Political thrillers have been a popular cinematic subgenre for artists looking to explore the complexity of the election process on screen. Art is inherently political, and it’s often that audiences are best able to understand a message if it is told to them within the context of a fictional story that they find entertaining.
Elections provide a great opportunity for filmmakers to explore how fundamentally flawed certain systems of government are; these projects may even change a viewer’s political opinion. These movies are the best in the subgenre.
10 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1962)
Director John Frankenheimer created a compelling espionage story about an American candidate being used by international conspirators to support anti-democratic values; while in the 1960s, this synopsis seemed like it was plucked out of science fiction, the film’s themes feel particularly relevant now in the wake of the 2020 election cycle.
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The Manchurian Candidate was actually remade in 2004 by director Jonathan Demme, who replaced the Korean War backdrop with the current Gulf War crisis for an equally chilling approach. Both films make a compelling case for viewers to think twice before casting their ballots.
9 'The Candidate' (1972)
While director Michael Ritchie is best known for his wacky comedic films in the Fletch franchise, he was able to establish a more serious work of satire with his 1972 political thriller The Candidate. The film examines the incredible rise in prominence of Bill McKay (Robert Redford), a young, charismatic Democratic candidate for governor.
McKay is exactly what voters want, but in reality, has no practical knowledge or legitimate plan to achieve his goals. Redford does a great job at exploring the crisis of confidence that McKay suffers from once he attains the nomination that he’s worked so hard for.
8 'Bob Roberts' (1992)
It turns out that Tim Robbins is just as great of a writer and director as he is as an actor. Robbins wrote, directed, and starred in the 1992 dark comedy Bob Roberts, in which he portrayed an extremist right-wing folk singer that steadily grows a cult following as he pursues a seat in the United States Senate.
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It’s particularly unnerving to see how Roberts’ proposed policies, even though they are completely ridiculous and obviously couldn’t be applied in practice, grow support from an increasingly violent body of voters. Roberts does a great job of making the character less endearing as the story gets darker.
7 'Wag the Dog' (1997)
Wag the Dog explores the ridiculous nature behind presidential campaigning and the stories that tend to dominate the headlines. While the film itself was released prior to the breaking of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, it was fascinating to see how closely the two scenarios felt connected.
Wag the Dog explores an effort by a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) and a crazed spin doctor (Robert De Niro) to distract the American public from the President of the United States’ sex scandal by starting a fake war. Hoffman received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance.
6 'Primary Colors' (1998)
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Another film released during the height of President Clinton’s political affairs, Primary Colors drew more direct parallels with real events with its stand-in characters. John Travolta gives one of the best and funniest performances of his entire career as the Democratic Presidential Candidate Jack Stanton, a highly charismatic southern governor whose charismatic presence on the campaign trail earned him a steady lead in the primary process.
The film brilliantly explores how easily a voting body’s mindset can be changed by a breaking news story or off-handed comment; it rarely comes down to a discussion of the legitimate issues on the table.
5 'Bulworth' (1998)
In addition to being one of the most quintessential movie stars of the New Hollywood era, Warren Beatty was also an extremely talented director. All five of Beatty’s films as a director have a biting edge of political satire to them.
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1998’s Bulworth starred Beatty as the depressed Democratic California Senator Jay Bulworth, who makes radical changes to his political beliefs in an effort to avoid being reelected. Bulworth is hilariously surprised to learn that his plain-spoken honesty is exactly what voters want to hear. Beatty’s clever script earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
4 'Election' (1999)
Alexander Payne’s Election explores all the heartbreak, manipulative campaigning, smear tactics, and personal identity politics that go into an average campaign; the twist is that the film is set at a high school and based around the election of a school government president.
Reese Witherspoon gives the funniest performance of her career as Tracy Flick, a highly ambitious yet insufferable rising student who will go to any extreme lengths to achieve victory in the race; Matthew Broderick is equally hilarious as the scheming high school government teacher who is desperate to see Tracy lose.
3 'The Ides of March' (2011)
The Ides of March explores the Presidential election process from the perspective of the staffers and campaigners that actually get their candidate elected. Ryan Gosling gives one of the best performances of his career as a young, idealistic political staffer who learns a horrifying secret about the Presidential candidate (George Clooney) that he had been supporting.
Both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti deliver scene-stealing performances as the dueling campaign managers who vie for this critical piece of information. It’s a shocking examination of how news is filtered through staffers before it reaches the public and earned Clooney an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
2 'No' (2012)
In 1988, the people of Chile voted not to reelect the military dictator Augusto Pinochet for another eight years in office in its first democratically held election. Jackie and Spencer director Pablo Larrain explores the height of tension during this election cycle and explores the two warring advertising campaigns between the supporters of voting “Yes” and “No.”
Gael Garcia Bernal delivered one of the best performances of his career as René Saavedra, a creative director on the “No” campaign that attempts to use Western advertising techniques to clinch the vote.
1 'Long Shot' (2019)
Long Shot isn’t just a great romantic comedy; it’s one of the frankest depictions of how gender politics affect political campaigning in recent memory. The typically serious Charlize Theron gets the chance to show her comedic side with her performance as a ridiculously overqualified Secretary of State who begins a Presidential run when the incumbent commander-in-chief (Bob Odenkirk) chooses to leave office to focus on his career as an actor.
Theron has great chemistry with Seth Rogen, who stars as a highly motivated political reporter who has long been in love with the woman he’s now supporting.
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