Political movies

 BBC TV's Talking Pictures recently was devoted to politics in the movies. Tom Brook named as the top films on most people's lists as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and All the President's Men (1976), both classics. However, the latter is more about a success of investigative journalism than about politics per se. Mr Smith is a fine expression of  liberalism (in European terms) but probably unrealistic. Not mentioned in the TV programme, but more revelatory of the processes of Congress, are two fine movies which have also received the approval of Mark Pack. 

Advise and Consent centres on Congressional approval of a Presidential appointment of a new Secretary of State (foreign minister). It boasts a roster of Hollywood veterans and seems particularly relevant now as President Trump is about to nominate a replacement Supreme Court justice. The Best Man, written by Gore Vidal who had a political pedigree, deals with the run-up to a presidential election and the choice by the current ruling party of their candidate. Both expose political machinations which most of the voting public would not have been aware of, and may still not be now, in spite of the increased coverage by the media. Both could stand showing by BBC as part of its US election coverage.

One fine movie, which I have discussed here before, will not be shown by broadcasters. A Face in the Crowd was a 1957 satire which increasingly looks like a prophecy. An ill-educated drifter is unexpectedly revealed to have a gift of connection with the average man and woman through TV. His folksy persona and populist views, driven by ambition, propel him to the brink of ultimate power. In the era of reactonary political operators who have successfully manipulated the mainstream broadcast media on both sides of the Atlantic, it is clearly cuts too close to the bone.

On the British side, I would recommend two films which have been shown again on TV, Fame is the Spur, and No Love for Johnnie. Both are based on novels and both deal with the compromise of ideals, but for me the latter is the more telling, written as it is by an insider.

Finally, though they were both written for TV and therefore not strictly speaking movies, I would repeat a plea for the repeat of Our Friends in the North and The Detective, starring Tom Bell in a part which could have been written for him. 

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