Worried about the elections? These 7 Great Movies Predicted Everything

Cinema has a long history of addressing political concerns. Recent films have attempted to reflect the divisions on display in the lead-up to this year’s election, but for those with their hair on fire at the prospect of another Donald Trump presidency, the most powerful scenarios can be found in cinematic classics – eerily prophetic in more ways than one – from the 20th century.

Of course, the modern era has given us many films dealing with political instability. Don’t look up, Netflix’s dark satire of an asteroid approaching Earth reflects a head-in-the-sand approach to climate change and Civil war worked well enough as a thriller without having to explain the nasty details, like how Texas and California could end up on the same side of everything.

A more revealing and yet timely collection of films emerged during the Cold War, including projects dealing with the powerful influence of a media personality on his audience, a Soviet sleeper agent infiltrating presidential politics, a ruthless demagogue aiming for the White House, a gullible media turning a simple-minded man into a political one. power, as well as the dangers associated with giving the wrong person access to nuclear codes.

These films predicted the threat of the wrong people coming to power—either malevolent or simply ill-prepared—as evidenced by the specter of McCarthyism and Senator Joe McCarthy’s tactic of branding his opponents as communists remained close in the rearview mirror. Although set long before our social media-infused era, they contain dialogue that resonates with the current news cycle while highlighting the media’s (and by extension the public’s) blind spots that persist to this day, including the fight for separation of public images. and what we see on television from the people behind them.

Here’s a look at seven films that haven’t aged as badly as we might have hoped. Unless otherwise noted, they’re all available to rent through Amazon Prime Video—provided you’re actually brave enough to watch them before Election Day.

A face in the crowdFrom the Everett collection.

A face in the crowd (1957)

Before he became a genius TV star, Andy Griffith played a surprisingly effective bad guy in director Elia Kazan’s ahead-of-its-time warning about the people’s TV personality, Lonesome Rhodes, intoxicated by the power bestowed by the media. Once Called the Movie That Predicted the Rise of Donald Trump Washington Post, In the film, Rhodes calls his fans “sheep” and shouts, “They’re mine. I own them. They think the same way as me. Only they are dumber than me, so I have to think for them. The similarity to Trump’s boast that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose a single voter” is even more stunning when it comes during the early days of black-and-white television.

Manchurian CandidateFrom the Everett collection.

Manchurian Candidate (1962)

A Soviet-controlled senator lays claim to the White House in this unnerving thriller starring Frank Sinatra, which has acquired something of a mythical status given its plot about the assassination that preceded the death of John F. Kennedy. The deeper line, however, has to do with the Communist plan to dismantle the United States from within, and this memorable observation about the aforementioned fellow senator’s nominee to his wife (the brilliant Angela Lansbury), who is the real power behind the throne: “I despise John Iselin and everything Iselinism has become . I think if John Iselin were a paid Soviet agent, he could not do any more harm to this country than he is doing now.”

Best manFrom the Everett collection.

Best man (1964)

Henry Fonda battles a ruthless Communist-hunting demagogue (Cliff Robertson) for the party’s presidential nomination in this film adapted by writer Gore Vidal from the play of the same name. While the contenders grapple with potential sex scandals and the revelation of a nervous breakdown, the most sustained dialogue involves Fonda’s principled, fundamentally decent character, who gives this devastating assessment of his rival: “You have no sense of responsibility to anyone or anything.” And this is a tragedy for the man and a disaster for the president.”

be thereFrom the United Artists/Everett collection.

be there (1979)

Peter Sellers should be knighted solely for his role as Chance, a simple-minded gardener who accidentally wanders into the corridors of power, in this provocative but very funny satire. There are a lot of memorable lines in this movie, but it’s hard to top the black woman who raised Chance, saying while watching him on TV being treated like a financial guru and spewing “gibberish” that “in America you only have to be white.” to get everything you want.”

Dead zone.From the Paramount/Everett collection.

Dead zone (1983)

Christopher Walken in this low-key film, he played a man who develops the ability to see the future of everyone he touches. Stephen King The film adaptation is one of the best based on his works. The plot revolves around the character’s meeting with the future president (Martin Sheen), who considers starting a nuclear war to be his “destiny”, raising the question of what he can do to stop it.

IdiocracyFrom the 20th Century Fox/Everett collection.

Idiocracy (2006)

This sci-fi comedy, a flop when it was released, gained cult status for showing what anti-intellectualism and mindless consumerism can lead to. Ordinary guy Luke Wilson wakes up 500 years in the future and discovers that, thanks to humanity’s collective origins, he is now the smartest man in the world and the inevitable choice is to become its leader.

Leave the world behindCourtesy of Netflix.

Leave the world behind (2023)

This film is perhaps the best of the series of modern apocalyptic thrillers. Mister Robot‘s Sam Esmail focuses on two families isolated from the world in the face of a massive power and communications blackout. Julia Roberts And Mahershala Ali star of the film executive produced by Higher Ground Productions (Barack And Michelle Obamaproduction company) that owes a debt to the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s, but also adds a 21st century wrinkle, wondering if the enemy wants to tear America apart without firing a shot, can they do it by simply cutting off access to the Internet, spreading misinformation and watching the chaos that follows?

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