Dave

I started just such a discussion (under the moniker Aaron Burr), with reviews of several films you don't mention, and a spirited fight ensued over what I deem an extremely conservative film - The Exorcist. I suggest a posting of the link as an addendum to your entry on the front page, because it is a pretty good exhange and it is from the place that spawned Ace - The Perfect World - which is an excellent forum.

But I leave it to your discretion. Enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Discussion on Conservative Films

Catch me if you can -because it illustrated the damage that divorce does to children, the importance of honesty in human relationships, and it shows a compassionate conservative- the FBI agent who does his job, arrests the young criminal, and then helps him put his life back together.

The Emperor's Club- because it's about the importance of character, the influence of classical works of literature by dead white guys, and integrity.

The Incredibles: for obvious reasons

Second Hand Lions- the importance of male role models, of honesty, strength, and commitment

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy- whether or not you seek war has nothing to do with whether or not a war is actually going to happen, refusing to fight evil is not a tenable position, and there is such a thing as evil.

Off the top of my head.

Exorcist, yes. Dirty Harry comes to mind, too. Death Wish would be a third.

Of course, I'm just following Dave everywhere he goes to annoy him... but pretty much every Clint Eastwood movie is very conservative (I mean, come on, Firefox...Heartbreak Ridge...Any Which Way But Loose!)

Also...

almost any war movie made before 1990

Big Wednesday.

One of the earlier and better surfing films made, directed by the same guy who made Red Dawn. Why conservative? Well, the main guy in the movie, which is set in California during the Vietnam War, is the surfer who willingly goes to Vietnam and comes back a hero. The loser is another surfer who feigns injury, gets to stay home and ends up an alcoholic. Not that that's the only reason. It follows the crazy days of USA surfing culture in the 60s. Between the partying and antics, there's a recognition of responsibility that the main protagonist displays.

High Noon with Gary Cooper - for much the same logic as the LOR nominee. Sometimes you just have to take a stand, and it's not always the easiest path.

Whit Stillman's movie "Barcelona" is one of the most conservative movies I've ever seen. The protagonists are two young American men living in Barcelona in the 1980's. One's a Christian salesman for an American multinational, the other's his cousin, a junior naval officer. The two capture achetypes about American society; America's business culture and faith (and a degree of sexual restraint) and the Navy officer represents America's military as well as its extrovertedness and confidence to the point it becomes somewhat grating.

The movie captures perfectly the nature of anti-Americanism and how "sophisticated" Europeans think they understand America while they lazily assume stereotypes, if not straight out leftist propaganda about America and Americans.

High Noon... (the original, with Gary Cooper) showing that justice is a duty, and more so for stewards of power.

I know JB beat me to it on this one, but it was worth repeating.

I always found "The Matrix" to be a very conservative film. What is important is what makes us human, and is worth the sacrifice. Plus all the guns.

Braveheart.

Here's one out of left field (so to speak) that nobody ever mentions: "Seven". The theme of the movie is about the lack of virtue, values and morality in society. The killer/anti-hero protaganist sets out to wake up the world about how degenerate society has become.

Obviously, no one can approve of the killer, but I would think conservatives would at least agree with the general theme of the movie, if not the methods used by the killer.

And no, before anyone objects, I don't think the point was to demonize people who do worry about morality by making their standard-bearer a sick serial killer. The killer's motives stand alone as something for people to ponder. His actual actions are a sideshow. Just by the look of the movie--the depresssing grunginess--the viewer is supposed to take away the point that society is going to hell because of lack of morality.

"Stargate"

It illustrates that tyrannical rulers enslave people and maintain control by denying them First Amendment (Ra forbade any form of written communication) and Second Amendment rights. It also illustrates that it's usually only a very motivated few that carry the burden of fighting for freedom until the rest of the sheep wake up and participate. On an unrelated to conservatism note, the nerdy scientist gets the chick at the end, so there's at least a reward for cultivating one's intellect.

Lemony Snicket struck me as a conservative movie.

The children suferred so many unfortunate events, as the story put it. Their pain was obvious at times, and yet instead of being victims, they perservered.

The children were able to see evil. They never stopped fighting against it even though their efforts to overcome were often thwarted by those who had power over their lives -- whose suspicions were allayed by the smooth words from the bad guy.

The film pulled no punches really. It was very "Brothers Grimm" in it's portrayal of the consequences to ignorance and denial in the face of aggression. People died and the children were constantly at risk because at least in part, the State blindly participated with the Evil uncle.

If I had kids, I would take them to this movie, and discuss it's lessons with them.

Sleater-Kinney rules, even if they did ban concert-goers from wearing that "Voting is for Old People" t-shirt.

Angus--

Interesting that you bring up Clint Eastwood, as Million Dollar Baby is getting hammered in some conservative circles for being very UN-conservative.

Michael Medved practically spewed venom when discussing the movie.

Without spoiling the twist, in Baby's defense, I found the subject matter handled very deftly. I guess I'll wait until more people have seen it to discuss it in greater detail, but looking at the movie even through politically-tinted glasses, there is still an argument to be made that the film is conservative.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Brazil (1984 with a parodic, libertarian twist): Robert De Niro's "Harry Tuttle" is the greatest guerilla entrepreneur in movie history. Tuttle is a black market "heating engineer" whom the government hunts as a "terrorist" because he competes with their HVAC monopoly. He is ultimately devoured (literally) by paperwork. The state bureacracy he fights is both deliberately murderous and murderously incompetent.

MDP--

I used to love Brazil, with its pert lovable anarchists setting off bombs in shopping malls. Woo hoo! Way to stick it to the man!

Then Sept. 11 happened and I grew right out of it.

I'd recommend Too Late The Hero, starring Michael Caine and Cliff Robertson. Great WWII movie about a bunch of cynical goof-off slackers rising to the occasion and doing their duty when they didn't have to.

Maybe The Wild Bunch as well, given its emphasis on men with chests upholding the old codes, again at a great self-sacrifice. There are of course a lot of movies that dwell on "ethical" criminals and contrast them favorably with bourgeois morality, and are not conservative, but I think TWB is different.

And let us not forget It's a Wonderful Life.

Here's one that surprised me: The Pledge, directed by Sean Penn.

A detective played by Jack Nicholson vows before God to bring a child-killer to justice. He spends his career and retirement trying to do just that; but in the process he cuts ethical corners, endangers those he loves, and destroys any chance for his own happiness.

Without spoiling the ending, God does not reward the detective but instead punishes him. There may be other ways to interpret The Pledge but the story - by Friedrich Durrenmatt - seems to me conservative on its deepest levels.

Outstanding performance by Nicholson, cogent direction by Penn. But did Penn really understand his source material? I can't believe that he did.

I can't believe no one has mentioned: Straw Dogs. (well, lots of Peckinpah films for that matter)

A thouroughly effeminate character (appropriately--and well--played by leftist Dustin Hoffman), a mathematician, who escapes to England to flee the 'violence' of the USA has to finally come to grips with the fact that sometimes you've got suck it up and take a stand.

Lots of good themes: A man's home is his castle, you can't rely on the police to protect you from the boogeyman, a glimpse at how civilization can fray and tear--resulting in men who are merely bad becoming truly evil, and the measure of a man is not his size or strength, but the strength of his character--little Dustin Hoffman ends up stomping country mudholes into many a drunken bloke (Pekinpah himself was quite short, though judging by his movies I wouldn't want to face him in a fight).

As a testament to its conservatism, I've yet to meet a leftist that can even barely grasp the point of the film. They can only say "its so violent", well, yeah--and 'rosebud' was just a sled.

A close second I'd say is The Wild Bunch, plus it has William Holden and Ernest Borgnine. The importance of keeping your word, loyalty to friends and family, futility of sentimentality, self-sacrifice.

"When you side with a man, you stay with him. And if you can't do that, you're like some animal - you're finished! We're finished! All of us!"

Two films that I am surprised got missed are Team America and Moscow on the Hudson.

Other People's Money

The speech by Larry the Liquidator (Danny Devito) is a capitalist's dream. I've witnessed the conversion of more than one chardonnay soc ialist prompted by this speech.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechotherpeople'smoneydevito.html

The Green Berets should probably make the list, especially since it was released in '68, six months after Tet.

National Review seems to have compiled a pair of lists in '94 and '96:

http://www.nationalreview.com/conservative_movies/conservative_movies.shtml

http://www.freedomsite.org/text/movie_review.html

Tears of the Sun and We Were Soldiers are not only conservative in all their deeper implications, but both include repeated, respectful expressions of religious faith.

I see several movies listed that deal with conservative values, but not many that cover conservative politics. There also aren't many SF films listed, so here are a few...

"Starship Troopers"

"1984"

"Rollerball" (the first one, not the abomination) and its shallow but entertaining spawn, "The Running Man"

"A Clockwork Orange"

"Equilibrium"

"Logan's Run"

(And no, I'm not saying they're all GOOD films.)

"Troopers" (which, unfortuntately, is a POS movie) is based on one of the most conservative books ever written in the SF genre, and even though 99% of its depth was removed for the film, it still carried its basic conservative theme.

The other movies address the removal of individuality and personal identity by the State for the Common Good -- something Hillary would be all over, no doubt, and a concept liberals will NEVER give up fighting for.

As far as more intimate conservative values are concerned, the little-known SF movie "Seconds" (with Rock Hudson) is a very good (but depressing) film showing the importance of substance over flash.

And, if Mel Gibson ever makes "Faherheit 451" with a decent script, that will be another conservative SF film. Heck, let's just go ahead and add the original version to the list...

Later,
bbeck

If I remember right, one of the climactic moments in "Enemy at the Gates" is when the weaselly Carter J. Burke-type guy realizes that communism is all screwed up.

Speaking of Carter J. Burke, I think a sizable majority of horror movies could be counted as conservative. Stephen King's Danse Macabre is a fun read that talks about this at some length.

Conan the Barbarian is one of the top cons. movies in my book. There are many pearls of wisdom scattered throughout the film. Glorious.

See Dubya: I used to love Brazil, with its pert lovable anarchists setting off bombs in shopping malls. Woo hoo! Way to stick it to the man!

The movie doesn't reveal who committed the department store bombing, which is depicted as an unambiguously vile act. If you were thinking "woo hoo, way to stick it to the man" during that scene, then you didn't understand what you were watching.

See Dubya: Then Sept. 11 happened and I grew right out of it.

You needed Sept. 11 to convince you that targeting civilians is a bad way to stick it to the man?

Spider Man? It's been awhile since I've seen the first one, but the second one is filled with "conservative" values. Quotes because we/they don't have a lock on those values.
Anyways, self-sacrafice, duty, obligation, etc.

Bad Lieutenant

redemption.

"Garfield The Movie" is wonderful with perfect 3D graphic. Garfield in the movie is really a cool and smart cat who can dance admirably. When he went to the tall building to saved the dog Odie and went down, it was very cool! But it was so dangerous when he dropped down from the tall building.
The story line is superb and jokey, and the actress is very beautiful and cute. It was very incredible for Jon that the girl could love him, I also have the same feeling and the same experience with Jon.