National Review Online today released its list of the "25 best conservative movies of the last 25 years".
The list, and the brief writeup attending each installment, will be sure to provoke opinions from Situationers and our Readers. Of course, NRO is defining "conservative" according to the very crayon-colored binary that has been part of our political discourse for a while now. But Harrogate, at any rate, is willing to let that slide, and let them have their framing.
And so giving them their framing, Harrogate finds himself agreeing with almost everything on this list: that is, he agrees that almost all the movies listed are thoroughly invested in Traditional Right Wing rhetorics of Free Market worship, US Exceptionalism, and the notion that "Happy Days" was a documentary.
A slight quibble, though, with The Dark Knight, in which Harrogate identifies a lot of political ambivalence. Certainly not a "Liberal" movie, but not a "Conservative" one either. At least, not in a clean-cut way.
And Harrogate quibbles with the "Conservative" moniker for Juno--Although ironically Harrogate's disagreement has nothing to do with the Abortion issue, and everything to do with the movie's totally ridiculous, and predictably "Liberal" vindication of the self-serving, callow Jennifer Garner character.
Question of the Day is Open-Ended: What is your opinion of this list?
1 comment:
The movie is is pretty absurd as was the list for the top conservative songs. The problem with the list is if one thing "conservative" occurs in the movie, then the entire movie is conservative, or, essentialism at its finest.
I remember that "Revolution" was on the song list because of its rejection of Mao. So long as the writer forgets the rest of the lyrics, you can consider this to be a "conservative" song. Or, it is a conservative song so long as you do not care about any form of intellectual honesty about the song (funny i should write that sentence that concerns an article in the National Review.)
I do like the discussion of Groundhog Day. Supposedly Bill Murray rejects art and beauty for things that are permanent, relationships. Why are some conservatives so authoritarian to believe relationships are permanent things that do not change over time?
Of well. I guess you produce lists like these if you cannot create or contribute to art or beauty or culture.
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