1 Chicago as the setting is a bit of a subtle joke on Nolan's part... ...Second movie (in the current Batman franchise) is set in the Second City... ..because it features Two-Face.

2 I would add The Incredibles which is one of the most conservative films I've ever seen. 

3 oh yeahhhhh... how was that one forgotten?

4 I have seen and agreed with most on the list except for Hurt Locker and The Lives of Others which I have not seen. I thought 300 was profoundly dumb. I junior high school boys version of a great story. I really wish it would have been done as an accurate portrayal rather than a CGI orgy.

5
You know what movie had really striking set design? Clerks.
You know what movie had really striking set design? Diner with Andre.
You know what movie had really striking set design? Safe Room.
You know what movie had really striking set design? Castaway.

6 What in the hell does the Dark Knight have to do with conservatism?

7

When are we going to see Atlas Shrugged?

Now that would advance conservatism.

 

8 Brokeback Mountain had great set design.

9 I really wish it would have been done as an accurate portrayal rather than a CGI orgy.

I can see your point except that it's not supposed to be an accurate portrayal.  It's a movie of 300 by Frank Miller which is a completely and totally different animal entirely.

And I'm going to give up major geek girl cred here, but is Miller still working on his Batman as anti-terrorism crusader book?  Shamefully, I haven't kept up to date on that. 

10 I like that this Brit gives Obummer some advice in his description of "300". Not that our Commander in Cheese will even read something labeled in any way as "conservative".

11

I'm looking forward to Inception, just because of Nolan.

12

Gosh...it's just so gosh-darned surprising that the movie that is the focus of this thread is one based on a cartoon

 

13 Yeah set design? They just filmed Toronto, it looked like a TV movie's set, minimum effort. I mean, clearly Nolan was trying really hard to make it seem like a regular city in modern day but it had no mood or design to it.

14

Master and Commander was a great fucking movie..

...and it didn't even have a Bat-cycle

15 Glaring oversight on that list: Joe Dirt (2001).

16 I just rented this movie and watched it yesterday, and it was the plot of Dark Knight not the set design....it's in your face what anarchy really looks like.

17 2 I would add The Incredibles which is one of the most conservative films I've ever seen. 

Amen, ATC!   I loved that whole storyline about the superheros getting sued by an ungrateful American public.  Also, Syndrome's unforgettable line:

Syndrome (to Mr. Incredible): "I'll give them the most spectacular heroics anyone's ever seen. And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super. And when everyone's super, no one will be." [evil laughter]

Sound familiar?

18 Hey, you were right -- I thought 17 Again was going to be stupid but it's actually a very funny movie!

And I say that in all seriousness. I only watched the movie on your recommendation.

But I'll never forgive you for The Wicker Man.

19 I don't know about you guys, but am I the only one who finds it slightly disturbing that Ace is watching Zac Efron movies?  What's next?  Ace reviewing HS Musical XIV?

20 What About Inglorius Basterds? I would say that was a conservative movie. The Left sure didn't like it "Kosher Porn"

21

300 was great as was Master and Commander. I always thought 300 was an homage to soldiers and was really based on Gates of Fire.

But, being from Alabama, I also thought the Dukes of Hazzard was a documentary.

22 Alex, I agree with your point about 300. But my statement was in regards to it being a conservative film. I don't think it accomplished both teenage male fantasy and conservative statement. Maybe I am wrong.

23

300 was full of conservative lulz.

24 I kind of liked.."MILFs like it in the rear" the all girl version.

25 TEAM AMERICA!  F--K YEAH!

26 After re-reading the synopsis for Dark Knight, I'm not sure the author actually saw the film. He talks about Batman's unwavering quest to defeat the Joker, but in the film, Bruce Wayne actually intends to give himself up and is only bolstered by both Alfred's encouragement and Harvey Dent's actions by announcing himself as the Batman during the press conference, enabling Wayne to take a more active part in capturing the Joker...

...still a great conservative film though.

27 I like the line in the Dark Knight..."I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve".

28 >>>And I'm going to give up major geek girl cred here, but is Miller still working on his Batman as anti-terrorism crusader book? I believe I've read that is now shelved.

29 I saw 17 Again on a plane, and I only watched it because there wasn't anything on, and during the preview period I realized "Hey, this is a fairly smart little movie," so I anted up by six buck. Having seen it again, I can't lie -- being a captive audience on a plane DID increase my appreciation of it quite a bit. But, having seen it again (several times), I still have to recommend it as a good movie, and further, as really conservative movie too.

30 Batman didn't even have the Gothic castle called Wayne Manor. This Batman didn't even have the Batcave. ThisThis Batman didn't even have Arkham Asylum. This Batman didn't have the "City of the Future" CGI simulation of Gotham City the last one did.

Man, this guy is boring.  If I was a chick I wouldn't date him.

31 MY six buck, I meant.

32 thanks for the second, JohnJ.

33 28 >>>And I'm going to give up major geek girl cred here, but is Miller still working on his Batman as anti-terrorism crusader book?

I believe I've read that is now shelved.

Posted by: ace at January 02, 2010 01:00 PM (5EsuI)

A lot of us are shelving ani-terrorism anti-man-caused-disaster related projects nowadays.

34 I note Ferguson listed Master and Commander as number 1. I remember when it came out, the far left M. Dargis, then film critic of the LA Times, issued a 3-page manifesto of hate against Western civilization based on that movie disguised as a review. One of the reasons I canceled my subscription. Her hate fest landed her a promotion, though--film critic for the NY Times!

35 >>>Syndrome (to Mr. Incredible): "I'll give them the most spectacular heroics anyone's ever seen. And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super. And when everyone's super, no one will be." [evil laughter] One thing this points out: Supposedly these superheroes invent the most incredible weaponry, power sources, transportation systems, defensive systems, high-tech armor, high-tech bodily enhancements, high-tech healing devices... ...and then keep them entirely secret from a world which needs them. There's always that weird thing in the tech-oriented superhero story where they basically have to justify why he's withholding the greatest advancements to humanity since penicillin. Usually it's some nonsense about "the world not being ready" or something. Imagine if that green revolution guy -- John Borland? -- similarly thought "the world's not ready."

36 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - War on Terror, Good vs Evil, Corrupt Media etc., etc. About Schmidt - Good, but not perfect, conservative guy surrounded by idiot/gross/mean liberals. Not to spoil, but the daughter's reaction to him and the liberal family she's marrying into at the end of the movie seals the deal.

37 I mean, if you take Iron Man seriously (which you shouldn't), you can't come to any other conclusion than that Tony Stark is a selfish dick.

38 Was An American Carol (200 that bad, or not really conservative?

39
BTW,  there is one more year of the decade left.

40 What a colossal shit wasteland of culture in which the conservative mind might find refuge.

Film is utterly inimical to rightwing "values" because great art always addresses social pathology. The rightwing rejects art because it categorically rejects society. All that remains for the "conservative" are representations of the hero-monad assaulted on all sides by structures of meaning invented by freedom-destroying liberals, with the crucial exception of the capitalist corporation, which is the perfected person.

41 Petey, can you recommend a good telecom company?

42 Another big fan of Master and Commander here.  And 17 Again was a turn off for me because it seemed like another silly teen girl squeal fest (Zak Ephron), but I'll definitely watch it now (and force Mr. D'oh). 

43

Green Revolution refers to the transformation of agriculture that began in 1945, largely due to the life work of Norman Borlaug.

A true hero.

44 it's not really that. They make nods in that direction (he's shirtless twice), but it's really more adult-oriented than that. A movie in which a Zac Efron keeps telling promiscuous girls they need to respect themselves (or he'll call their fathers) isn't really a teen-squeal sort of deal.

45 right, Norman Borlaug.

46 Oh, I had to add re 17 Again, Margaret Cho?  Really?  Teaching Sex Ed?  I don't know.  Might have to get liquored up to watch this.

47

Serious question: How is Gladiator a conservative movie?

(And we all know by now that is really an eight followed by a closing parenthesis, right?)

48 right, but he triumphs over her.

49 she is depicted as the Baddie in the scene. Well, not bad, exactly. But just pushing sex on kids who aren't ready for it. Stupid and callow, let's say.

50 Wait.  You've seen Annie Hall?  I'm trying to think of some non-banworthy epithet.  I'll have to get back to you.

51 Isn't 17 Again a remake?

52

I'd say "Shackleton" with Kenneth Branagh, but that was a TV flick.

Still, far better than almost all this other shit.

53

Serious question: How is Gladiator a conservative movie?

Bread and Circuses are a sign of societal decay?

54 No, not a remake, but a retread of the body-switching/age-changing movie you've seen before like five times.

55 Favorite conservative line in The Incredibles:

Vi and Dash are in the cave and she's explaining things to him. The line goes something like:

"...and Mom and Dad's lives may be in terrible danger. Or, worse yet, their marriage."

Damn, that's good.

56 How could anyone forget Taking Chance?  A group of us were discussing it just last night, and literally everyone loved it.  (I have to admit I cried my eyes out watching it, but it was beautifully done, and Kevin Bacon's performance was perfectly understated.)

57 Why the hell isn't "The Patriot" being mentioned!!?? C'mon, it's a movie about the struggles to create the United States of America, a place conservatives love and liberals hate. I know it was made in 2000 and was technically made last decade/century/millenium, but if that's the reason then we're having this discussion a year early.

58

Serious question: How is Gladiator a conservative movie?

Bread and Circuses are a sign of societal decay?

Honor, moral strength, and noble character un-ironically protrayed as good?

59 "Everyone can be super. And when everyone's super, no one will be." [evil laughter]"

Napolitano: "Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action."

Gold stars for everyone!

60 I was thinking of 18 Again with George Burns.

61 Gladiator: Dick Cheney in a skirt.

62 Why the hell isn't "The Patriot" being mentioned!!??

The Brits are a wee bit testy about this film because of its way-over-the-top portrayal of the British army as bloodthirsty monsters. I actually agree with them on this.

63 Even the greatest system film "There Will Be Blood" must be rejected by the conservative. Incredible.

The slightest public political miscalculation, for example when George Lucas lightly ridicules GW Bush, is cause for a rightwing death sentence.

64

62 Why the hell isn't "The Patriot" being mentioned!!??

The Brits are a wee bit testy about this film because of its way-over-the-top portrayal of the British army as bloodthirsty monsters. I actually agree with them on this.

Back when they had an Empire, there was some truth to that portrayal.  Now they're a bunch of Euro-weenies.

65 tears of the sun just got an honorable mention?  whaa?

66

This is the one of the few aspects of my life that I don't view through a political lense.

If I go to shell out $10 for a movie (which I rarely do anymore), I'm doing so out of escapism. I don't really give a flying Fig Newton about the message (of course I don't have kids so it's not a worry for me).

Bottom line: if someone says "hey let's watch Fireproof", I'm going to say, "umm, hell to the naw, let's watch The Hangover instaed".

67 63 Even the greatest system film "There Will Be Blood" must be rejected by the conservative. Incredible.

Posted by: John Cassavetes at January 02, 2010 01:31 PM (YFV+t)   And what, pray tell, is a "system film"?

68 I would also have mentioned Spiderman ("With great strength yada yada"), and Star Trek.  Though thinking on it, the only reason I thought of Star Trek as conservative was Kirk and Spock's willingness to destroy an enemy that had committed planetary genocide and was in the process of committing more.  So I guess the bar's pretty low on that one.  Maybe it's just me unconciously comparing it to previous Star Trek Liberal Utopia onanism.

69 Blast from the Past is a great flick. Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as his parents are actually the funniest bits.

70 The Patriot isn't that great a movie despite its story line. And yeah, the Brits were a little bit over the top evil - there were guys like that out there, but I get the impression that Mel Gibson hates Brits a lot more than he allegedly hates Jews.

71 I love how erg -- or Petey -- lectures us about looking for rightwing messages in films. Meanwhile, he has reduced art to a single dimension -- whether art reinforces and propagates his childish bumper-sticker political beliefs. he has never expressed a single thought that indicates an aesthetic beyond the retardedly monodimensioal and reductivist. He does not view art for wit, novelty, life, or joy. He sees it merely as packaging for political pornography. But, you know, I'm the philistine. And so are you. I really think he should do more work at his telecom company and spend less time being an ignorant hyperpoliticized uncultured asshole here.

72 The slightest public political miscalculation, for example when George Lucas lightly ridicules GW Bush, is cause for a rightwing death sentence.

No, the prequels wrote their own death sentence. And do you really think quoting the "you're with us or against us" line almost verbatim is "lightly" ridiculing Bush? Seems pretty heavy handed from where i stand.

73

Honor, moral strength, and noble character un-ironically protrayed as good

OK, I'll buy that regarding Gladiator.

Must say, though, that those traits came through clearer in Mean Girls (2004).

74

I'd say that "The Day After Tomorrow" was a great conservative film because Mr. CO2 really kicked their ass.

75 System=Hollywood.

Unless it's childish dualism of the most banal Superhero, the comic book adaptation must be rejected by the rightwing mind.

Alan Moore cannot be read or watched by the conservative, unless he's massively misread.

76 Blast from the Past had some great lines in it: "Champagne cocktails? I thought only hookers drank those!" / "Well, I know Mom likes them." And I'd add the Star Wars prequels as well. They were so bad and so blatantly Bush (and Reagan) bashing that no one could take liberalism seriously after watching them.

77

**BREAKING**...

Get the flaming skull out!!!!

Tapper is reporting that Barky and The First Wookie took the kids out for Hawai'in Shave Ice yesterday!!!!

The media finally has something to report on for the next week

 

78 John Cassavetes made more sense when he was alive.

79 Blackhawk Down -- I walked into that film a soft-headed Clinton-loving Liberal gal, but when I walked out I was ready to storm that rat bastard's house and throttle him and whoever else was involved in that debacle. That movie was a life-changer for me - it opened my eyes or at least started to . . . will never forget the ranting I did to my friends after we left the theater.

80

I thought Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" was portraying someone with a metal plate in his head.

I do a lot of oil and gas leasing, and I have never seen a stranger collection of mineral interest owners in my life. I could get a one-eighth ten year lease from those dumbasses for a Chiclet.

81

Oh, Dear God...Carhles Jhonson is now claiming that Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit is calling him a child molestor or something..

...slow motion train wreck

82

Posted by: John Cassavetes at January 02, 2010 01:40 PM (YFV+t)

How's that Thorazine working out for you, Sunshine?

83

Stark was a dick. But when he was showing off that super weapon, at the beginning of the film, I sprouted oak.

 

84 Ganhi was the film that convinced me that western liberalism is suicidal.

85

make that Gandhi.

86 82

Oh, Dear God...Carhles Jhonson is now claiming that Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit is calling him a child molestor or something..

...slow motion train wreck

Posted by: rum, sodomy and the lash at January 02, 2010 01:48 PM (AnTyA)

I don't think that a shaved and lubed-up cocker spaniel would qualify as a "child". Other than that, sure..

87 Ace. You dismissed your boyhood hero, George Lucas, for a really tepid indiscretion.

Look how totalizing is your reduction of culture to the zero-point of monomaniacal "conservative" dogma. You're a fucking lunatic zealot, no different from the cultural narcisism of bin Laden.

88 85 Ganhi was the film that convinced me that western liberalism is suicidal.

Posted by: Rodent Liberation Front at January 02, 2010 01:52 PM (dQdrY)

"My name is Gandhi Mohandas K. Gandhi."

89

Caught the 1st half of "Invictus" (Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, director - Clint Eastwood) last night which tells a sliver of the story of Nelson Mandela first months as President of South Africa.

The comparisons with the 1st year of the Obama Presidency end with Obama's words ... "I Won." Mandela is portrayed as a real post-racial president, while Obama is hyper-partisan.

Given the current situation of President Obama, I expect Progressives will hate "Invictus" because by contrast, it makes Obama look bad.

90 38 Was An American Carol (200 that bad, or not really conservative?

I thought it was freaking hysterical. A good conservative film in my eyes.

Plus there are zombie ACLU lawyers.

91 How could anyone forget Taking Chance? A group of us were discussing it just last night, and literally everyone loved it. (I have to admit I cried my eyes out watching it, but it was beautifully done, and Kevin Bacon's performance was perfectly understated.) Jane D'Oh, I absolutely agree with you. That was a beautiful movie that realistically showed how the military honor their fallen. Sorry, I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I guess it didn't make the list because it was a TV movie. And I pray heartily you NEVER have to experience it.

92 keep fukkin that chicken JC

93 How can these conservatives forget the Barbarian Invasions.  It seems relevant what with the American Communist Party now pushing pay-off care on us.

94 Say it with me, Jar Jar Binks.  The overgrown bunny rabbit was forced down the audience's throat..   A character who would have trouble qualifying for the Special Olympics. 

Posted by: Dave C at January 02, 2010 01:58 PM (qmecx)

He was the most believable character in the movie.

95 The only movie I have seen at a cinema in the last decade was Chicago, and that can't be on the list for the usual reasons.
I did see Incredibles and War of the Worlds at the drive-in. Both of which should have been listed, even though I hate the little bastard Cruise

96 Look how totalizing is your reduction of culture to the zero-point of monomaniacal "conservative" dogma. You're a fucking lunatic zealot, no different from the cultural narcisism of bin Laden.

Posted by: John Cassavetes at January 02, 2010 01:54 PM (YFV+t)

What is "totalizing" and "zero-point"?  Is that English, or are you really laptop guy trying to find a backdoor through the spam filter?

97 I could spend a good seventy minutes just going over why the FIRST Star Wars prequel sucked, much less then next two, but I'm gonna go get a pizza roll instead.

98 What have I done .... My master

99

Posted by: HowardDevore at January 02, 2010 02:10 PM (yxfok)

I agree. Life is like a box of Pizza Rolls.

And too short to waste on lowbrow Star Wars crap.

 

100 I could spend a good seventy minutes just going over why the FIRST Star Wars prequel sucked, much less then next two, but I'm gonna go get a pizza roll instead.  Posted by: HowardDevore

That was a great review of The Phantom Menace. 'What is wrong with your face??'

101 This Batman didn't even have the Batcave.

The Batcave is there -- it just looks like a technological, modernized version of the TV series' Batcave.

102 How is it that Gran Torino only got an honorable mention? Seriously?

What about Australia?

103 Why the hell isn't "The Patriot" being mentioned!!??

Sorry, but any movie where Mel Gibson avenges his dead children by slow-motion spearing the bad guy with the American flag goes right in the "schmaltz" bin for me. It wasn't about conservative principles, it was about stroking the American ego with blatant emotional manipulation (and I say that as a person who doesn't mind having her American ego played to). 

104

and the occasional quasi-fascist sculpture

There were statues of Obama in Gotham?

105

If you can stomach it (and I refuse to link it here) Kos has something similiar--top 25 liberal movies compiled earlier this year.

Here are the top five. Commence eye rolling

5. Bowling for Columbine

4. Shawshank Redemption

3. Goodnight and Goodluck

2. Farenheit 9/11

1. An Inconvenient Truth

But let's break it down--it's a real hoot. 2/5 are Michael Moore. Enough said. #1 is, well inconvient from what we know now. #3 is  ironic considering we're now living in an era of modern day McCarthyism. #4 is on the list why? Who knows other than the lefts love affair with Tim Robins.

Sadly, Che didn't make their top 25. Wonder why. They love Soderbergh. Oh and despots too.

 

106 An American Carol was propaganda, but hilarious, conservative propaganda.

I'd like to see more of a discussion of what makes these movies "conservative" beyond things like "good vs. evil" and "families are important" and stuff.

In the ones on these lists that I've seen, I don't recall a lot of pro-small governmentery or anti-tax screeds.

107 You know, I didn't think about War of the Worlds.  I'm going to have to ponder that for a bit.

If we go foreign films, District B13 has an incredibly brutal view of where the French government is going to go with dealing with the ghettos.  I wouldn't say it's conservative, per se, but it does support Steyn's view that Europe will deal with these issues in the way that Europe always does.  It's more striking to me because it's in a stupid action movie. 

108 Taking Chance was a TV (HBO!) movie. The Brits are a wee bit testy about this film because of its way-over-the-top portrayal of the British army as bloodthirsty monsters. I actually agree with them on this. I had the same reaction at first, but then I found this book which references the war in the South—something we don't study much in school. I always thought the "if everyone's super, no one is" line of The Incredibles was the weakest part. If everyone's super, you just raise the bar on what constitutes super, it seems to me.

109 It wasn't really a "conservative" film, but "Sunshine" was fantastic and showed why liberals should never be sent on critical missions that require sober reasoning, common sense, and a sense of purpose. I highly recommend the movie. There are little problems with the story (as with most sci-fi) but it is a very well-done movie and quite stunning.

110 hey how about a thread for CONSERVATIVE VIDEO GAMES

111 Look how totalizing is your reduction of culture to the zero-point of monomaniacal "conservative" dogma.

Great googly moogly, the man is delusional.

Ergie, if you think that's what ace is doing, then you really are a pathetic idiot.

112 The universe of acceptable rightwing cultural fare is clausterphobically tiny. Political fanaticisms always reduce expression in this way, for example when Ace boldly announced he was going to watch Watchmen, it was obvious he would dislike the film. What I don't understand was why he even tried; why he didn't just wait for GI Joe?

And then there's the fantastic misreadings in which a film or book is entered into the rightwing calculus of acceptable puritanical fictions. Ace as I recall thought "The Prisoner" was a parable of rightwing emancipation from the state, which of course is wrong. It was Kafka, not Ayn Rand. But now that I think about it, I think Ace just rejected the thing as "weird," a word discounting anything "intellectual."

What a fucking bleak world that is rightwing culture. Just horrible.

113 but "Sunshine" was fantastic and showed why liberals should never be sent on critical missions that require sober reasoning, common sense, and a sense of purpose

I love that movie up until the last 25 minutes or so when it all goes to hell.  Actually Chris Evans' character could be read as the "conservative" one since he's the only one who is intent on making sure the mission succeeds, no matter the consequence to himself.

Also, I think Live Free or Die Hard should be on there as well.  The That Guy discussion is one of the best summations of who Americans are that I've seen onscreen. 

114

How about Rambo?  I haven't seen it, but the talk I've heard indicates that apart from things getting blowed up good, it drives home a message that diplomacy and being non-threatening is useless in the face of evil, and the only real way to deal with evil successfully is to shoot it with a 50 cal jeep mounted machine gun. 

115 Oh and how the hell is Shawshank a liberal movie? 

116 If you can stomach it (and I refuse to link it here) Kos has something similiar--top 25 liberal movies compiled earlier this year. Here are the top five. Commence eye rolling 5. Bowling for Columbine 4. Shawshank Redemption 3. Goodnight and Goodluck 2. Farenheit 9/11 1. An Inconvenient Truth Oh, the cultural narcissism of the liberals, that a film such as "There Will Be Blood", a film that redefines the totalization of the paradigm of modern filmmaking, is rejected out of hand by the liberal mind. It encapsulates the Baudrillardist simulacra of the narrative of bin Laden.

117 Ace still on his one-man jag about how Dark Knight actually sucked, I see...

118 Posted by: John Cassavetes at January 02, 2010 02:24 PM (YFV+t)

See, I'm trying to take heed the criticism of a guy who pick John Cassavetes as his screen name, but it's just not working.  I like my movies not to be boring and overrated as hell.

119

 

4. Shawshank Redemption

1. An Inconvenient Truth

 #4 is on the list why? Who knows other than the lefts love affair with Tim Robins.

Posted by: laceyunderalls (is a girl damn it!) at January 02, 2010 02:18 PM (pwHTT)

Actually, as a geologist, I enjoyed Shawshank's discussion of obsidian - the forgotten non-mineral  and Fort Hancock, Texas (which does not really have a bus station) is right next door to where I live, and the computer enhanced swimming polar bears in An Inconvenient Truth made for much mirth.

In War of the Worlds, Cruise gets to kill Tim Robbins, who is as annoying stupid in the movie as he is in real life, and (most important) that Dakota Fanning in the movie is an absolute deadringer for my little daughter, so - +58 stars!

 

120 erg is making me quote Dollhouse from a few weeks ago:

(Describing a brilliant-but-odd-but-hot scientist with a dead arm played by Summer Glau): "Imagine John Cassavetes from The Fury as a hot chick."

And while I'm citing Whedon, let's not forget Serenity as being at least strongly libertarian if not conservative.

121 " great art always addresses social pathology"

Ergboy, the world isn't *actually* all about your daddy buggering you when you were young.

122 John Cassavetes is erg, I think.

123 "In the ones on these lists that I've seen, I don't recall a lot of pro-small governmentery or anti-tax screeds."

Uh, I don't know if you noticed, but most the last decade involved some slightly more pressing issues.

124 126 John Cassavetes is erg, I think.

Posted by: IreneFingIrene at January 02, 2010 02:32 PM (0lYjp)

His grammar and use of spelling is better than I remember. Are you sure?

125 #127: Okay, yeah, but still.  TDK I get as an allegory for the War on Terror, but maybe I just don't remember Master and Commander well, for example. 

And for the movies I haven't seen, I have to guess in a lot of the cases, so.

126

PIXY!!

Comments broken on Charles Post, won't go passed 122!!

Get those hamsters off the booze and back to work!

127
His grammar and use of spelling is better than I remember

Online lefty bullshit generator?

128 Ace still on his one-man jag about how Dark Knight actually sucked, I see...
That's just a cinematic purity test.

129 127 "In the ones on these lists that I've seen, I don't recall a lot of pro-small governmentery or anti-tax screeds."

Uh, I don't know if you noticed, but most the last decade involved some slightly more pressing issues.

Posted by: someone at January 02, 2010 02:33 PM (njJQD)

Fiscal conservatism, economic freedom and small government are always the number one concerns. Otherwise, you wind up with W's big-government "compassionate conservatism" domestic agenda, which got us here..

As far as national defense - no bucks, no Buck Rogers. Nations with broken economies cannot defend themselves, unless they go all North Korea...

130

Hello, "Blindside"!

Christian Republicans helping an underpriveleged brother to fulfill his dreams (as well as his own hard work and initiative).  Gubamint programs failed him.

131

I enjoyed Shawshank as well but am not seeing the overtly "liberal" tone in it.

It was filmed here in Ohio-Mansfield. It's no longer operational but you can tour it. You can even spend the night there to get the feel. Umm, no thanks.

 

132 Ace still on his one-man jag about how Dark Knight actually sucked, I see...

Well, let me join in.  The Dark Knight sucked.  Or, more to the point, Bale as Batman was JarJar Binks level bad.  The Joker was spectacular and Gary Oldman as Gordon was superb.  But every time Bale opened his mouth as Batman I had to slap my hands over my mouth to keep in the laughter. 

133

I had the same reaction at first, but then I found this book which references the war in the South—something we don't study much in school.

Walter Edgar is a great historian even if he is somewhat of a liberal. Of course one can not be a History Professor at a modern college without being a liberal.

 

134

So, tell me, erg, do you and your friend Charles like movies about gladiators?

135

Of course one cannot be a History Professor at a modern college without being a liberal.

Just like the historian who reported Lincoln sucked dick, based on an activist's claims, was a liberal. [Via five feet of fury.]

136 Tim Robbins in War of the Worlds was an  idiotic caricature of how he, and liberals in general, sees conservatives. Meaning, he was the dumbass who was a-skeered of the turrorists, while Cruise was the thoughtful liberal who used his mind instead of war. So mind numbingly predictable, and all the grey ash covering everyone after the "aliens" atacked? Gee, how subtle of you Speilberg. Terrible movie.

137 I think Shawshank is embued with liberalism by liberals because the Warden is religious, corrupt, and evil (thus, obviously, a conservative), with his thugs/guards being violent psychopathic tax cheats on a long leash (thus, obviously, conservatives), while Andy is all sophisticated and likes opera and ends up putting one over on all those corrupt, evil conservatives by being all smart and stuff (thus, obviously, liberal).  That's my guess, anyway.  If that's not it, I got nothin'.

138 STAY THE COURSE!

139 IF WE STAY THE COURSE, WE ARE ALL DEAD!

140 a good conservative movie, that is in many ways similar to Patton, is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.  It was made in WW2 England.

And we have quite the monomaniacal troll today, don't we?

141

What the hell. It's Saturday and I'm bored.  I won't say The Dark Knight sucked.  It didn't.  But Batman Begins was better.  For starters, all the weapons and action in the first one was at least believable, stretching the bounds a bit, but believable.  In Dark Knight, there was a real deux ex machina quality to it--the way the security system of an entire building was shut down, the tapping into everybody's cell phone simultaneously, the rest of the swooping in, capturing, and abducting of the Chinese banker, it just wasn't believable.  Yeah, I know, it's a Batman movie, but the first one was still better in this area.

There was also a philosophical aspect to Batman Begins that stretched the entire movie and touched on much more lightly and only really at the end of The Dark Knight.  I also don't think I really buy Harvey Dent not just killing the Joker the second he sees him.  Anyway, it's fodder.  Let the attacks commence.

142
the Warden is religious, corrupt, and evil
- The Right Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

with his thugs/guards being violent psychopathic tax cheats on a long leash - Tim Geitner and Bruno Napalitano. 

More leftist projection.

143 Jesus. Just reading his posts is like walking into a room filled with weed smoke. If there ever was a ditch-weed, thesaurus-scrabbling pre-grad dorm-room  stoned sophomore suburban marxist demogoguery award, he'd have a whole wall full.

144 ahhh, typo - that should be "dues ex machina"

145

or that should be "deus ex machina"

screw it, I'm on a roll today.

146 The only actor who sucks worse than Jason Statham is Christian Bale.

147 "Double-deuce ex machina"?

148 Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?

149

Ah, yeah that's probably it  Cautiously. The details are vague. I'd say I'd go back and re-watch it, but then again maybe not.

The comments at the Kos page were a laugh riot. Some were pissed Schindler's List didn't make their list. You know, all those hawkish anti-isolationism Dems were really gung ho over the US involvement in WWII prior to Pearl Harbor. Nyuk nyuk nyuk1

150 @AD

I agree that Dark Night didn't suck, but that is mostly because of Ledger. Bale's Batman was a caricature, not a real character. And that fucking raspy voice became intolerable after a few minutes. However , I thought that the technostuff was fine. It is, after all, a movie.

151 Batman Begins was very good but The Dark Knight was better. The one theme running throughout Knight was the proper response to terrorism.

152 Christian Bale in American Psycho! Good goodness that movie still gives me nightmares. Awful fucking movie.

153

Just like the historian who reported Lincoln sucked dick, based on an activist's claims, was a liberal. [Via five feet of fury.]

Actually according to that article a “gay activist” is the one who said Lincoln was gay, not the historian.

154 A good discussion of how art has been diminished the past 80 years

Something Wonderful: Why Beauty is Important

http:// americandigest.org/ mt-archives/grace_notes/ why_beauty_is_important.php#011359
(remove spaces; I reject tinyurl)

155

"The Lives of Others" got its Oscar because the Beautiful People thought it was an allegory for Bush's Amerika, and not about real life in Communist East Germany.

Remember that next time Cassavetes/erg tells you how nuanced the Left is.

156 I thought the opening attack sequence in War of the Worlds was great and then it sucked after that.

157

Remember the Titans (2000) was a great film that merged playing for a team with judging people by their nature, rather than with prejudice.

And it's about football.

158

I'd like to see more of a discussion of what makes these movies "conservative" beyond things like "good vs. evil" and "families are important" and stuff.

I mentioned Joe Dirt and Mean Girls because each, in its own way, emphasizes character and self-destiny. That's not to say that these films are devoid of liberal values; I just don't see them as mutually exclusive. But neither one has any of that progressive preaching.

I'd say a "conservative movie" focuses on characters, tells a story and has a moral to the story. The opposite would be a movie where general themes are more important than character development with the point of challenging your assumptions or confidence in a certain aspect of traditional society. In short, they're preachy and annoying.

I'd say Joe Dirt fits my description of a conservative film because its main point is to celebrate the character of Joe: his integrity, his demeanor, his perseverance, and his triumph -- not to convince us that his non-traditional family is a legitimate family. (Which it is, by the way, and if you got something to say about it Christopher Walken might stab you in the eye with a soldering iron.)

159 120 - I saw what you did there.

160 Alan Moore cannot be read or watched by the conservative, unless he's massively misread.

Oh, we can watch. Watch and laugh. And laugh, and laugh.

And then laugh at the dipshits like erg who think he's a genius.

161

I'd like to see more of a discussion of what makes these movies "conservative" beyond things like "good vs. evil" and "families are important" and stuff.

Individual responsibility and self reliance is a good conservative theme, I think.  But really, if the left is willing to cede the idea of "good vs. evil" to us, why not mine that rich vein for all it's worth?  I mean, it's not like there's an excessive number of conservative films out there...

162

A conservative film is one where they kill a bunch of furriners and hippies. And they don't feel bad about it no how.

163 A conservative film is one where they kill a bunch of furriners and hippies. And they don't feel bad about it no how.

I find your script ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

164 Oh, I think Watchmen can be enjoyed by the conservative, not to say that that was Moore's intent at all.  Rorschach is easily the most sympathetic, morally grounded and well-developed character, IMHO.  Even Moore seems to sympathize with him, even while attempting to make him seem like some deranged conservative.

Rorschach is the only character (properly) horrified by Ozymandius's plot.  If Moore intended that to demonstrate that Rorschach was uncompromising and unreasonable and the plot was an acceptable way to deal with impending world war (or liberal's hysterical reaction to the possibility), well, I'd say he failed spectacularly.  Since history proved that mass-murder and manipulation was unnecessary to end the Cold War peacefully, the conservative Rorschach comes out looking like the only sane one out of the bunch and the liberal-minded characters that were willing to go along with the plot come out looking like monsters.  What's in that for a conservative to not enjoy?

Now, V for Vendetta is shit on a stick.  No redeeming value whatsoever.  Utter crap.  Same for most of his other works, but V was probably the most insipid.

Qwinn

165 Good Lord, Shep Smith is on at half-time of the Cotton Bowl.

166

I find your script ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

Pilgrim, you just have to watch the Western Channel. They just had a Have Gun Will Travel marathon.

167 Good Lord, Shep Smith is on at half-time of the Cotton Bowl.

I was just going to mention this. Now I want Christopher Walken to stab me in the eye with a soldering iron.

168 Was An American Carol (200 that bad, or not really conservative?

Posted by: FireHorse at January 02, 2010 01:13 PM (Vl5GH)

It wasn't that bad. Had some good laughs in it and goes straight at lefties. From the ACLU to Hollywood nit wits.

169 ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE,SARGENT YORK, mel Gibsons movie THE PATRIOT and EXPELLED NO INTELLEGENCE ALLOWED

170 156 Christian Bale in American Psycho! Good goodness that movie still gives me nightmares. Awful fucking movie.

Posted by: laceyunderalls (is a girl damn it!) at January 02, 2010 03:07 PM (EWwXK)

I thought that movie was high comedy. Read the book, it has a way creepier edge.

171 Someone mentioned The Lives Of Others.

This is a very good movie.  It really gives you an idea of what it was like to live in a liberal paradise.
They all speak East German in it, but it is well worth watching.

172 This list should have been called "Top Ten Neoconservative Movies". It's obsessively focused on the "War on Terror", to the exclusion of everything else.

173 Now the Wild Bunch was a great movie. Showed them there Mexes whats what!

174 But it was the original Batman movies (the Burton ones) that featured the in-your-face (and I think excessive) set design stuff. Gotham was a mostly fake city, a mix of models and matte paintings and the occasional quasi-fascist sculpture.

You thought Burton's Batman flicks were excessive?   Hmmm...  I thought the Batman sets got really excessive with Batman Forever and Batman and Robin (which were both Joel Schumacher flicks). 

175 167- I'll see your hippies and foreigners and raise you some typical government employees and the attorney of your choice.

176 I'm in full agreement with alexthechick, btw... The Incredibles should probably be in the top spot on any good conservative movie list.  Awesome film.

Qwinn

177 It's obsessively focused on the "War on Terror", to the exclusion of everything else.

And 'splodey things in general.


I saw a film sometime in the last twenty years that ended with the terrorist a prisoner of the hero on an overpass (bridge?) with a grenade stuffed in his mouth.  Confronted with some dispute over authority or something, the protagonist pulls the pin and walks away, (wide eyed terrorist and splody head follow).  I thought it was an Ahnuld film but nothing in his IMDB rings a bell?

Anyone remember what this was?

178 Oh, as for set design in Dark Knight, I bet he was thinking of the (spectacular) scene that I believe takes place in Hong Kong, where he glides down from a taller building?  Yeah.  That was pretty awesome.  Whether it was a realistic rendition of the Hong Kong skyline I don't know, but it was an amazing scene.

Qwinn

179 The Lord of the Rings trilogy remains the definitive Conservative movie series of the decade. Simply put: good vs evil.

180 Oh!  And hey!  Groundhog Day!  GROUNDHOG DAY!  Hell, Jonah Goldberg has written entire treatises on that film.  Can't say I disagree with him either.  Think about it, the movie basically begins with the main character as the typical sneering lefty full of nothing but contempt for the bourgeois sensibilities of the townspeople he becomes trapped with, and his redemption comes with learning to appreciate them.

Qwinn

181
Remember I mentioned the new Ted Raimi series SPARTCUS?

I watched the first two (pre-aired) episodes and I think it's gonna be a big hit. Rumor has it that it has already been renewed for a 2nd season.

Why is it good? Two words: boo & bies.

Seriously, lot's of T'nA. And dingalings.Which isn't cool, but...
Okay, it's pretty much a complete ripoff of 300 and Gladiator.
The best way to describe SPARTACUS is it's 300 meets GLADIATOR meets CALIGULA.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, and LUCY LAWLESS shows her ta-tas. They're smaller than I though, to be honest. But pretty fly for an older big chick.

182 Look, merely being a film that doesn't shit on the military or traditional institutions of Western Civilization alone doesn't make a film conservative.  There should be a different label, how about centrist or non liberal.

A conservative film should ignore or expose liberal lies, should show characters being rewarded for work, values, or perseverance.  A typical conservative scenario would include pulling one's self up by bootstraps, going outside a welfare/government handout entitlement.

I think the Barbarian Invasions was awesome in this respect because a bunch of elderly, Canadian, hippy dippy academic elites had to face up to the crumbling of civilization that their ideals brought about and face the shitty, Canadian health care system when the gauche wealthy son has to save the day and break the liberal rules to get his lefty POS dad the care he needs.

Dark Knight and 300 also worked in part, not because of militaristic tones (the socialist totalitarians also have a history of celebrating their military, after all), but for their depiction of hard moral choices.

BlackHawk Down was a super duper awesomely awesome war movie but that doesn't mean it's conservative.  Hell, Any Given Sunday would be more conservative than BHD.

The Incredibles, on the other hand, was amazing, and conservative.  Go out and achieve.  Don't be middle of the road just to fit in.  Sometimes the rules need to be broken. 

Similarly, the LotR would also be superficially conservative with its good versus bad but it also has a lot of lefty style elfs with their intrinsic goodness and knowledge (remember lefties seem to wallow in the self-delusion that they are the beautiful, elite, intelligent owners of secret knowledge).  But in the end, a dopey hobbit saves the day because he dug deep down, and pushed for friends, family, good over evil, etc.

183

Groundhog Day is from the last century.  1993.

Tempus fugit, my friend.

184

A good Rohrshach test of liberalism versus conservatism would be "Forrest Gump".

I do agree with a couple of posters about the national defense angle being pushed too hard. The real question of liberal versus conservative often has to do with economic, personal freedom and constitutional issues far more than basic national defense.

 

185 Zombieland.

People helping people.
Importance of family even when the shit hits the fan.
The damn scene that makes me cry all over my beer.
Complete Vindication of the Second Amendment.
The importance of a healthy lifestyle. Rule 1.

The double tap.

Twinkies.

It has it all.

Oh, and ESAD Mr. J.C.

186 Night Owl II and Night Owl I's mentor-student relationship in Watchmen was extremely old fashioned and Rorschach is basically who I want to vote for in 2012.

Rorschach / Comedian 2012

187 Awww, yeah.  Forgot we were only picking out of a given timeframe.  My bad.

I think we should make another list for "most outrageous shameless leftist propaganda films" of the 2000's.  And I think the refurbed "The Manchurian Candidate", one of the only actively anti-communist films ever produced by Hollywood remade so that the bad guys are, of course, corporate big wigs, should be at the top of any such list.

Qwinn

188 Indeed, we need a film that celebrates individualism, achievement, and personal charity.  Not just shit getting blow'd up.

So, is there a movie like how Pursuit of Happyness looks (never saw it, but it seemed to be an up by bootstraps kinda film)?

I would also say that if you want a military style, conservative film the BSG miniseries and seasons 1-3 would be conservative, despite the fact that its creators hated that it went that way.  There was no way to do it otherwise, a desperate struggle, a need to carry on your traditions but fight and claw your way to a new life, and having the moxie to meet and beat all challenges.

I liked There Will Be Blood because the protagonist seemed to be a hard core, survivor type that willed the modern world into existence around him, despite his personal problems.  I was drunk and missed all the capitalism is bad stuff...I must've walked out of the room for that.

Maybe Almost Famous too.  Sure, they're a bunch of dirty hippies but, in the end, Mom was right.

Also, consider these as conservative films? Unbreakable?  Billy Elliot? Ratatouille?  Juno? Taken?  Man on Fire?  Gran Torino?

189 BSG conservative?  Even in its first seasons, no freaking -way-.  It managed to not be obsessively liberal the first season or two, it managed to actually give the other side of the argument to the liberal dogma once in a while, but the anti-human "does humanity deserve to exist" greenist bullshit was there from the freakin' pilot. 

We really gotta raise our standards here.  Fox News isn't conservative, it gives the liberal viewpoint all the time, but we -think- it's "conservative" because you actually get to hear a conservative on there once in a while too.

Same with these selections.  Just because a conservative thought is allowed to be uttered amidst a cacophony of liberal bullshit doesn't mean it's conservative.  It just means it's not insipidly liberal.

Qwinn

190 I liked There Will Be Blood ... I was drunk and missed all the capitalism is bad stuff...I must've walked out of the room for that.

Posted by: joeindc44 at January 02, 2010 04:41 PM (ZvwTS)

In short, it was Snidley Whiplash as eeeevil oilman.

191

Indeed, we need a film that celebrates individualism, achievement, and personal charity.

Include personal integrity and Legally Blonde fits.

(Right decade, too.)

192 Knocked Up?  Adaptation?  Team America (more conservative than many purported war films being pushed as conservative).

193 Most shameless leftist films would include State of Play.
Crusading Journalist?  Check
Man with the truth?  Check
Big bad government institution? check?
and that's just from the preview, a bunch of masturbatory lefty signifiers. 

194 Conservatives canott truly aprecciate cinema the way I can becuse they lack the elaveted percepsions and sensabiloties neccesary to comperhend the treu artness of the cinematical art. All you consevratibes denagrete GREAT CINNAMA like The Pahtnom Manase only becuaz Gerog Luscas jst makks fun of Rognald Raegun.  ALLL grate cimena mstut mock and insult Amerikans & regaen & boshtler bcz ther EVIAL an yer asl dumfukcs cus I unddresttand cimgnae an youd donta undernstantd shtiatn becasuc iam asosmasrttan and in ahvae ahottt grilrfriand whosan ACCTJRESS and youdc don'ttt   

195 "Idiocracy"  As a cautionary tale this is fabulous...the people are too stupid to plant and water a seed....unless of course it is from the "stash" that the left assumes will be provided for them....

Last Decade
T.V. mini series...."Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance"........These two should be shown in all junior high and high schools....Nudity, but it is hard to show concentration camps without it....It is available on netflix and both can be bought at Amazon for about one hundred dollars...

196 William @ 200: Not to nitpick, but you spelled Conservatives correctly.

197 yeah, Legally Blonde.  true enough.
What about Ransom?  The bad guy was a crypto lefty upset at rich people?  right decade?
I think in the first seasons of BSG, the message was "we have to live" and also "start having kids."  anyone who questioned that got pushed out an air-lock.
The creators, in the commentary, noted that their typical lefty positions did not work in their show.

198 Also, consider these as conservative films? Unbreakable?  Billy Elliot? Ratatouille?  Juno? Taken?  Man on Fire?  Gran Torino?

I maintain my position that Kill Bill is one of the most stridently pro-life movies made.  Look, the entire motivation of the film is The Bride getting vengeance on those she believes have killed her child.  I mean, there's a scene where The Bride explicitly states that the second she realized she was pregnant her entire life became about her child.   Those she slaughters after that?  Deserve it. 

I would say yes to Ratatouille.  That's all about judging based on nothing but talent.

Taken, naturally.  There's no attempt to "understand" why the hell anyone would be a white slaver.

If we're doing tv shows, then My Name Is Earl would be at the top of my list along with the first half season or so of Jericho before that went off the rails. 

199 What is funny about Watchmen is that it was written in the 80's by a idiot leftist who foresaw the dystopia Reagan would make this country and the world.  Ooops, that vision didn't work out, did it?  And, his lefty villain, willing to kill millions of people to create world peace turned out to be the villain while the Objectivist Rorschach was the clear moral winner.

I've noted earlier that the left tries to make their dystopias a result of America's failings but all the world's real (reality based community much?) dystopias are owned by the left, from Detroit to Zimbabwe to the USSR.

200
194
Man On Fire was one of the best

201 I'd put Avatar on this "most outrageous shameless leftist propaganda films" for the 2000's.

202 The 5th place movie is :

5. The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino, 2006)

I saw this with my then 8yo son.  The central message of TPoH is this: 

Once freed of a woman's negativity, a man can achieve anything.

Seriously.  It's the must-see movie for any man who's trying to make something of himself, but can't because babe's just isn't buying into it - whatever "it" might happen to be. 

The balance of the movie is inspiring - raising a kid while living in a shelter, getting through Dean Witter's school, landing accounts, et cetera. 

203 Oh, and I would also say we should give a shout out to the film that the government does not want you to see.  The one the Clinton Crime Syndicate forced ABC to rewrite.  The one that is still not available on DC.  The one that celebrated the American heroes that tried their hardest to fight Al Qaeda in the pre-9-11 world.  The film so shocking and disturbing that it has gone down the memory hole.

The Path to 9-11

So, suck it, all you libs who think that they're the victims of censorship when their piece of shit films don't do well.

204 The one that is still not available on DC.

The one that is still not available on DVD.

205  Posted by: toby928 at January 02, 2010 04:17 PM (PD1tk)

Gene Simmons played the terrorist.

206 Enchanted is a conservative movie.


She cleans the room.
Makes her own clothes.
Gets herself all dolled up for a date.
Gets herself hitched to a guy with a job.

Oh, and, animals serve the needs of humans.

the only vaguely "non" conservative scene is when Giselle (Amy Adams) goes out and spends a couple of grand on a fashion makeover, a makeover which manages to make her less attractive than when she was making clothes out of slipcovers.

207 Oh hey Swordfish.  Sure, sure Travolta is being presented as the bad guy but he's also right about what has to be done. 

208 Wanted Dead Or Alive

209
>>202 William @ 200: Not to nitpick, but you spelled Conservatives correctly.

Firehorse = thread winnah.

210 Defiance is a great movie.
Don't know how conservative it is but it's a great war film

211 Wanted Dead Or Alive

Ah, Rutger not Ahnuld. Dutch, Austrian, these Huns all sound alike.

Thanks.

212 Good point about Knocked Up. A lot of those raunchy Apatow comedies have solid conservative messages: See 40 Year Old Virgin and Funny People. And they all seem to relish in the maleness of the male. But, yeah, if you want libertarian/conservative movies, look to the former iron curtain. The Lives of Others as mentioned. I'd say Four months, three weeks, two days is a conservative/libertarian movie, though just as liberals misunderstood Lives, they could misunderstand Four Months. I'd make an argument for Twelve, too. The Russian version of 12 Angry Men: There are, apparently, long-term consequences to communism. Barbarian Invasions is remarkable for being from Canada.

213 "Bigger, Louder and Uncut" (1999) hands down.
Satan getting Saddamised, morality police causing the Apocalypse, an American invasion of Canada, Streisand's name taken in vain.
So much to love in that flick.

214 Not to pile onto @116 anymore, but: "The universe of acceptable rightwing cultural fare is clausterphobically tiny. Political fanaticisms always reduce expression in this way, for example when Ace boldly announced he was going to watch Watchmen, it was obvious he would dislike the film. What I don't understand was why he even tried; why he didn't just wait for GI Joe?" With ~40% of this country self-iding as conservative, just who do you think goes to all these movies? (the "lefty" ones included) Also, what conservative would find that iteration of GI Joe enjoyable, with it's stock PC characters and bending over backwards to say that it is an "international force"? I mean, other than the explosions and chicks, but that is what transformers was for, and bonus there is a sympathetic portrayal of American servicemen standing up to spineless politicians. "What a fucking bleak world that is rightwing culture. Just horrible." Leftwing culture is just as bleak. In fact, your own argument works against you, the relentless hatred of "progressive" arts types causes them to churn out the same narrow stuff. So we get movies about McCarthy, but none about bin Laden. We don't even have lots of movies that can deal honestly with the 70s or 80s, let alone the 90s or 00s. Narrowness? Why isn't the popular culture addressing contemporary issues anymore? Where is the bravery to say something _really_ unpopular in film?

215 213 Oh hey Swordfish. Sure, sure Travolta is being presented as the bad guy but he's also right about what has to be done.

Posted by: alexthechick at January 02, 2010 05:15 PM (6Hbvd)

Exactly! And Swordfish came out right before 9/11, emphasizing how utterly detached the left was from reality. As with Sunshine, Swordfish suffered from more than a few silly technical idiocies in the plot, but all told the movie lays out the correct approach (though the movie thinks it's the wrong way) and is good fun.

216 Why isn't the popular culture addressing contemporary issues anymore?

Word.  In any sane world we would already have had five movies about the Twin Towers.  It has everything, shock, bravery and sacrifice, and an almost unbelievable pathos.  Like watching Titanic, now matter how much we inwardly screamed Turn!, Turn!, they will always hit the iceberg, and the towers will always fall.

Not to mention the almost superhuman exploits of our troops in the Middle East.  Tell me a movie about the Fall of Kabul wouldn't make money.


Hollywood:  the biggest bunch of cowards on the planet.

217 Outta left field but does anyone think Lions for Lambs was not so leftist? My husband liked the movie--he thought the message was do something which ever side you are on.  Man on Fire one of the best ever.

218 LEFTSISTS create GREAT cinama that addreses IMPORTENT themes but you cons are jsut to BLIDNED by yuor predjiducis to apriceate them.

FILMS about savig the whol PLANET like The Happpennning and Teh Day tha Erath Stood Stilll.

STRONG WOMON Ccharechters lik Basic Intsinct 2 & Catwomnan.

The TERUE FACE of CAPTIANLISM in Batlefeild Eorth & Gigli.

All REAL ART is trannsegressissive & you clastropohbec crishtan ronad reaygun wwhosrhipars just CANT COMPERHAND it!

219 Haha OT. Over at PuffHo, that New Age angel-mongering idiot Marianne Williamson is having the biggest sob-fest over that cad Obama since Dash Riprock ditched Elly Mae for Miss Jane.

220 How about waiting until 1/1/11 before deciding the best movies of the decade?

221
O/T:  I'm looking forward to The Pacific on HBO in March.  Yeah, it's a Spielberg/Hanks production, but the trailers look amazing and three of the lead characters are based on (still living) Marines. 

Carry on.

222 Anyone ever see The Great Raid with Benjamin Bratt and Ralph Feinnes?  Arguably conservative in that the US troops and the Filipino guerrillas working with them aren't portrayed as murderous scum bags, but that's more of a sad commentary on modern movies than anything else.  The main thing that got me about that movie was that it was a clear throwback to the old school WWII men-on-a-mission movies from the 50s and 60s like Objective Burma! (ok, it's from 1945, bite me), The Guns of Navarone, and The Devil's Brigade.  That was my favorite part of it.

223
Hoss, I loved that movie, too.  And I got spanked earlier for mentioning Taking Chance because it was an HBO movie.  Everyone can bite me, it's still great. 

224 This past week is the first I've ever heard of the notion that a named decade (the 1280's, the 1990's, the 1420's, etc.) was considered by anyone *not* to be from XYZ0 to XYZ9, i.e. 1919-1929, 1809-1819, 1990-1999.  (Well, okay, except for the Sixties, but that's understood to be tongue in cheek.)

Beginning of a century or millenium, sure, there's no Year Zero; A.D. starts at 1.  But the 1900's (the hundred-year period, not the decade, which doesn't have a decent name) started with 1900 and go all the way through 1999, and then stop. 

WTF, mate?  This isn't even math-math. 

(Okay, it goofs up the First Decade A.D. no matter how you slice it, but it's a semantic convention, not a numerical one.)

I mean... The Eighties.  Eighty through Eighty-Nine.  This isn't hard.

225 216 Defiance is a great movie.
Don't know how conservative it is but it's a great war film

That reminded me that there's an old Jan Michael Vincent movie from '80 also called Defiance which could be added to this list.  Here's the IMDB page for it for those who are interested, always been a favorite of mine.

226 Hey, why does refreshing sometimes only load up the first 108 comments (just those, no comment box or anything) sometimes?  Is it a problem with Firefox, or what?  Been meaning to ask about that for a while.

227 232  I'm assuming the hamsters are drunk again.

228
Im in ur puterz
fillin in wit a bunch of shit

229 Toby928 @ 183 - The movie is Wanted Dead or Alive.  Rutger Hauer played the modern day bounty hunter, Gene Simmons (a nice jewish boy!) played the Arab terrorist.

230 I guess my question should've been, is it just me?  And why only sometimes?  It could be my browser or connection or computer or something.  I don't want to accuse anyone.  Except for you in the study, with the lightsaber.

231 230, The year 2000 is the last year of the 20th century, so how can it also be the first year of the first decade of the 21st Century? The problem comes from folks confusing their terms. The first decade of the 21st Century has one more year to go. The first ten years that start with "20" are completed.

232 "Set in 1805, it is an epic tale of heroism and love for country in the face of incredible odds, and a glowing tribute to the grit and determination that forged the British Empire." - excerpt from the review of Master & Commander: the Far Side of the World Well, well... let's see... if we were to name an epic tale of liberalism and hedonism in the face of incredible stupidity, and a dismal tribute to the spinelessness and fecklessness that is destroying the British nation, what would we call it? Master and Dhimi: The Islamization of Britain, perhaps?

233 "The year 2000 is the last year of the 20th century, so how can it also be the first year of the first decade of the 21st Century?"

Funny, but I pretty much remember -everyone- celebrating Dec. 31 1999 as the end of the millenium, and Dec 31 2000 as being one of the most boring new years eve's in living memory.

Yes, there was a couple of pedants screaming "no no you must wait another year!" but the fact that they were pretty much completely ignored by everyone is hardly irrelevant.

Qwinn

234

Not so much off-topic as tangential:

Anything Disney has made lately for younger audiences is conservative-friendly. Pixar movies and Disney Channel programs affirm for traditional values: Telling lies is bad, have a can-do approach to everything, and even if your parents don't know everything they're still your parents so show some respect. They're not so much instilling values as they're reinforcing the values parents are presumably passing down. Anyone here could probably trust these two brands with pre-teen children.

235 Qwinn, centuries contain one hundred years, not 99. I'll wallow in my pedantry while others panic with the herd.

236

How about these fantastic conservative movies of the aught's?

The Once and Future King. An elite group of 200 CIA and Special Operators take Afghanistan in 150 days.

The Scam. About how being defeated by a "village idiot" for president drove a proud man to madness, with the twist that the world Left finds Chauncey Gore the most useful of idiots. Hilarity ensues as the Hook is set, and the world fete's our delusionist with money, power, Ocars, Grammy's, even a Nobel!

With a Velvet Touch. The sweeping biopic of Lech Walesa, how a simple Catholic electrician grew into a World Statesmen, lead the world through the eye of a nuclear needle, leading the workers of the "Workers Paradise" in revolution against the Communist Left. The role of a lifetime for .....

 

237 Definitely glad that LOTR made the list. The most striking part of the 'trilogy' is when Aragorn delivers his call to arms:

Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you *stand, Men of the West!*  

238 The first decade of the 21st Century has one more year to go.

I reject your semantics and substitute my own.  The first decade only had nine years in it but that doesn't matter since no one at the time used that dating anyway, preferring to use The 753th Year Since the Founding of Rome.

239 The term "the Eighties" has NOTHING to do with Math, but is an attempt to name a series of years that share number 8. As it so happens, those years number ten. A "decade" is a period of ten years. It can be ANY ten years - if we wished, we could refer to 1985 to 1995 as a "decade." as in, "a decade went by since 1985." So to pretend 1990 is really one of "the Eighties" is prima facia fallacious. Where's the "8"? And to say the years 1980 to 1989 weren't a decade is wrong - count them on your fingers. There were ten years properly named the Eighties. You're Welcome.

240 239 "The year 2000 is the last year of the 20th century, so how can it also be the first year of the first decade of the 21st Century?" Count the years 1900 to 1999 on your fingers. Aren't there One FREAKING HUNDRED of them? Is not One Hundred Years a FREAKING CENTURY? Case closed. You're Welcome.

241

Why isn't the popular culture addressing contemporary issues anymore?

 My guess is that back in the old days, people saw the movie theater as a place to get information, whereas nowadays people go there to escape.

As to the rest of popular culture, I don't know. Same reason, I suppose, to a degree.

Or that the popular culture has itself become a battleground of sorts. I mean, we're over 200 comments into a thread about "conservative movies." Fifty years ago, they were just called "movies."

242 I'd have to say that The Lives of Others was the best of all of the ones on the list that I've seen. It's not simply a conservative anti-commie film, it's a masterpiece in every sense.

To the commenter who believed it was a response to the Bush presidency: um, no. I understand your point and I react strongly to the usual anti-Western, anti-capitalism themes in much of what passes for entertainment now, but wrong, wrong, wrong. If there were a superlative form of wrong, I'd write it here. The Lives of Others was about East Germany, the Stasi, and the people who had to live under those conditions. Any other interpretation is complete and utter night soil.

243 247 Why isn't the popular culture addressing contemporary issues anymore? Let me sum it up this way: Indiana Jones and The Challenge of Global Warming. See what I mean?

244 Posted by: toby928 at January 02, 2010 06:34 PM (PD1tk)

The Roman Calender was a little, umm... flexible...

245 188 Look, merely being a film that doesn't shit on the military or traditional institutions of Western Civilization alone doesn't make a film conservative.  There should be a different label, how about centrist or non liberal.

Bingo.

It's somewhat pathetic that this is more or less all -we've- even got left to fight for nowadays.

Same for the guy who says this is more of a neo-Conservative list, rather than a true all-aspect limited government riff. Woohoo, good and evil exist, and should be fought. What a statement. That isn't something that even most leftists would deny, they just think we're the evil ones.

I actually once knew Nile personally, and he's a great guy, but a lot of these are basically last gasp sorts of stretches.

There's something uncouth about Conservatives (correctly) shitting on Hollywood, and then desperately trying to find something out of it to justify themselves.

246

And then there's the fantastic misreadings in which a film or book is entered into the rightwing calculus of acceptable puritanical fictions. Ace as I recall thought "The Prisoner" was a parable of rightwing emancipation from the state, which of course is wrong. It was Kafka, not Ayn Rand. But now that I think about it, I think Ace just rejected the thing as "weird," a word discounting anything "intellectual."

What a fucking bleak world that is rightwing culture. Just horrible.

This guy reminds me of my lefty troll sock puppet days. This is a schtick, right? I'm mean it's a total self parody.

247 I have no beef with calling al the years 198x members of the "Eighties" and of course there are ten of them. 2001 to 2010 could be named the "less than Elevens". My beef is with those who insist that being mathematically wrong and calendarically (that is so not a word) wrong is a badge of honor and and puts them in good standing with the rest of the moo-ers. We members of the Pendant People's Front take this very seriously.

248
Same with these selections.  Just because a conservative thought is allowed to be uttered amidst a cacophony of liberal bullshit doesn't mean it's conservative.  It just means it's not insipidly liberal.

Agree 100% Quinn. After decades of this stuff, we've got really, really low expectations.

249 Meh.  They're just movies.

250 hahahaha, do the math eman, don't be a studies chick.

251 The Conservative movies made plenty of cash, too. Their mirror opposites such as "Rendition" made puke. These Leftwing failures show us what Conservative movies still wait to be born. I bet a movie that depicts the invasion and liberation of Iraq as a good deed and is stuffed with American heroism would outsell all others combined, and would kill many Liberals with shock and awe.

252
Here's one everyone forget: MINORITY REPORT

You know, for the thought-control nonsense.

Hate crime, anyone?

253
oh, and TEARS OF THE SUN was a great film that had no leftwing message in it at all; Bruce Willis shoulda got an Oscar for it.

254
255
Threadwinner

255
I dunno about you anal apertures but I'm defining 'conservative movies' as movies without douchebags as the heroes or without some leftwing preaching in it that isn't mocked.

256 244 The first decade only had nine years in it... See, that's not really true. There were ten Dec. 31st since January 1, 1 BC. As in: 12/31/01BC (That date effectively serves as Year Zero) 12/31/01 12/31/02 12/31/03 12/31/04 12/31/05 12/31/06 12/31/07 12/31/08 12/31/09 The same can be said for the decade BEFORE Christ: 01/1/01 AD (This date is the theoretical Year Zero) 12/31/01 BC 12/31/02 BC 12/31/03 BC 12/31/04 BC 12/31/05 BC 12/31/06 BC 12/31/07 BC 12/31/08 BC 12/31/09 BC I posit that the very instant between the Pre-Christ and After-Christ Eras must be considered to constitute, effectively, Year Zero - when the newborn Christ would be ZERO years old.

257
btw, I mentioned boobies and Lucy Lawless and not a single one of you made a comment about it.

You are all homos.

258 263 btw, I mentioned boobies and Lucy Lawless and not a single one of you made a comment about it. You are all homos. Posted by: Posted by at January 02, 2010 07:01 PM (ouySy) Yeah, but wasn't Lucy Lawless a hawt brunette dyke for a subbie blonde skandy hawt girlfriend? *gulp* BUNK!!

259 Posted by: Posted by at January 02, 2010 07:01 PM (ouySy)

Mentioned where?

260 If you want a truly prophetic "conservative" film....
The Wind and The Lion

261 As a special favor to Morons and Alexthechick: http://wolf.wolflair.net/images/wallpapers/full/wolf_lucy-woman.jpg You're welcome.

262
#187, Shamwow.

263
oops, I mean...

ShamWow!

264 Hey, don't belittle Lucy Lawless's ta-ta's... http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews20/pictures/Lucy%20Lawless%20(WinCE).jpg They'd find me in the morning under the bed, curled up in the fetal position and sucking my thumb, if I found that waiting for me after a long, hard day of watching skinemax pron and eating Cheetohs...

265 I gotta chime in here on the greatness of #9 on the list, "The Lives of Others". Great. Mesmerizing. wanna-tell-everybody-to-SEE-THIS-MOVIE! One of the best movies I've ever seen.

266

Ol' Creeky Mcknucklejoints

A libertarian perspective on the futility of attempting to govern in a paternalistic way.  An old pot smoker takes us on a journey the helps us examine laws aimed at victimless crimes.  During the course of that journey, we come to examine ourselves at the drug-law-crime nexus and to love an old man who rolls bumpy, misshapen joints.

That movie should've made the list.

267 March of the Wooden Soldiers: 100 wooden soldiers save Laurel and Hardy and the kingdom of Toyland. from the Bogeyman.

268 March of the Wooden Soldiers: 100 wooden soldiers save Laurel and Hardy and the kingdom of Toyland. from the Bogeyman.

Heh. Our local B-movie channel which came online after the broadcast switch to digital (does every metropolitan area get one of these?), has been playing this 2-3 times per week during the holidays. That and the remade Babes In Toyland with Drew Barrymore and Keanu "I Can't Act For Shit" Reeves.

Bleah.

269 Nobody mentioned 'Behind Enemy Lines'.  It kinda highlighted the fecklessness of the U.N. (with a French commander), and making the US military seem like the good guys.

270 275 This! multiplexed digital sub-channel.

271 The Dark Knight would have been better had they trimmed down 45 minutes or so of the pretentious psychobabble.

272 Ref the Showtime Spartacus. 2nd season confirmed.

273 You're talkin' to my guy all wrong.  It's the wrong tone, do it again....

274 278 Its the middle that needs trimming. They needed to decide... was Dent coming out as Batman all a plot to capture the Joker (as was implied after the fact especially by Gordon's unmasking) or did Bruce really plan on giving it up, making Gordon's fake death even more meaningless.

275

@62: The Brits are a wee bit testy about this film because of its way-over-the-top portrayal of the British army as bloodthirsty monsters. I actually agree with them on this.

Actually, in the South, they were pretty ruthless.  Not quite burning-villagers-in-the-church bad, but they weren't exactly easy on the civilian populace.

276 I don't know about all this other stuff - but STARBLAZERS is BACK?!!! Holy Yamato! (And Nova).

277 I liked Abraham Lincoln's last movie, though.

278 What, no Ghostbusters?

That was totally a conservative movie.  Buncha guys go from working in a university after bilking it to make a living for so many years and then end up in the private sector doing marketable work.  And nailing Sigourney Weaver.

The Princess Bride.  Totally conservative in that it's a manly story about a man who totally wants to bang this hot princess by becoming a pirate.  Now while piracy isn't something that could be labeled conservative, nailing hot princesses while being backed up by Mandy Patinkin and Andre the Giant puts it 'round that orbit.

Armageddon.  Well, okay, not really conservative but it does have Bruce Willis being awesome for two and a half hours.

Iron Eage.  F-15s.  Louis Gosset Jr.  Shit getting blowed up.  I don't care where this movie is it's just plain ole good.

279

Up

"You call your mom by her first name?"

"She's not my mom."

"Ohhh..."

 

 

280

BURBERRY SCARF just $99.9

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281

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Secondhand Lions yet.  The movie is entertaining with a strong conservative message.  I can't wait until my son is old enough so I can watch it with him.

Here's the money line from the movie, delivered by Hub (played by Robert Duvall): Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.

282

Funny original article, even if it didn't make any sense.  I suppose in reference to the Blade Runner line that prompted Ace's comment, and regarding the entire intent of the original article, I cannot resist the compulsion to paraphrase:

In the land of the lib-stained morons, fatuous hyperbole is king.

(It works for the current administration, too...feel free to use as necessary.)

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