Films about politicians, like JFK and All the King’s Men, or people who were caught up in the politics of their time, like The Conformist, To Be or Not To Be, and All the President’s Men. In some, the politics is just the background for the main story, such as Doctor Zhivago, Once Upon a Time in America or American History X, or may dominate the lives of all the characters like Brazil, The Lives of Others, and Gandhi. We even included propaganda like Triumph of the Will.
1. Citizen Kane [Welles, Orson , 1941] #5 US [photo top]
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [Kubrick, Stanley , 1964] #17 - UK
3. City Lights [Chaplin, Charles , 1931] #21 - US
4. Metropolis [Lang, Fritz , 1927] #23 - Germany
5. Manchurian Candidate, The [Frankenheimer, John , 1962] #43 - US
6. Birth of a Nation, The [Griffith, D.W. , 1915] #68 - US
7. Magnificent Ambersons, The [Welles, Orson , 1942] #75 - US
8. Conformist, The [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1970] #76 - Italy-France-Germany
9. Great Dictator, The [Chaplin, Charles , 1940] #138 - US
10. Once Upon a Time in America [Leone, Sergio , 1984] #162 - US
11. Lives of Others, The [von Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel , 2006] #163 - Germany
12. Killer of Sheep [Burnett, Charles , 1977] #174 - US
13. Les Enfants du paradis [Carné, Marcel , 1945] #184 - France
14. Brazil [Gilliam, Terry , 1985] #189 - UK [photo rt]15. Berlin Alexanderplatz [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner , 1980] #197 - Germany
16. Sansho the Bailiff [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1954] #204 - Japan
17. To Be or Not to Be [Lubitsch, Ernst , 1942] #257 - US
18. Rise to Power of Louis XIV, The [Rossellini, Roberto , 1966] #279 - France
19. Gandhi [Attenborough, Richard , 1982] #286 - UK
20. Day the Earth Stood Still, The [Wise, Robert , 1951] #323 - US
21. Strike [Eisenstein, Sergei , 1924] #328 - USSR
22. 39 Steps, The [Hitchcock, Alfred , 1935] #346 - UK
23. 1900 [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1976] #367 - France-Germany-Italy
24. Voyage in Italy [Rossellini, Roberto , 1953] #387 - Italy25. Doctor Zhivago [Lean, David , 1965] #401 - US
26. American History X [Kaye, Tony , 1998] #428 - US
27. Reds [Beatty, Warren , 1981] #429 - US [photo rt]
28. All the President's Men [Pakula, Alan J. , 1972] #432 - US
29. Triumph of the Will [Riefenstahl, Leni , 1935] #455 - Germany [photo btm rt]
30. Queen, The [Frears, Stephen , 2006] #481 - UK-Fr-Italy
31. Hotel Rwanda [George, Terry , 2004] #514 - US
32. Memories of Underdevelopment [Alea, Tomás Gutiérrez , 1968] #573 - Cuba
33. Moolaadé [Sembene, Ousmane , 2004] #616 - Senegal-France
34. Terra em Transe [Rocha, Glauber , 1967] #618 - Brazil
35. Young Mr. Lincoln [Ford, John , 1939] #653 - US36. JFK [Stone, Oliver , 1991] #690 - US
37. Man for All Seasons, A [Zinnemann, Fred , 1966] #715 - UK
38. No End in Sight [Ferguson, Charles , 2007] #731 - US
39. Fog of War, The [Morris, Errol , 2003] #809 - US
40. Quiz Show [Redford, Robert , 1994] #811 - US
41. Tin Drum, The [Schlöndorff, Volker , 1979] #854 - Germany
42. Hitler: A Film from Germany [Syberberg, Hans-Jürgen , 1977] #858 - West Germany
43. Ten [Kiarostami, Abbas , 2002] #892 - Iran
44. Z [Costa-Gavras, Constantin , 1969] #903 - France
45. Shame (Skammen) [Bergman, Ingmar , 1968] #913 - Sweden
46. Shoeshine [De Sica, Vittorio , 1947] #915 - Italy
47. Mephisto [Szabó, István , 1981] #999 - Hungary
48. Street Fight [Curry, Marshall , 2005] #1001 - US
49. Lamerica [Amelio, Gianni , 1994] #1015 - Italy
50. Johnny Got His Gun [Trumbo, Dalton , 1971] #1022 - US
51. Trial, The [Welles, Orson , 1962] #1055 - Fr-Gy-Yugo-Italy
52. The Last Emperor [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1987] #1056 - UK-Italy-China-France
53. Circle, The (Dayereh) [Panahi, Jafar , 2000] #1070 - Iran-Switz-Italy
54. Life of Emile Zola [Dieterle, William , 1937] #1096 - US
55. All the King's Men [Rossen, Robert , 1949] #1132 - US
56. Year of Living Dangerously, The [Weir, Peter , 1982] #1139 - Australia
57. Burnt by the Sun [Mikhalkov, Nikita , 1994] #1149 - Russia-France
58. My Friend Ivan Lapshin [Gherman, Alexei , 1984] #1203 - USSR
59. Good Night, and Good Luck. [Clooney, George , 2005] #1231 - US
60. A Face in the Crowd [Kazan, Elia , 1957] #1237 - US
61. One, Two, Three [Wilder, Billy , 1961] #1248 - US
