Here is the film list you need to escape and yet understand this damned hellscape

I’ve been working on some things that are not ready for prime time yet and also trying to get back into my life as a person who can sit still long enough to watch a movie that doesn’t just have a lot of magic swords in it. Not that there’s anything wrong with those movies. It’s just that, after 15 years of finishing graduate school, having three children, and finishing another round of graduate school, I would like to become a person whose filmography goes beyond everything inspired by “Star Wars,” “King Arthur,” and “Dune.” And here we all are, living through hideous moment in history. So I asked my friends on social media for some suggestions for movies to help us understand and live through these dark times. Because man and woman cannot live by gnashing teeth and watching the news all the time. Here is what we came up with. I would welcome additional suggestions in the comments. A future post will address the books we can read to get our minds off the daily outrage and yet more deeply understand the pattern of what has happened in other countries and what a minority of aggrieved, ignorant, bigoted, and greedy people are trying to manifest here in the United States.

Thank you to all of the friends who contributed suggestions. My Friday nights in the near future are looking really good.

(Not in order of importance)

1) Casablanca (1942)

2) Gaslight (1944)

3) Gotcha (1985)

4) The Lives of Others (2006)

5) Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

6) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

7) The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

8) All the President’s Men (1976)

9) 1984 (1956)
1984 (1984)

10) V is for Vendetta (2005)

11) War Games (1983)

12) Dr. Strangelove (1964)

13) Idiocracy (2006)

14) A Face in the Crowd (1957)

15) The Great Dictator (1940)

16) The White Ribbon (2009)

17) The Handmaid’s Tale (1990)
The Handmaid’s Tale (2017)

18) Watch on the Rhine (1943)

19) Being There (1979)

20) Seven Days in May (1964)

21) The Accused (1988)

22) Network (1976)

23) Bob Roberts (1992)

24) American History X (1998)

25) Wag the Dog (1997)

26) The Cider House Rules (1999)

27) The Road (2009)

28) Silkwood (1983)

29) Harlen County, USA (1976)

30) North Country (2005)

31) Election (1999)

32) The Bicycle Thieves (1948)

33) A Bug’s Life (1998)

34) Umberto D (1952)

35) Cabaret (1972)

36) Natural Born Killers (1994)

37) The Mortal Storm (1940)

38) Fight Club (1999)

39) Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

40) Hypernormalisation (2016)

41) Let the Fire Burn (2013)

42) Animal Farm (1954)

43) The Sopranos (season 1 – 1999)

44) Rome (2005-2007)

45) Rome, Open City (1945)

46) Germany Year Zero (1948)

47) Stromboli, terra di Dio (1950)

48) The Arch of Triumph (1948)

49) Paisa/Paisan (1946)

50) China Syndrome (1979)

51) Frost/Nixon (2008)

52) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

53) Alien (1979)

54) District 9 (2009)

55) World War Z (2013)

56) The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)

57) Three Days of the Condor (1975)

58) The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)

59) Desperado (1995)

60) El Mariachi (1992)

61) Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009)

62) Wizard of Lies (2017)

63) Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

64) The Great Santini (1979)

65) The Deer Hunter (1978)

66) Monster (2003)

67) Bully (2001)

68) Apocalypse Now (1979)

69) Deliverance (1972)

70) Persepolis (2007)

And then to soothe:

1) The Secret Garden (1993)

2) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

3) E.T. (1982)

4) The Color Purple (1985)

5) Up (2009)

6) Thelma and Louise (1991)

7) The Last Seduction (1994)

8) The Wizard of Oz (1939)

9) Anything with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers