20 Best Political Movies, Ranked.

With the Democratic National Convention kicking off Monday and election season in full swing, what better time to delve into Hollywood’s best narrative treatments of American politics, past and present?

Conversations with my enterprising editor encouraged me to think not just in terms of how government works, but also about the issues that promise to loom large as we approach Election Day in November and the different ways in which films can embody a desire to create change.

Some of the choices listed below don’t explicitly reference politics per se, but they touch on topics that are inherently political, whether it’s abortion, race, marriage equality, immigration, or surveillance.

Thinking about this, I was sad that there was no room for John Ford’s timeless adaptation of Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrathabout a family who loses their Oklahoma farmland and joins the Great Depression migration to California, an exceptional cinematic depiction of poverty, wealth inequality and the labor movement. My affection for another Ford film starring Henry Fonda, Young Mr. Lincolnon the training of a future political leader, also made this omission a regrettable one.

Rather than rehash countless other lists of important political films, we decided to skip some classics, including A face in the crowd, All the king’s men And The Manchurian Candidatethe latter seeming today both prescient and dated, standing the test of time largely thanks to Angela Lansbury’s fierce performance as the evil mother/manipulator.

The candidate was overtaken by two other Robert Redford films; Do the right thing was hit by another Spike Lee; and while the captivating Sidney Lumet Integrated securityon the alarming threat of an unauthorized nuclear strike against Russia, was not retained, but a satirical treatment of the same scenario, also published in 1964, was.

Among the more recent films, I regretted not finding a place for George Clooney’s hard-hitting film. Good night and good luckon the role of journalist Edward R. Murrow in the downfall of Joseph McCarthy. Debra Granik The winter bonea searing depiction of drug addiction in poor rural communities, also narrowly missed out, as did Oliver Stone’s investigative epic JFKand two by Steven Spielberg, the fine-grained portrait Lincoln And The Postchronicling the Washington DC newspaper’s efforts to publish the Pentagon Papers. Likewise, Michael Mann’s thrilling corporate thriller The Insiderbased on a real tobacco industry whistleblower.

Many political films have been considered successes when they were first released, notably Warren Beatty’s. BulworthBarry Levinson Move the dog and Hal Ashby To be thereremain entertaining even if some of their spice has been diluted by time.

It kills me, though, not to include In the loopthe scabrous pretext of Armando IannucciVice-president satire of Anglo-American culture…