Best Political Movies
by MagicSlim | created - 05 Jan 2020 | updated - 31 Mar 2023 | PublicPolitical and Spy Movies
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1. Syriana (2005)
R | 128 min | Drama, Thriller
A politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.
Director: Stephen Gaghan | Stars: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet, Kayvan Novak
Votes: 134,254 | Gross: $50.82M
2. Spotlight (I) (2015)
R | 129 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Director: Tom McCarthy | Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 502,030 | Gross: $45.06M
3. Il Divo (2008)
Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Director: Paolo Sorrentino | Stars: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci
Votes: 19,002 | Gross: $0.24M
4. The Conformist (1970)
R | 113 min | Drama
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio
Votes: 33,683 | Gross: $0.54M
5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong
Votes: 212,461 | Gross: $24.15M
6. Mo (2010 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 101 min | Biography, Drama
A revealing biopic about politician Dr. Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (Dame Julie Walters).
Director: Philip Martin | Stars: Julie Walters, Emma Cambridge, David Haig, Lucy Boynton
Votes: 384
7. The Conversation (1974)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 121,813 | Gross: $4.42M
8. The Good Shepherd (2006)
R | 167 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.
Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin
Votes: 108,557 | Gross: $59.95M
9. The Ides of March (2011)
R | 101 min | Drama, Thriller
An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: Paul Giamatti, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling
Votes: 230,684 | Gross: $40.96M
10. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 169,870 | Gross: $70.41M
11. Wag the Dog (1997)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson
Votes: 88,457 | Gross: $43.02M
12. The Parallax View (1974)
R | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An ambitious reporter gets in way-over-his-head trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels, Walter McGinn
Votes: 21,764 | Gross: $2.15M
13. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 79,787
14. Advise & Consent (1962)
Not Rated | 139 min | Drama, Thriller
The polarizing search for a new Secretary of State has far-reaching consequences.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, Henry Fonda, Walter Pidgeon
Votes: 7,509
15. The Contender (2000)
R | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
Senator Laine Hanson is a contender for U.S. Vice President, but information and disinformation about her past surfaces that threatens to derail her confirmation.
Director: Rod Lurie | Stars: Joan Allen, Gary Oldman, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater
Votes: 25,008 | Gross: $17.87M
16. House of Cards (2013–2018)
TV-MA | 50 min | Drama
A Congressman works with his equally conniving wife to exact revenge on the people who betrayed him.
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Michel Gill, Robin Wright, Kate Mara
Votes: 530,779
17. Bridge of Spies (2015)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, History, Thriller
During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan
Votes: 327,664 | Gross: $72.31M
18. Truth (I) (2015)
R | 125 min | Biography, Drama, History
Newsroom drama detailing the 2004 CBS "60 Minutes" report investigating then-President George W. Bush's military service, and the subsequent firestorm of criticism that cost anchor Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes their careers.
Director: James Vanderbilt | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Dennis Quaid, Elisabeth Moss
Votes: 21,229 | Gross: $2.54M
19. The Post (2017)
PG-13 | 116 min | Biography, Drama, History
A cover-up spanning four U.S. Presidents pushes the country's first female newspaper publisher and her editor to join an unprecedented battle between press and government.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk
Votes: 162,196 | Gross: $81.90M
20. All the President's Men (1976)
PG | 138 min | Drama, History, Thriller
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam
Votes: 126,008 | Gross: $70.60M
21. Seven Days in May (1964)
Approved | 118 min | Drama, Thriller
United States military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner
Votes: 17,327 | Gross: $7.96M
22. Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)
PG-13 | 103 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Mark Felt, who under the name "Deep Throat" helped journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate scandal in 1972.
Director: Peter Landesman | Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Marton Csokas, Tony Goldwyn
Votes: 14,703 | Gross: $0.77M
23. The Report (I) (2019)
R | 119 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Idealistic Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones, tasked by his boss to lead an investigation into the CIA's post 9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program, uncovers shocking secrets.
Director: Scott Z. Burns | Stars: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Ted Levine
Votes: 50,806
24. Green Zone (2010)
R | 115 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Discovering covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons of Mass Destruction in an unstable region.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Greg Kinnear, Igal Naor
Votes: 142,689 | Gross: $35.05M
25. Fair Game (I) (2010)
PG-13 | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
CIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration.
Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, Sonya Davison, Vanessa Chong
Votes: 51,048 | Gross: $9.53M
26. The Iron Lady (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Biography, Drama
An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene.
Director: Phyllida Lloyd | Stars: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, Susan Brown
Votes: 113,609 | Gross: $30.02M
27. Vice (I) (2018)
R | 132 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
The story of Dick Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that are still felt today.
Director: Adam McKay | Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell
Votes: 162,368 | Gross: $47.84M
28. Les Misérables (2019)
R | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A cop from the provinces moves to Paris to join the Anti-Crime Brigade of Montfermeil, discovering an underworld where the tensions between the different groups mark the rhythm.
Director: Ladj Ly | Stars: Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djebril Zonga, Issa Perica
Votes: 28,284 | Gross: $0.33M
29. Richard Jewell (2019)
R | 131 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Security guard Richard Jewell is an instant hero after foiling a bomb attack at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but his life becomes a nightmare when the FBI leaks to the media that he is a suspect in the case.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Brandon Stanley, Ryan Boz
Votes: 97,656
30. Darkest Hour (2017)
PG-13 | 125 min | Drama, War
In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn
Votes: 220,672 | Gross: $56.47M
31. Samurai Rebellion (1967)
Not Rated | 128 min | Drama
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back.
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yôko Tsukasa, Gô Katô, Tatsuyoshi Ehara
Votes: 14,081
32. Breach (2007)
PG-13 | 110 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
Director: Billy Ray | Stars: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Dennis Haysbert, Laura Linney
Votes: 61,756 | Gross: $33.23M
33. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
R | 129 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Director: Aaron Sorkin | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong
Votes: 193,268
34. The Trial of Christine Keeler (2019–2020)
352 min | Drama, History
Story of Christine Keeler, who found herself at the heart of a political sex scandal that rocked British government in the 1960s.
Stars: Sophie Cookson, James Norton, Ellie Bamber, Emilia Fox
Votes: 2,067
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