The problem with movies that are not explicitly leftist is that wormbrained viewers will misunderstand the message or side with the bad guy. You can't radicalize somebody with consumption.
dr strangelove - satire of the cold war
they live - I am eating the trash all of the time
starship troopers - openly fascist america begins interplanetary imperialism and starts a war with a bug planet
network (1976) - news network controlled by evil corporation
full metal jacket - in case you ever wondered how films get access to film with military equipment or military bases, the USDoD provides equipment to movie studios in exchange for censoring and propagandizing the script. the USDoD has altered hundreds of films since the early 1900s. if you've seen a hollywood film with military equipment, the USDoD probably had their finger in it, including most of the capeshit. full metal jacket was not approved by the USDoD. Kubrick acquired the military equipment from military surplus stores and foreign militaries.
The problem with movies that are not explicitly leftist is that wormbrained viewers will misunderstand the message or side with the bad guy. You can’t radicalize somebody with consumption.
This is definitely true -- if it's a movie about a corrupt powerful government, people will watch it and say "Yep, this is what life would be like under socialism." If it's about a conspiracy of people (or aliens) controlling the world which are supposed to be a metaphor for capitalists, people will watch it and think it's about the Jews. I think They Live and Network arguably fall into this trap, and we all know there's an audience that doesn't notice (or doesn't care about) the satire in Starship Troopers. Dr Strangelove is a bit more difficult, but I could imagine someone watching it and saying "Yep, that's the problem with big government bureaucracy getting in the way of swift, decisive violence."
Of the ones on your list, I think Full Metal Jacket is the hardest to misinterpret. It's harder for me to imagine someone coming away from that movie thinking it's pro-military or pro-war.
Eh FMJ is actually pro war, it gives the perspective of a cog of the US military machine who later reproduces that exact culture.
While ignoring the perspectives of "the other", there are not Vietnamese / Việt cộng perspectives to be found.
starship troopers - openly fascist america begins interplanetary imperialism and starts a war with a bug planet
what you're totally wrong! starship troopers is just about a bunch of cool guys killing gross bug aliens. nothing else is going on.
-average american viewer
I've watched They Live with people who didn't really get what it was about, but it made for some interesting discussion afterwards that got the gears in their head turning regarding leftist ideas.
Alternatively, Jaws:
"I read Jaws" said Castro. "It's not a very good book, but I think the movie must be good because it's a Marxist picture."
"Oh?" said Coppola.
"Yes, it shows that businessmen are ready to sell out the safety of the citizens rather than close down against the invasion of sharks."
How about Pan's Labyrinth?
spoiler
I saw Pan's Labyrinth before I really understood what leftism was, and I remember the scene where the Vidal is killed. Vidal begs that they give his watch to his son and give him a message, but Mercedes says "No. He won't even know your name" -- and then Pedro shoots Vidal in the face. I knew it was a really satisfying scene, although at the time, I didn't fully understand why. To quote one of the comments on this video:
Most movies seem to be under the impression that death is the most suitable end for a villain (and if it's an action movie maybe they think the bigger the explosion, the most satisfying it is), but here the main thing isn't that Vidal dies, it's that they take away the only thing his rotten ass cared for, which wasn't even his son, but that twisted fixation with family honor and legacy. On the other side of the story, Ofelia refused to sacrifice an innocent for her own gains, thus negating the entirety of Vidal's character. That's why his death is so satisfying: he wasn't just killed, he was defeated.
"That twisted fixation with family honor and legacy" -- This is a common element of fascism, and one that other mainstream depictions of fascism don't address as effectively as Pan's Labyrinth did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN56mHkSJw
I also feel like the hand-eye monster is intentionally representative of an elite ruling class who will kill children before giving up a scrap of what they have.
Snowpiercer then, as well. The movie, not the show.
Also, Good Lord Bird the show. Not really leftist, but for libs it's a step in the right direction.
Robocop? And on the subject of Paul Verhoeven, maybe Starship Troopers if the person is able to catch on to the satire.
Is the line having explicitly socialist characters or not?
Movies with left-ish themes:
- Parasite
- Us
- Get Out
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Snowpiercer
- Network
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Paths of Glory
- It's a Wonderful Life
- There Will Be Blood
- Do The Right Thing
- Fruitvale Station
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- The Thin Blue Line
- High Noon
- All That Heaven Allows / Ali: Fear Eats The Soul
- I, Daniel Blake
- Hell or High Water
- Two Days, One Night
- La Haine
- Bicycle Thieves
- Cache
- The Conformist
- Pretty much any Bunuel film: The Exterminating Angel, The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Viridiana, Los Olvidados
- Modern Times
- The Great Dictator
Movies about socialists / communists/ civil wars but still maybe a little sneaky for people
- The Act of Killing / The Look of Silence
- The Battle of Algiers
- The Motorcycle Diaries
- Z
- Hunger
- Malcolm X
I find lots of movies can be interpreted through a leftist lens, really. Harakiri is a samurai film, but it's also about the dangers of uncompromising traditionalism and authority, which I think could fall under a leftist theme.
I want to say they live, might work but to me it's pretty explicit but to normies they might not see the point outright.
The 2013 film Elysium is up there too. Made by the same chap who made District 9, it's "leftist theme" is more overt, taking place in 2154. Oh, and it's about as violent as District 9 too and it has a pretty banger soundtrack.
spoiler
The entire Earth is destitute, every one of its ~15 billion people live in absolute poverty and quite literally, under the iron heel of a robotic police force commandeered from a large space station in LEO, combined with mercenaries to incite terror. The "revolution" kicks off when the protagonist fights to get a child with leukemia up on the torus so they may be cured as there is no longer any sort of medical infrastructure on the planet itself. And about half a million mega-rich folk live onboard said torus lined with parks, mansions and luxury apartments, complete with any amenities they may desire until Judgement Day, profiting off the Earth turned into little more than a slave colony. Oh yeah, and there are anti-ship batteries and missile systems to prevent anyone from launching off the Earth's surface unless the slavemasters in orbit say so. In the meantime, capitalists are gonna capitalism and one fellow is seeking to take full control of the torus and Earth to establish even a more oppressive rule.
The Day Shall Come (2019). A clever, dark comedy that satirizes homeland security as incompetent fools and gives an idea of how deep the rot goes
Oh shit I got a good one. The People Under The Stairs is a horror(?) movie from the early 90's that takes a pretty incredible leftist turn at the end that I didn't see coming.
I feel like Sorry to Bother You was pretty blatant. Then again, only half the people I watched it with got the basic message...
Is the message that union organizers will fuck around a lot and a feminist revolution is necessary for a revolution of society to last?
You mean between power callers and regular callers? (No worries, I get what you tell)
Ha yeah. I was just blown away that people wouldn't even get there class conflict parts and how they relate to their own lives
Dude, you would be surprised. I watched it with my grill pilled room-mate and he didn't get anything and just thought that the movie was weird.
Office Space - Funny lighthearted comedy about the drudgery of the american white collar worker
Trial Of The Chicago 7 - classic Sorkin cheesy courtroom drama, it's a film that's too scared to properly back or cover Fred Hampton's story, but still a compelling tale and very accessible to libs. General message is racism bad, US politicians and police racist.
BOYS STATE - hour long documentary about teenage boys in texas being terrible people. Quite funny. Massively cringey. Easy watching. Still quite lib toned, but despite that, it essentially functions as a horror movie. I was shocked after watching it.
GREED - British comedy, fast paced, about a high street fashion mogul. I thought it was brilliant. Helps if you know a little bit about Phillip Green - the british high street fashion mogul, who exploited his workers, and has a business model that was essentially running up debts and then bankrupting without having to pay any money back, while pocketing the profits.
Joker - pretty obvious one here. Doesn't need much explanation.
True History Of The Kelly Gang - this one is a maybe. One of my favourite films of all time, but it's an exhausting watch, in a good way. No explicit lefty theme other than the overall theme of post modernism, and how the white colonial nations rewrote history.
Southland Tales is a leftist movie. Really bizarre movie starring The Rock and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Its not at all subtle... and kind of objectionable if you're ML but it is very much worth a watch. Not recommended if you're trying to sneak leftist stuff onto someone unsuspecting.
If you're going for a light mainstream comedy I think The Other Guys from 2010 is worth a go. It's a cop comedy and the protagonists are cops, so don't expect a radical anti-state message, but it is premised around making fun of competitive macho culture and the bad guys turns out to be cops as well.
