Understanding US politics in 10 classic movies

By Bill Wyman

October 24, 2024 — 7.45pm

US presidential elections have long loomed large in our collective psyche, never more so than right now. From the start, Hollywood has tried to deal with the realities of the country’s electoral follies. Here’s our pick of 10 classic movies about presidents and elections.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

John Frankenheimer’s shocking and angular mise en scène is the perfect setting for a dark tale about brainwashed Korean War soldiers turned into assassins during a presidential campaign. The film was somewhat forgotten before re-emerging in the 1970s and becoming a crowd-pleasing art-house classic for decades. Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh star.

Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh in The Manchurian Candidate. Credit:

The Best Man (1964)

A fascinating artifact based on a book by Gore Vidal, the acerbic novelist and social critic, from the capable Franklin Schaffner, who would go on to direct Patton and the original Planet of the Apes. The title is ironic; we’re here to watch the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring among five compromised candidates in a fictional 1964 Democratic convention. The machinations are complex and fairly plausible; many of the issues it touches upon would roil party politics in ensuing decades. The cast is sterling, and so is Vidal’s script, which contains a few aperçus that cast a shadow over what we are seeing today. My favourite: “It’s one thing to fool the people, but it’s downright dangerous when you start to fool yourself.”

Cliff Robertson and Henry Fonda in The Best Man.Credit: National Screen Service Corp.

JFK (1991)

Oliver Stone goes entirely off the rails in this historically indefensible but highly enjoyable conspiratorial fantasia about the Kennedy assassination.

Kevin Costner and Sissy Spacek in JFK.Credit:

The Candidate (1972)

A winsome and tart gem from the ’70s courtesy of Michael Ritchie, best remembered today for the delightfully anarchic Bad News Bears. A very handsome Robert Redford, here playing an idealistic environmentalist with a famous father, is inveigled into a California senate race, and of course finds his ideals challenged. It’s a fun watch with a great last line. But: This was 1972, and idealism was about to meet its match.

Karen Carlson and Robert Redford in The Candidate.Credit:

All the President’s Men (1976)

A seminal piece of bravura political filmmaking about Woodward and Bernstein, the reporters who broke the Watergate story, from director Alan J. Pakula; besides the obvious historical value it’s a master class in pacing and atmospherics. Check out the eerie and complex lens work that makes the scenes inside the Washington Post newsroom reverberate. Rocky stole the best picture Oscar from this in 1976. Bonus: check out Pakula’s The Parallax View from 1974, with reporter Warren Beatty fatefully investigating a political assassination.

Robert redford and Dustin Hoffman in All the President’s Men.Credit:

The American President (1995)

This is the origin story of The West Wing: screenwriter Aaron Sorkin maps out the themes of what would become his well-known TV show. This is a good example of what in America is called liberal porn: A fantasy world in which Democrats are dedicated, smart, a bit randy, and (after a kick in the ass or two) capable of defiantly articulating their principles and winning the day, too. It’s a bit cloying, and the movie-making is of the bland, well-scrubbed ’90s variety, but another fun watch.

Michael Douglas and Annette Bening in The American President.Credit: CASTLE ROCK

Primary Colors (1998)

This was a big deal in the ’90s – a film directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate) and based on a book, notorious at the time and originally attributed to “Anonymous”. The book was a thinly disguised roman-à-clef about Bill Clinton’s scandal-plagued 1992 campaign for president. It’s not a good movie; it never really finds the charisma in a miscast John Travolta as Clinton. And while it is superficially about the ethical challenges of working for a compromised candidate, the ending seems to forget all that. Modern viewers will be taken aback at the film’s cavalier handling of workplace behaviours that would not be tolerated today. Just desserts: Primary Colors came out just as the Monica Lewinsky scandal upended Washington, and reminded everyone what happens when a guy who can’t keep his pants zipped up becomes president.

John Travolta and Emma Thompson in Primary Colors.Credit:

The Contender (2000)

A female senator, played by Joan Allen, is nominated as vice president in Rod Lurie’s drama. There’s a high-minded subtext here: On one level it’s about the double standards to which women are held. The trouble is that the lurid details are highly exploitative in their own way. (There’s a film of the woman supposedly having sex with half of a fraternity house.) Also distracting is a subtext of Jeff Bridges, here playing the president, constantly eating, talking about food, and ordering bizarre dishes from the White House kitchen.

Wag the Dog (1997)

This breezy satire came in the wake of the gauzy folderol that emanated from the administrations of Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush. As a president is engulfed in a sex scandal, his team, with the help of a Hollywood producer, distracts the country with an imaginary war. Complications ensue. Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman deliver the sharp script’s lines with aplomb. (“This is nothing! Have you ever worked in Italy?“) Unfortunately, the country would soon see a second Bush administration take some of the lessons of the film and put them to use.

The Apprentice (2024)

The origins of Donald Trump. The title refers to Trump’s relationship to notorious super attorney Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong, the elder brother in Succession). Unfettered by ethics or morals, Cohn teaches Trump his rules for success: Attack attack attack; deny deny deny; and never admit defeat. With Strong on hand and the film’s inky cinematography and moody music, it feels a bit like Succession. For a film in which every character in it is hateful, it’s oddly watchable.