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Top Political Films (#1-100)

The Internet Movie Database has either "Political" or "Politics" as one of the keywords describing the films below.

Rank Title Year Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles 2
2 Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz 3
3 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean 9
4 Gone with the Wind 1939 Victor Fleming 15
5 Taxi Driver 1976 Martin Scorsese 19
6 Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski 20
7 A Clockwork Orange 1971 Stanley Kubrick 41
8 Duck Soup 1933 Leo McCarey 57
9 Nashville 1975 Robert Altman 75
10 The Battleship Potemkin 1925 Sergei M. Eisenstein 77
11 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 John Frankenheimer 106
12 Braveheart 1995 Mel Gibson 111
13 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler 114
14 Gladiator 2000 Ridley Scott 127
15 Ben-Hur 1959 William Wyler 129
16 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 Frank Capra 136
17 Cabaret 1972 Bob Fosse 146
18 The Conformist 1970 Bernardo Bertolucci 179
19 Withnail & I 1987 Bruce Robinson 205
20 Napoléon 1927 Abel Gance 227
21 Andrei Rublev 1966 Andrei Tarkovsky 234
22 Donnie Darko 2001 Richard Kelly 239
23 Gandhi 1982 Richard Attenborough 240
24 Scarface 1983 Brian De Palma 248
25 The Battle of Algiers 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo 253
26 All the President's Men 1976 Alan J. Pakula 269
27 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 John Ford 272
28 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 Luis Buñuel 326
29 The Leopard 1963 Luchino Visconti 343
30 Umberto D. 1952 Vittorio De Sica 356
31 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 390
32 Ivan the Terrible 1944 Sergei M. Eisenstein 409
33 A Man for All Seasons 1966 Fred Zinnemann 435
34 JFK 1991 Oliver Stone 445
35 Ashes and Diamonds 1958 Andrzej Wajda 463
36 Being There 1979 Hal Ashby 468
37 Reds 1981 Warren Beatty 480
38 Triumph of the Will 1935 Leni Riefenstahl 484
39 Giant 1956 George Stevens 485
40 Z 1969 Costa-Gavras 487
41 Y tu mamá también 2001 Alfonso Cuarón 511
42 The Scarlet Empress 1934 Josef von Sternberg 547
43 The Lives of Others 2006 Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 570
44 Election 1999 Alexander Payne 574
45 Farewell My Concubine 1993 Kaige Chen 592
46 The Remains of the Day 1993 James Ivory 594
47 Malcolm X 1992 Spike Lee 621
48 The Tin Drum 1979 Volker Schlöndorff 631
49 Three Kings 1999 David O. Russell 637
50 Naked 1993 Mike Leigh 645
51 Born Yesterday 1950 George Cukor 654
52 The Insider 1999 Michael Mann 658
53 Before Sunset 2004 Richard Linklater 659
54 My Beautiful Laundrette 1985 Stephen Frears 686
55 Traffic 2000 Steven Soderbergh 696
56 Closely Watched Trains 1966 Jirí Menzel 729
57 The Big Carnival 1951 Billy Wilder 733
58 Born on the Fourth of July 1989 Oliver Stone 761
59 À Nous la Liberté 1931 René Clair 793
60 All the King's Men 1949 Robert Rossen 797
61 The Dead 1987 John Huston 798
62 Philadelphia 1993 Jonathan Demme 846
63 Beau travail 1999 Claire Denis 878
64 Muriel's Wedding 1994 P.J. Hogan 902
65 The Eclipse 1962 Michelangelo Antonioni 928
66 1900 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci 934
67 Elizabeth 1998 Shekhar Kapur 937
68 Bowling for Columbine 2002 Michael Moore 938
69 Quiz Show 1994 Robert Redford 940
70 The Man in the White Suit 1951 Alexander Mackendrick 957
71 The Passenger 1975 Michelangelo Antonioni 958
72 A Face in the Crowd 1957 Elia Kazan 966
73 Underground 1995 Emir Kusturica 982
74 The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988 Philip Kaufman 989
75 Silkwood 1983 Mike Nichols 1020
76 My Own Private Idaho 1991 Gus Van Sant 1024
77 The Parallax View 1974 Alan J. Pakula 1025
78 Fury 1936 Fritz Lang 1026
79 The Ice Storm 1997 Ang Lee 1039
80 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis 1970 Vittorio De Sica 1049
81 Hidden 2005 Michael Haneke 1056
82 A Brighter Summer Day 1991 Edward Yang 1064
83 Chocolat 2000 Lasse Hallström 1071
84 The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover 1989 Peter Greenaway 1114
85 The Year of Living Dangerously 1982 Peter Weir 1150
86 Meet John Doe 1941 Frank Capra 1175
87 The Barbarian Invasions 2003 Denys Arcand 1223
88 Medium Cool 1969 Haskell Wexler 1224
89 Wag the Dog 1997 Barry Levinson 1255
90 Kolya 1996 Jan Sverák 1256
91 Three Days of the Condor 1975 Sydney Pollack 1266
92 Burnt by the Sun 1994 Nikita Mikhalkov 1308
93 The Official Story 1985 Luis Puenzo 1331
94 King of New York 1990 Abel Ferrara 1358
95 Cleopatra 1963 Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1372
96 Salvador 1986 Oliver Stone 1419
97 Fail-Safe 1964 Sidney Lumet 1426
98 Citizen Ruth 1996 Alexander Payne 1428
99 In the Line of Fire 1993 Wolfgang Petersen 1430
100 Le Corbeau 1943 Henri-Georges Clouzot 1438
Go to the next 65 political films
This page was last modified on June 21, 2010