List: NR’s Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 10:00 am
The National Review has updated its 1994 list of the top conservative movies with selections from the best conservative movies of the past 25 years, including films like The Incredibles, 300, Forrest Gump, and Braveheart. As with their last list, I have more of an argument with their interpretation of the movies’ politics than with the movies’ quality. As can be expected with a list that reflects the views of several contributors, the definition of conservatism seems to vary — and at times seems to encompass every possible virtue. But all of the films are well worth viewing and discussing.
NOTE: The list is not consolidated so the best way to see it is to go to The Corner blog and search for the term “movies.”
You are right, it is hard to find a recognizable definition of conservatism among the films on this list. Movies that are obviously “non-conservative” such as Ghostbusters or Groundhog Day are included because they might contain a single line or joke making fun of a liberal cliche. But if this list is a sign that in the Obama era, conservatives are beginning to lighten up and regain a sense of humor, it is welcome news indeed.
I did have to laugh at the inclusion of 300 on the list; that movie is a gay S&M fantasy– muscle bound men dressed only in bulging G strings and capes, locked in manly combat against the effeminate Xerxes who, all oiled and resplendent in his body piercings, unleashes waves of hunchbacks, mutants and deviates to test the resolve of manly men in slaughter. If NR was more alert, it would have such a movie on their “banned” list.