Elections, Politics, and Three Classic Films

In the spirit of election day, and for all of you who want something else to watch besides the twenty-four hour election coverage, I have a few political themed movies that might be of interest. Politics and movies go way back, whether we are thinking of the Hays Production Code, the McCarthy Trials, films that create World War patriotism or just dabbled in political themes. I have three politically minded movies today that stop and make you think as well as are relevant to modern American history.

The first is the 1949 film All The King's Men, stars Broderick Crawford as corrupt politican Willie Stark who has to do a little mudslinging, scratching others backs and keeps his friends rolling in the dough as he rises into the political foreground. Sound familiar? The original version of the story was a novel of the same name written by Robert Penn Warren, based loosely on the real-life personality of Louisianna governer, Huey Pierce Long. Again, Filmsite.org provides a great analysis and synopsis of this film, which those interested can read here. The tale of Willie Stark really embodies the rise and fall of politicians and is an early look at how political campaigns were corruptly run, even back in the earlier days.

The second film is 1952's Suddenly, which stars Frank Sinatra as John Baron, a hired assasain who comes to the small town of Suddenly, bent on the murder of the president. He hides and plots in the house of pacifist and widow, Ellen Benson (Nancy Gates), who is unsuccessfully being courted by the Suddenly town sheriff, Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden). The town of Suddenly is caught up in stopping the assassain before he does his job. Eleven years before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, this film has several parallels the story of JFK's fateful day in Dallas. It is even rumored that Lee Harvey Oswald watched this film a matter of days before the assassination.

Again with Old Blue Eyes, the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate echoes a somewhat different sentiment than Suddenly. When Korean POW Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) returns to the US, he is greeted as a hero, but he can't remember what he did that was heroic. He and his friend Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) begin experiencing similar nightmares about the war. Marco's dreams lead him to believe that Shaw is not the war hero everyone thinks him to be and there is something much darker. Shaw also has to deal with a domineering, politically minded mother (Angela Lansbury), the wife of a US Senator, and Marco deals with a blooming love interest (Janet Leigh). When Marco discovers what his buddy Shaw is being set up to do, he and his other army buddies have to get together to not only save Shaw but the fate of the country.

If you want to know more about how film and politics connect, you can check out these two websites. The first is an article by the Harvard Political Review online, which can be read here. The second is on the political website donklephant.com, which has a host of blogs under the topic of politics and film, which can be found here. Also, at a classic film review site on About.com that has a list of the Top Ten Classic Political Films. Finally, I would urge you wherever you are, if you haven't already, go out and vote!