What Do We Do Now? Nominating Thread for a Political-Film Poll...

“Duck, You Sucker!” / A Fistful Of Dynamite

not a fan of Anthony Eden, but his excellent command of the French language in The Sorrow and The Pity is noteworthy.

Looks like this could be a series of by-decade polls instead, clemenza

Completely forgot what could conceivably be my #1 (and will have a hard time getting any other votes): The Champions, Donald Brittain's three-part documentary on Trudeau and Levesque that I've plugged on other threads.

― clemenza, Sunday, June 30, 2019 9:10 PM (yesterday)

clemenza -- i remember you mentioning this doc before and have thought about checking it out. would you say it's accessible even if you don't know much about canadian politics?

I think so, yes. They're basically a Canadian version of Kennedy-Nixon; they come to prominence at almost the same time, start as friends, end up as (sometimes bitter) rivals, and they even match stylistically: Trudeau's the glamour guy, Levesque the rumpled plodder (except in Quebec, where he's god). The one major difference is that Levesque, whatever you thought of his goal of breaking apart the country, comes across as someone with boundless integrity.

You can watch the whole thing online if you're interested:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_1/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_2/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_3/

thanks! i suspect i'll be using this poll as an excuse to catch up on a lot of things i've been meaning to watch.

Vietnam films: I'll nominate Hearts and Minds, The Deer Hunter, and Coming Home, which all have a clear political stance on that particular war. I'm less sure on Casualties of War and Apocalypse Now--beyond their default anti-war position--so I'll leave them for anyone else who thinks they belong. They seem more about the battlefield and in-the-moment sensation.

Has this been mentioned yet?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/No_%282012_film%29.jpg

No.

Face in the crowd!

Aka, From the Hills of Wasilla--definitely.

I added a few more films to the nominations list without posting here. (Yes, this is one of those pointless no-news-is-no-news bumps.) The list is just a guide anyway--write-ins, when voting starts, are fine.

http://docs.google.com/document/d/12Ts0EtUkx1eDgstQGLQePHbwFtBGL5rbyDtIyRtziek/edit

Ice
Report
Breaking With Old Ideas
Deserter
23rd Psalm Branch
Memories of Underdevelopment
BPM (Beats per Minute)
Westler
The Normal heart
The Making of Monsters
Zero Patience
It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives
A Virus Knows no Morals
We Want Roses Too
Numéro deux
Le FHAR (Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire)
Chorus
My Son John
The Country and the City: A Film With Raymond Williams
Le temps des bouffons
Winter Wind
Red Psalm
Moi, un noir
Petit à petit
Soleil O
West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty
Too Early, Too Late
Black Girl
From the Cloud to the Resistance
From the Pole to the Equator
Class Relations
Pays barbare
Piece Mandala/End War
Louisiana AKA The Other Side
From the Other Side
Race d'Ep: un siècle d'images de l'homosexualité

State of Siege, Costa-Gavras
Operación Ogro. Gillo Pontecorvo
The Champions, Donald Brittain (originally a mini-series, it was given a cinematic release and so i think qualifies)

and now i see the champions has been mentioned, i did a ctrl+f but must have made a typo

I think so, yes. They're basically a Canadian version of Kennedy-Nixon; they come to prominence at almost the same time, start as friends, end up as (sometimes bitter) rivals, and they even match stylistically: Trudeau's the glamour guy, Levesque the rumpled plodder (except in Quebec, where he's god). The one major difference is that Levesque, whatever you thought of his goal of breaking apart the country, comes across as someone with boundless integrity.

You can watch the whole thing online if you're interested:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_1/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_2/
https://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_3/

― clemenza, Sunday, June 30, 2019 5:58 PM (four days ago)

levesque comes across fantastically well

He really does. I was a Trudeau guy back then, but he was pretty clearly railroaded in some of those constitutional negotiations. I found his ultimate demise--cast aside by the party he'd helped create--very moving.

I'll get all the nominations updated, thanks.

There are 225+ films on the nomination list...I'm ready to proceed with the vote (one ballot in already); no real point in waiting a week. As I've said, write-ins are fine.

This is my idea for points--I'm the guy who gummed up Karl Malone's under-2:00 music poll with complicated alternative point-systems, and I've got another one:

# of Films Listed     Total Points Allowed        Maximum Points for One Film
      10                      100                            30
      20                      200                            40
      30                      300                            50

The total-points stays proportional the more films you list; intuitively (maybe I'm wrong), it felt like the maximum points allowed for one film should increase more gradually.

If you hate math, or want to list more films, let me know and we'll work something out. I'll wait a day and start a voting thread.

Nominations:

http://docs.google.com/document/d/12Ts0EtUkx1eDgstQGLQePHbwFtBGL5rbyDtIyRtziek/edit

I need 20 voters. Don't worry if you haven't seen every political film ever made. This isn't homework--vote for what you know and like now.

Late entrants - The Front Runner, The Bourne trilogy

...which reminds me to add Chappaquiddick, too. Of the two, I liked The Front Runner better.

Other Nixon films: Our Nixon, Watergate.

Sneak in If...., too please.

Horror films: Night of the Living Dead (as definitive on 1968 as Weekend), the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Get Out, Us. Lots more, I'm sure, but those are the first four that come to mind.

there's only one good political film, and it's captain america: civil war

no wait fuck i meant winter soldier, mods pls delet thraed

I think you meant there’s only two good political films

Added Winter Soldier, which reminded me to add Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Captain America in limbo, pending confirmation...

Okay, I see what you mean now...I thought you meant the 1972 documentary.

To KJB's list, I add Magic Mike XXL.

lmao clemenza <3

Anything nominated (i.e., stated, not posed as a question), I'll add to the list. I'm an easy mark here for joke nominations, especially in the realm of superhero movies--whether it's sincere or a joke will go right over my head.

I don't often make an effort to catch up with gaps in movie or music polls--pure laziness, plus I'd rather go with opinions that go back more than a week or two--but I'm going to force myself to sit at the computer for 3.5+ hours and watch Frederick Wiseman's State Legislature off Kanopy. It won't be in one sitting, that much I know.