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Socio/Political Documentaries and Movies that deserve recommendations.

Featured Replies

Fog of War

Best of Enemies (2015 documentary, not the 2019 fictional movie that happens to share the same name)

Idiocracy

Inside Job

Agents of Chaos

No End in Sight

Zero Days

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Bowling for Columbine

The War Room

39 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

 

Yes.  Everyone should see this.  It was really eye opening.

55 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

I know we have a couple of threads in Movies and TV, but I think we need a running list because there are so many new good ones coming out.

I will start with

"All In" on Amazon, 

"Capital" on Netflix

"KIss the Ground" on Netflix

"The Choice 2020:  Trump v. Biden"  PBS

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-choice-2020-trump-vs-biden-l0dutq/

I enjoyed Kiss the Ground.  It's not the best doc I've seen on the subject but it was good.

Watching “Agents of Chaos” on HBOMax right now.

I have loved everything from Alex Gibney and this is no exception but fucking hell, this shit is terrifying.

Sorry for the multiple posts but while watching “Agents of Chaos”, I looked up Gibney’s Twitter account and found the info about his new coronavirus documentary and this -

The new documentary on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is now available for free on YouTube.

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Author

 

It seems a bit hokey as a setup, but is very powerful the further it goes.   There was a lot I didn't know (which isn't saying much), but I'm hoping some of our folks with more constitutional law background watch it and chime in.   I assume as long as she has been doing it if there were many fallacies, she'd been roasted by now.  

 

 

Also Frost/Nixon-   It's actually the story of that specific interview and how it came about and how it changed things. I was in middle school when it went down, and Langella's version of Nixon is good,  but I kept finding myself trying to remember how Nixon really sounded, his mannerisms.  But after a while I went with it.  Any recommendations on good docs about Nixon's life and career?

 

 

 

Edited by pyrohornIII

  • 3 months later...
14 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

all the president's men

RIP Hal Holbrook. (Also Mark Felt.)

15 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

jfk

..also by Oliver Stone...The Untold History of the United States...A 10 part series from Teddy to Obama.

Regardless of what you think of Stone's catalog of work in general, this series provides an excellent "other side" to the whitewashed version we learned in history class.

FDR through Truman is especially good.

 

On 10/5/2020 at 8:54 PM, lemonlime said:

Yes.  Everyone should see this.  It was really eye opening.

Yep. This is where I learned about ALEC and how it should be immediately destroyed. 

On 10/5/2020 at 8:07 PM, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

Yup. 

ems.ZW1zLXByZC1hc3NldHMvbW92aWVzL2M2ODUy

Haven't seen this, but getting good reviews. Even if it does suck, Fletcher gets to have sex with Brooke Baldwin, so he's already a winner. 

 

Bryan Cranston kills it as LBJ.  It covers the first year of his presidency as he tries to unite or at least appease enough conservatives, liberals, and civil rights leaders to pass the Civil Rights Act while also trying to win reelection.  Streaming on HBO Max.

Edited by Tom

17 hours ago, Mo Horn said:

ems.ZW1zLXByZC1hc3NldHMvbW92aWVzL2M2ODUy

Haven't seen this, but getting good reviews. Even if it does suck, Fletcher gets to have sex with Brooke Baldwin, so he's already a winner. 

I lived through the Trump presidency. I don’t need to see a documentary about it. There was an episode of Frontline on the Trump presidency a week or two ago and I couldn’t watch it. I hate the sound of his voice and it sort of hurts just to look at him. Better to read a book. I still haven’t gotten around to reading Rage yet. 

On 2/1/2021 at 8:12 PM, Cooterhorn said:

 

Having attended this more than 30 years ago, I thought this would be mildly interesting.  I had to turn it off after 20 minutes.  I HATED these kids. All of them. 

Why We Fight (2006ish)

+1 to 13th, I Am Not Your Negro, Fog of War, No End in Sight

  • 2 months later...

So this was an incredible 4 part HBO documentary titled, “Exterminate All the Brutes.”

 

I'd have to say "Anal Extremists 2."  It is a subtle but harsh commentary on how all of us, as Americans, are taking it up the tailpipe from the political class.  At least, that's the way I interpreted it.  I'm a pretty sophisticated film consumer, though...so the rest of you might not have gotten it.

  • 1 year later...
  • Author

Necro bump:

I'm interested in what others are finding.   Here are a few of mine from recently.

Netflix's Ron Howard documentary, Web of Make Believe.  Particularly 2 and 3 from a current political standpoint.

Amazon:  Ukraine is not a brothel.  The story of Femen and its unique fight against patriarchy, with a little twist to it.

Amazon:  Iraq's Secret Sex Trade (2019 version) and Kids Caught in the Crackdown (1983 version).  This stuff is chilling and hits close to home as the US is pushed further towards extremist Christian Nationalism.

 

“Who We Are” is on Netflix, and should be required viewing.  It’s a history of white supremacy in America, told through a lecture cut with numerous real-world interactions. 

As a movie, it drags in a couple places, but it also has several powerful and memorable moments- like visiting the site of a slave auction and looking at leg irons designed to fit a small child (could any object be more immoral than that?).

I think it is important to hear his statements at 1:12 in the trailer.  
 

 

through ep4 of this and enjoying it quite a bit.  ton of people in it, and a lot more of a watergate story than just a martha mitchell biopic (so far).

 

  • Author

So I watched Jasper Texas on Amazon last night.    I was torn because it had Jon Voight in it, and I despise him.  I was surprised the role he played and can not comprehend how any human can play that role in that show and still be a crazy Trump follower.   It wasn't the best, but it wasn't horrible either.  Had a different twist on it since it focused more on the outside forces and how the small town dealt with them.

 

The second one I watched was "The Cotton Picking Truth, Still on the Plantation."     It's older, and the production quality is not great, but it has some powerful messages and does a good job talking about reparations.  Because it is so dated, it really points out what we were on the cusp of when it comes to civil rights, and how far we are being pushed back.   

 

On 6/29/2022 at 8:41 PM, Paul Wesley said:

“Who We Are” is on Netflix, and should be required viewing.  It’s a history of white supremacy in America, told through a lecture cut with numerous real-world interactions. 

As a movie, it drags in a couple places, but it also has several powerful and memorable moments- like visiting the site of a slave auction and looking at leg irons designed to fit a small child (could any object be more immoral than that?).

I think it is important to hear his statements at 1:12 in the trailer.  
 

 

I happened upon this over the weekend. It was really powerful even though I was familiar with most of it already.

I ended up on another documentary which went into the relationship between Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali. Two fascinating guys decades ahead of the times.

  • Author
6 hours ago, Jiggy-Z said:

I happened upon this over the weekend. It was really powerful even though I was familiar with most of it already.

I ended up on another documentary which went into the relationship between Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali. Two fascinating guys decades ahead of the times.

One Night in Miami is a good primer to those chemistries.  Toss in Jim Brown and Sam Cooke too.  

  • Author
On 6/29/2022 at 9:15 PM, henrygandorf said:

through ep4 of this and enjoying it quite a bit.  ton of people in it, and a lot more of a watergate story than just a martha mitchell biopic (so far).

 

I'm about 4 episodes in.   I always figured these guys like Liddy, Hunt and all the other operatives were upper tier at their spy craft.  Amazing how inept they really were.  But it also points out the gradual evolvement of the hate that fuels the GOP above all else.  Starting with Dean's neon sign about communism.  This gaslighting has been going on for half a century.  

 

  • 4 weeks later...
  • Author

A pretty decent way to spend a couple of hours.    

 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington  It's my go-to when discussing patriotism. It's also not bad for an anthropological study on sexism in the 1930s.  

Bob Roberts.  

 

Matewan, by John Sayles is a fascinating film about a West Virginia coal labor strike and subsequent massacre

Speaking of coal strikes, Pride is a good one.  1984, true story, gay activists raise money and protest to support coal miners striking in Wales, many of whom are not terribly sympathetic to the plight of homosexuals.  It touches on several issues, particularly taking the first step in trying to build a coalition with people who were previously hostile to you.  (I think it probably has a healthy layer of candy coating to make it more digestible, but it's still interesting). 

2 hours ago, trauma babe said:

Matewan, by John Sayles is a fascinating film about a West Virginia coal labor strike and subsequent massacre

 

30 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

 

GREAT FUCKIN' SHIT

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