What "progressive" movie have you watched recently?

Of course "progressive" can be characteristics that are explicitly political or can be more subtle cultural messages in a movie.

Here's mine:

I recently re-watched the movie "1900" starring Robert DeNiro and Donald Sutherland. Made in 1977, it is four hours long but worth the time.

Set in Italy from the years 1900 through 1945, it's the story of two men born on January 1, 1900. One is a rich landowner and the other a poor peasant on his estate. It illuminates the central roles played by socialism and fascism in the development of European history, but does so in an entertaining way. It was a moving portrayal of the fight of working people for class empowerment.

What have you watched lately that struck you as a good progressive film?

I take it that Bobby is the peasant. Last movie I saw was hmmmm Robert Kennedy and His Times, based on Arthur Schlesinger's book, made me turn in to a big fan of RFK.

It's not on DVD yet. Here's a link for the VHS though:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6301015320/qid=1082057906/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5095985-2102551?v=glance&s=video

Actually Donald Sutherland was the hired goon of the landlord and a leader of a Fascist blackshirt gang. He did a wonderful performance. DeNiro was the peasant and a communist organizer.

Sounds like a neat movie.

They did a remake of it that I never heard of. It had the guy who plays Tony Soprano, Tony Danza, and a bunch of other famous people in it. It stuck close to the original, except this time the racist guy is a hardcore Black Muslim, and a few other minor changes. It was pretty good.

For those of you who have never seen either version, it's about one lone juror who uses reason to convince his fellow jurors to not convict an innocent man. Go out to the library and watch it, you won't be disappointed.

although Bob Roberts was a far cry from being progressive, the movie made you think about what idiots this right-wing ideologues really are.

And realize any movie written, directed and starring Tim Robbins cannot be ANYTHING but progressive!

directed by Tim Robbins

Should be required viewing for all women, just to remind them what kind of fight their sisters went through less than 100 years ago.

when I started yelling at the peasants toward the end "don't give them the guns!"

That was a great film.

Been meaning to check out Network for hte last couple of weeks at the video store. And possible Salvador. And maybe Z.

Like I don't already have an anger management problem about the right wing and need to watch all that.

Maybe I should get just the three stooges and laugh till I'm sick with my nine year old son.

It made no sense. Why disarm? They wanted to quell the Italian anti-fascist revolution.

I felt similarly at the end of "Sarafina" when Whoopi Goldberg's character threw away her rifle. This obscures the truth that if it were not for the armed struggle of the ANC and other liberation forces, Nazi apartheid would still rule Blacks as slaves in South Africa.

If so, those would be it!

a great film!

A rather plodding and bleak 1958 Western, but the story line has Peck's character championing non-violent solutions, and deliberately avoiding macho behavior (yet not emasculating himself or damaging his credibility in the process).

Peck buys a ranch between two feuding families, and struggles to make peace between the warring factions. He has to make some tough decisions in this process, but always with the interests of the greater good in mind (a very progressive tenet, IMO) .

Not a great movie, by any means, but it consistently held my interest for it's 2:45 running length.