight for independence against the French in the 1950s. Filmed to look like actual news footage, it makes the struggles of revolutionaries seem real, important, necessary and desperate. By giving voice to the French army it broadens the scope of the story and puts it into greater historical context. Insurgency, occupation and resistance have never been more compelling on the big screen.

Reds (1981) Beatty. The epic story of John Reed, Louise Bryant and the revolutionaries — American and Russian — who helped make the first quarter of the 20th century such a hopeful time for the far left. Sadly we know that the Russian Revolution fell into a reign of terror and murder under Lenin and only got worse under Stalin. However they were times of great promise to the left. Reed and Bryant were revolutionaries and journalists and as the movie shows they numbered among their associates the likes of Emma Goldman (anarchist played by Maureen Stapleton), Big Bill Haywood (IWW leader played by Dolph Sweet), Eugene O’Neill (playwright played by Jack Nicholson). Reds is a love story and it’s a history lesson and it's about the passion and idealism of people who believe power should be vested in the people and not oligarchs.

One Battle After Another (2025) PT Anderson.In theaters now. I quote from my blog post on the film from last month: Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another is a movie movie. It is a cornucopia for film goers. Rich with character, incidents, conflicts, themes, history and messages. It clocks in at two hours and fifty minutes and there’s not a yawn in it. There’s not a wasted second. It’s a nearly three hour film that’s tight and compact. It’s a wonder.One Battle is the story of an ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) who has to rescue his daughter (Chase Infiniti in her film debut) from a corrupt military officer (Sean Penn). That’s your over simplified plot summary. There is so much else going on. Relationships, plots, betrayals, deception and a fair bit of comedy along with something of a history lesson. No, One Battle is not based on a true story (its origins are Thomas Pynchon’s novel, Vineland) but it gives you a sense of the spirit of the Sixties among those who, like the Weather Underground, believed in using violence as a response to a regressive and repressive U.S.government.

The Strawberry Statement (1970) Hagmann. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination more like a prolonged music video with some of the greatest hits of the Sixties. But it for all its flaws, Strawberry Statement captures the mood of the Sixties, particularly among those college students dedicated to ending the war, the draft and social injustice. For many in the Sixties, the “revolution” was something of a lark but one that they discovered had real life impact that would resonate down the years.

Medium Cool (1969) Wexler. Cinéma vérité–style documentary filmmaking used in telling a fictional story set in Chicago in 1968 during the infamous Democratic National Convention. Actual footage of protests is used which helps show the chaotic nature of police riots. Medium Cool tackles a number of issues including the failure of whites to understand the black experience. Shot when and where it was by the great Haskell Wexler, it couldn’t help but give a real sense of the late Sixties in general and the events in Chicago in particular.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Ford. Based on John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name it is surely one of the greatest films ever made. It tells the story of the Joad family which has been dispossessed from its Oklahoma farm by the combined horrors of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. They head to California in the poor person’s eternal search for greener pastures. They find thousands of others on the same quest and they find land and farm owners who are only to happy to exploit the poor and brutally suppress any efforts for fair pay and decent treatment. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) becomes an unwitting revolutionary. He muses: “I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled….”

Malcolm X (1992) S. Lee. What could be more revolutionary than the story of Malcolm X? The rise from common criminal to inspirational leader to the burgeoning black power movement. There was the long stopover with the Nation of Islam before his Hajj led him to understand that Islam was not exclusive to one race. His split from Elijah Muhammad was yet another of courage and ultimately led or contributed to his assassination. Malcolm was the white establishment’s greatest fear, an inspirational Black leader who spoke eloquently of the corruption and racism in white society. His story still resonates. 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Capra. The classic story of one man standing up to a powerful political machine that seeks to crush him while continuing to control the press and muzzle dissent. Jimmy Stewart gave his greatest performance in the title role as a naive new senator pitted against powers that seem impregnable. Senator Smith uses the fillibuster to rally support to his cause. Mr. Smith shows both the worst and the best in U.S. democracy. It has been criticized by people on the left, the right and in the middle. Perhaps because it so effectively hits home.

Z (1969) Costa-Gravas. The Best of Costa-Gavras’ many politically-charged films that include Stage of Siege, Missing and the Confession. Z is the story of the 1963 assassination by right wing zealots of a Greek liberal politician and the ensuing investigation which uncovers a web of corruption involving the military, police, and right-wing extremists, revealing the state's complicity in silencing political dissent. Z is aptly labeled a political thriller but it is also an unflinching look at the terrible damage a right wing regime can bring to a democratic society. I hope that doesn’t sound too familiar.

Sorry to Bother You (2018) Riley.  Sorry to Bother You"is a surreal satirical comedy that follows a young African-American telemarketer who discovers that using a polished, exaggerated “white voice” catapults him to success in a dystopian version of corporate America. As he rises through the ranks, he uncovers a disturbing conspiracy and is ultimately forced to choose between personal wealth and power, or standing in solidarity with his activist friends fighting to unionize and reclaim their humanity. The film exposes the big-money people behind the curtain and how they manipulate our culture and transform people into corporate slaves. It’s a movie to enjoy maybe mostly because it will piss you off.

Also recommended: Battleship Potemkin, State of Siege, Missing, Matewan, Our Daily Bread, Meet John Doe, Judas and the Black Messiah, Born on the Fourth of July and Running on Empty.