One reason I dislike politics is that most of it too easily contorts through buzz filters like “conservative” and “liberal.” Movies and movie makers typically get both bashed and lauded for liberal bias.
An item on National Review Online recently highlighted the best 25 conservative films in the last 25 years. It began, “Once in a blue moon, Hollywood releases a conservative movie, or at least a film that resonates with conservatives.”
Its last phrase before getting to the list was “great movies that offer compelling messages about freedom, families, patriotism, traditions, and more” (clearly conservative-only topics).
The list is worth sharing because people always gripe that there aren’t enough good movies to check out.
If you’re a conservative and it’s true that Hollywood only releases conservative films once in a blue moon, a list of the top 25 films is an important list.
If you’re a liberal, this would seem a definitive exposure to “those people’s” tastes without actually risking any substantive live exchanges with them.
It so happens, I have seen all but three of the films on the list. This list reminds me how words like “liberal” and “conservative” are more likely to pigeonhole dialog than to expand it.
I don’t recall any of these films causing me to regard the feeling or message as representative of or catering to a conservative ethic.
Call me ostrich-butt, but I mostly flap my feathers if I think the film is satisfyingly well made.
I’ll only mention one film from the list by name. “Juno.” It’s a hilariously biting yet sensitive script about a teen who gets pregnant.
Ellen Page leads a fine cast of complex characters. I guess it resonates with conservatives because the film focuses on putting the child-to-be up for adoption. It seems just as resonant that it’s a film about choice. And about life being complicated.
I’m not dissing the list by saying no more. Quite the contrary, if you hanker for a way to queue up an interesting alternatives, key the words “national review conservative films” into a web search.