Political Cinema

by smokenfog-1 | created - 02 Dec 2011 | updated - 03 Jan 2018 | Public

My favorite ...

 Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc
  • Instant Watch Options
  • Genres
  • Movies or TV
  • IMDb Rating
  • In Theaters
  • Release Year
  • Keywords





IMDb user rating (average) to
Number of votes to »




Reset
Release year or range to »




































































































1. Z (1969)

M/PG | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

86 Metascore

The public murder of a prominent politician and doctor amid a violent demonstration is covered up by military and government officials. A tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, François Périer

Votes: 31,354 | Gross: $0.08M

2. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Not Rated | 121 min | Drama, War

96 Metascore

In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo | Stars: Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Samia Kerbash

Votes: 65,676 | Gross: $0.06M

3. Missing (1982)

PG | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History

78 Metascore

When an idealistic American writer disappears during the Chilean coup d'état in September 1973, his wife and father try to find him.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea

Votes: 23,372 | Gross: $14.00M

4. The Ax (2005)

Not Rated | 117 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

A chemist (Garcia) loses his job to outsourcing. Two years later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: José Garcia, Karin Viard, Geordy Couturiau, Ulrich Tukur

Votes: 8,417

5. Salvador (2006)

134 min | Biography, Drama, History

A profile of anarchist and bank-robber Salvador Puig Antich, whose 1974 execution under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco ushered in a period of unrest that helped Spain transition to democracy.

Director: Manuel Huerga | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Tristán Ulloa, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Joel Joan

Votes: 3,450

6. Carlos (2010)

Not Rated | 111 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

The story of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 OPEC meeting.

Stars: Edgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer, Fadi Abi Samra, Karam Ghossein

Votes: 14,409 | Gross: $0.15M

7. Syriana (2005)

R | 128 min | Drama, Thriller

76 Metascore

A politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.

Director: Stephen Gaghan | Stars: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet, Kayvan Novak

Votes: 134,279 | Gross: $50.82M

8. Europa (1991)

R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

69 Metascore

Just after World War II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.

Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier, Ernst-Hugo Järegård

Votes: 23,201 | Gross: $1.01M

9. V for Vendetta (2005)

R | 132 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

62 Metascore

In a future British dystopian society, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of "V", plots to overthrow the tyrannical government - with the help of a young woman.

Director: James McTeigue | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Rupert Graves, Stephen Rea

Votes: 1,179,494 | Gross: $70.51M

10. 12 Angry Men (1957)

Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama

97 Metascore

The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler

Votes: 865,353 | Gross: $4.36M

11. No Man's Land (I) (2001)

R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, War

84 Metascore

Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1993 at the time of the heaviest fighting between the two warring sides. Two soldiers from opposing sides in the conflict, Nino and Ciki, become trapped in no man's land, whilst a third soldier becomes a living booby trap.

Director: Danis Tanovic | Stars: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis

Votes: 48,835 | Gross: $1.06M

12. The Wave (2008)

Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Thriller

A high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.

Director: Dennis Gansel | Stars: Jürgen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt, Jennifer Ulrich

Votes: 115,131

13. State of Siege (1972)

Not Rated | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Using the interrogation of a US counterinsurgency agent as a backdrop, the film explores the consequences of the struggle between Uruguay's government and the leftist Tupamaro guerrillas.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Yves Montand, Renato Salvatori, O.E. Hasse, Jacques Weber

Votes: 6,065 | Gross: $1.13M

14. All the President's Men (1976)

PG | 138 min | Drama, History, Thriller

84 Metascore

"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.

Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam

Votes: 126,082 | Gross: $70.60M

15. The Lives of Others (2006)

R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

89 Metascore

In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur

Votes: 410,557 | Gross: $11.29M

16. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History

80 Metascore

Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Director: George Clooney | Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels

Votes: 101,310 | Gross: $31.56M

17. Waltz with Bashir (2008)

R | 90 min | Documentary, Animation, Biography

91 Metascore

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

Director: Ari Folman | Stars: Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, Ori Sivan

Votes: 60,416 | Gross: $2.28M

18. Butterfly (1999)

R | 96 min | Drama, War

69 Metascore

Based in 1936 Spain, Moncho is an outcast at school but is able to form a strong bond with his outspoken teacher. When fascism arrives to Spain, his teacher is considered an enemy of the regime & arrested.

Director: José Luis Cuerda | Stars: Manuel Lozano, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Uxía Blanco, Gonzalo Uriarte

Votes: 9,755 | Gross: $2.09M

19. Manderlay (2005)

Not Rated | 139 min | Drama

46 Metascore

A story of slavery, set in the southern U.S. in the 1930s.

Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach De Bankolé, Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe

Votes: 25,183 | Gross: $0.08M

20. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

68 Metascore

In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.

Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas

Votes: 152,662 | Gross: $4.06M

21. Downfall (2004)

R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History

82 Metascore

Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler

Votes: 375,281 | Gross: $5.51M

22. Paths of Glory (1957)

Approved | 88 min | Drama, War

90 Metascore

After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready

Votes: 212,297

23. Triumph of the Will (1935)

Not Rated | 110 min | Documentary, History

The infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.

Director: Leni Riefenstahl | Stars: Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Max Amann, Martin Bormann

Votes: 18,325

24. Army of Shadows (1969)

Not Rated | 145 min | Drama, War

99 Metascore

An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville | Stars: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret

Votes: 25,857 | Gross: $0.74M

25. The Confession (1970)

GP | 139 min | Drama, Thriller

A high-ranking official is forced to confess to high treason.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Gabriele Ferzetti, Michel Vitold

Votes: 4,816 | Gross: $0.33M

26. The Conformist (1970)

R | 113 min | Drama

100 Metascore

A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio

Votes: 33,707 | Gross: $0.54M

27. The Killing Fields (1984)

R | 141 min | Biography, Drama, History

76 Metascore

A journalist is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody 'Year Zero' cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million 'undesirable' civilians.

Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands

Votes: 59,215 | Gross: $34.70M

28. City of God (2002)

R | 130 min | Crime, Drama

79 Metascore

In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.

Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phellipe Haagensen

Votes: 801,266 | Gross: $7.56M

29. The Edukators (2004)

R | 127 min | Drama, Romance

68 Metascore

Three activists cobble together a kidnapping plot after they encounter a businessman in his home.

Director: Hans Weingartner | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart Klaußner

Votes: 32,380 | Gross: $0.18M

30. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)

Not Rated | 120 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

76 Metascore

A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.

Director: Marc Rothemund | Stars: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf

Votes: 28,671 | Gross: $0.68M

31. Il Divo (2008)

Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama

81 Metascore

The story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.

Director: Paolo Sorrentino | Stars: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci

Votes: 19,010 | Gross: $0.24M

32. The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

R | 150 min | Action, Biography, Crime

76 Metascore

A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.

Director: Uli Edel | Stars: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz

Votes: 40,129 | Gross: $0.48M

33. The White Ribbon (2009)

R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

84 Metascore

Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?

Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur

Votes: 77,664 | Gross: $2.22M

34. The Organizer (1963)

Not Rated | 126 min | Drama, History

A former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a late 19th Century textile factory.

Director: Mario Monicelli | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, Gabriella Giorgelli, Folco Lulli

Votes: 3,284

35. The Hunt (1966)

91 min | Drama, Thriller

Three men go hunting rabbits during a hot day. Heat and talking about events happened in the past make them angry, until they go totally crazy.

Director: Carlos Saura | Stars: Ismael Merlo, Alfredo Mayo, José María Prada, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba

Votes: 2,455

36. Land and Freedom (1995)

Not Rated | 109 min | Drama, War

David is an unemployed communist that comes to Spain in 1937 during the civil war to enroll the republicans and defend the democracy against the fascists. He makes friends between the soldiers.

Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Ian Hart, Rosana Pastor, Icíar Bollaín, Tom Gilroy

Votes: 12,100 | Gross: $0.23M

37. Cría Cuervos (1976)

PG | 105 min | Drama

In the twilight of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, an 8-year-old orphan and her two sisters find shelter in the house of their stern aunt and try their best to acclimatize to a new reality. Can they summon up the courage to grow up?

Director: Carlos Saura | Stars: Ana Torrent, Conchita Pérez, Mayte Sanchez, Geraldine Chaplin

Votes: 11,404

38. Before the Revolution (1964)

105 min | Drama, Romance

Following the death of his friend, an Italian youth grows increasingly closer to his young aunt.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini

Votes: 3,060

39. The Ear (1970)

94 min | Drama, Thriller

After coming home from a Party gathering one night, a Czech official becomes convinced that he is about to be the subject of a political purge and tries to do damage control, while also dealing with his turbulent marriage.

Director: Karel Kachyna | Stars: Jirina Bohdalová, Radoslav Brzobohatý, Gustav Opocenský, Miroslav Holub

Votes: 3,310

40. Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)

Not Rated | 97 min | Drama

A Cuban man cycles through his opinions and memories as the threat of foreign invasion intensifies and the rest of his family moves to Miami.

Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Stars: Sergio Corrieri, Daisy Granados, Eslinda Núñez, Omar Valdés

Votes: 4,776 | Gross: $0.03M

41. Advise & Consent (1962)

Not Rated | 139 min | Drama, Thriller

The polarizing search for a new Secretary of State has far-reaching consequences.

Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, Henry Fonda, Walter Pidgeon

Votes: 7,511

42. Post Mortem (II) (2010)

Not Rated | 98 min | Drama

72 Metascore

In Chile, 1973, during the last days of Salvador Allende's presidency, an employee at a Morgue's recording office falls for a burlesque dancer who mysteriously disappears.

Director: Pablo Larraín | Stars: Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Amparo Noguera

Votes: 2,639

43. Caché (2005)

R | 117 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

87 Metascore

A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.

Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bénichou, Annie Girardot

Votes: 85,244 | Gross: $3.63M

44. Tony Manero (2008)

TV-MA | 97 min | Drama, Music

72 Metascore

A man is obsessed with John Travolta's disco dancing character from Saturday Night Fever (1977).

Director: Pablo Larraín | Stars: Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera, Héctor Morales, Paola Lattus

Votes: 4,558

45. Interrogation (1989)

TV-MA | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

Tonia goes out drinking. She wakes up in prison, not having a clue why she's there. She is tortured to encourage her to confess to a crime she is not aware of.

Director: Ryszard Bugajski | Stars: Krystyna Janda, Adam Ferency, Janusz Gajos, Agnieszka Holland

Votes: 3,683

46. Burn! (1969)

R | 112 min | Action, Drama, War

72 Metascore

In 1844, a British mercenary helps the revolting slaves of an Antilles island colony gain independence from Portugal, but later returns to hunt down a local rebel leader and former protégé.

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo | Stars: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez, Renato Salvatori, Dana Ghia

Votes: 5,821 | Gross: $0.43M

47. Memoria del saqueo (2004)

120 min | Documentary

After the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983, successive democratic governments launched a series of reforms purporting to turn Argentina into the world's most liberal and prosperous... See full summary »

Director: Fernando E. Solanas | Stars: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Fernando E. Solanas, Ronnie Wood

Votes: 1,053

48. The Verdict (1982)

R | 129 min | Drama

77 Metascore

An outcast, alcoholic Boston lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason

Votes: 45,987 | Gross: $54.00M

49. 1900 (1976)

Unrated | 317 min | Drama, History

70 Metascore

The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini

Votes: 27,287

50. Hands Over the City (1963)

Not Rated | 101 min | Drama

Prior to a city council election, the collapse of a building leaves a land developer and his political backers defending themselves against a scandal.

Director: Francesco Rosi | Stars: Rod Steiger, Salvo Randone, Guido Alberti, Marcello Cannavale

Votes: 3,287

51. Medium Cool (1969)

R | 111 min | Drama

87 Metascore

A TV news reporter finds himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Director: Haskell Wexler | Stars: Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill

Votes: 4,712 | Gross: $1.48M

52. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Fantasy

87 Metascore

In 1940, after watching and being traumatized by the movie Frankenstein (1931), a sensitive seven year-old girl living in a small Spanish village drifts into her own fantasy world.

Director: Víctor Erice | Stars: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellería

Votes: 20,680

53. El Sur (1983)

Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance

A woman reflects on her childhood relationship with her father, attempting to understand the depths of his despair and the truth of his myths.

Director: Víctor Erice | Stars: Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, Icíar Bollaín, Lola Cardona

Votes: 6,153



Recently Viewed